Serengeti I

We set off after an early breakfast – and possibly the best coffee I have ever tasted – towards the Serengeti. Maasai in their colourful robes are a regular feature on the landscape, adults often striding purposefully alone with no sign of their origin or destination, young boys driving flocks of goats. Some teenage boys wear the black robes and white face paint that identify those recently circumcised, many gather in groups by the roadside hoping to charge for posing for photos.

We stop briefly at the entrance gate to the Ngorongoro conservation area and then again on the rim of the crater for the view. Its size is hard to comprehend until you realise the tiny dots you can see below are buffalo. We continue to Oldupai Gorge, the site of the discovery of the oldest human skeleton, and explore the small museum where there’s a reproduction of the set of footprints that proved humans had evolved from having a perpendicular big toe, designed for gripping, to one that points forward and is more suited to walking upright.

We eat our picnic lunch in the lecture hut overlooking the gorge, then try to pay attention to a lecture about the discoveries that were made here while weaver birds scavenge for scraps at our feet. As we prepare to leave, Isaac realises he has a puncture and we find out that it takes 6 people to change a wheel – two to do the work and four to look on in a manly fashion.

Our journey continues around the rim and back down to the “endless plain” (the meaning of Serengeti) and check out of the Ngorongoro conservation area and into the Serengeti National Park – there is a small cluster of Maasai at the park border and Isaac explains that they are allowed to live in the conservation area but excluded from the Serengeti which is reserved exclusively for wildlife. The Naabi Hill Gate is a few km inside the park, at a rocky outcrop (these are known as Kopjies) which we climb to look at the plans below and where we spot a blue and red lizard.

The first creature we encounter in the park is an Ostrich, then a secretary bird. Suddenly Goodluck pulls off the main track onto a loop where a number of vehicles have gathered around another Kopjie – there’s a lioness on the top. We watch her for a while, then drive round to the other side where more vehicles have gathered – here we find two more lionesses and three cubs, one of which obliges with a Simba-esque pose.

Back on the plain we spot a pair of warthogs and Thompson gazelles, then a pair of topis. More giraffes, too – this time in the open – and a substantial herd of elephants.  The next group of giraffes includes a young one, and at the next waterhole there is an elephant with a baby too.

 

 

A bare bush contains a whole flock of Fischer’s Lovebirds, a pool contains a pod of hippos, a crocodile and a bird I have yet to identify. We are against the clock to exit the park, but the sightings continue. A pair of shy dik-dik, and then a jackal.

We have seen so much but the last few sightings have cost us time and we have to be out of the park by 6pm – we make it by 6.03 which is good enough to avoid a fine, then continue to the Serengeti Simba Lodge which is on a hillside approached through a small village of mud and thatch houses, past the village school, across some scrubland and up an extremely rocky track.

We’re greeted with mango juice and wet towels, which are both welcome after our long, dusty drive. We sit on the aptly-named sunset terrace for an introductory talk from the guest relations manager which includes the instruction to never venture outside after dark without a guard. These can be summoned by flashing the torch that is found in our room, and in emergency using the whistle provided on our keyring. The keys are distributed and we are given Colobus which turns out to be a fancy octagonal tent with patio doors under a thatched roof with a glamorous bathroom featuring an outside shower. This is an eco-lodge and uses mainly solar PV and solar thermal power, supplemented by a generator which is switched off at night.

We shower quickly as it’s getting dark, then flash our torch to summon a guide to take us to the main building for dinner. We call for Alex, but he’s already left – his room is in a block with the rest of our group, some distance from ours, and we wonder how we will get him up in the morning if it requires the help of an armed guide to reach him. The Batleys offer to bang on his door, and we order a morning call from the staff as well. The generator is due to go off at 9.30, so we return to our rooms shortly after 9.