Tanzania 2001 - Serengeti

Rosemary at dawn on the Serengeti.

Hartebeest

We saw huge herds of wildebeest and zebra grazing or migrating together.

Zebras often stand head to tail in pairs or groups of four. This allows them to share a 360-degree view of the surrounding area, and gives them a chance to rest their necks.

At last, a tree-climbing lion! The lionesses climb to get a better view, to get out of the itchy grass, and to get some relief from playful cubs.

When she left the tree, we decided to follow her.

She led us to the water hole where the pride was relaxing.

Two of the cubs join her for a stroll.

She pauses to exchange a greeting with the pride male.

The cubs seem very affectionate.

The male got up to take a walk.

By this time, the lioness had climbed back into the tree with her sister. The male tried to join them, but he was too heavy.

He decided to spend some quality time by himself.

Travel Diary

Wednesday (June 6) - Serengeti

Steve: Over dinner last night, we were discussing how much we had seen and what we still wanted to see. For me, it was lion cubs and for Rosemary, it was a cheetah. Well, today’s the day!

Rosemary: What a day! We saw a lioness in a tree. Nearby at the water hole was her whole pride - five females, a big male, assorted cubs of various ages.

Steve: Hassan heard on his short wave radio a report of a lion, so off we went. When we arrived at the site, there was a large male sitting on top of a small rise, but first we went to see a female up in a tree.

When we went back to see the male, we found a creekbed next to the rise with an entire pride of lions. For me, this was the highlight of the trip!

Rosemary: We spent a long time watching their activities. It was such joy to see them. Little cubs following their mother, lions greeting each other, playing in the grass.

Steve: There were three adult females on the bank of the creek with four or five kittens about two months old and four or five cubs about six months old. The kittens and cubs played with each other as the females rested. All looked like they had eaten recently.

A couple of other females (including the one from the tree) came over and the lions greeted each other by rubbing the sides of their faces.

As the females left the creek, their offspring followed. To watch the family dynamic here is amazing. At one point, one of the kittens started crying for his mother, as if he was lost. As a couple of females and their cubs went back to the tree, they passed within about 5 -10 feet of our jeep.

The two females climbed into the tree and the kittens and cubs tried to follow, but couldn’t. The male also followed and tried to climb the tree, but he was too heavy. Rather than lie down and be bothered by the kittens, he left.

One of the females came down and went off into the brush, maybe to hunt, but had to come back when her three kittens started to follow her. After clicking off three rolls of film in 30 minutes, we left this pride. Not long after, we came across three young males and two young females lying in the road, with another four to five adults lying in the grass nearby. A big day for lions, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

Rosemary: Hassan points out that if the male we saw is the only one the pride has, the cubs' chances of survival are slim. Most prides have two or three males, brothers who defend the pride from invasion. (Although eventually, age gets the better of them and new males move in.) If a pair of new males ousts the current male, they will kill the cubs. Without cubs to care for, the females will come into heat, and the new males will father the next generation. It's possible, though, that this one has a brother who was resting in another location. In any case, Hassan commented that this guy looked very fit - obviously the females are doing a good job of hunting and keeping him well fed.

Steve: The Serengeti is full of herds of zebra, wildebeest and gazelle. There are literally thousands of them at this time of year.

Hassan got word that a cheetah had been sighted, so we rushed to the location. There was a cheetah lying under a tree, but all you could see was his white tail flicking upward every so often. We waited for a while, then went off to have lunch.

We arrived at the picnic site just in time to see a vervet monkey climb into an open jeep and steal a Snickers bar. As we walked through the nature exhibit, a large group of vervet monkeys stampeded right past us, obviously frightened by something.

After lunch, we passed a pool where some hippos were lying on the shore. This is the first time we have been close to them out of the water. At another small pool, we saw a crocodile in the water, waiting for his lunch to walk by.

Later, we came to a male and female lion lying in the sun. Hassan thought they were a mating pair, so we waited to see if anything happened. Lions mate for seven days. At the beginning, they copulate every five to ten minutes, but towards the end they slow down from exhaustion. These lions were near the end of the seven day cycle and were going to rest for a while, so we went back to see if the cheetah had moved.

When we arrived back at his location, the road was full of jeeps, with more on the way. Every once in a while, the cheetah would raise its head, but then would lie down again. A lot of people lost patience and left, be we noticed some behavior, similar to our house cats, of potential movement. Sure enough, within a few minutes, the cheetah stood up and walked out into the open. In that brief moment, I was able to get some good shots - I hope they come out.

On a hunch, we went back to the mating pair of lions to see if anything had changed. They were in slightly different positions and the male started to appear active. After a short wait, he went over to the female and woke her up. After a bit of mutual growling (foreplay?), he mounted her for the best 10 seconds of her life. That quickly, it was over and they both went back to sleep. With several jeeps around, I said (perhaps a little louder than I expected), "So THAT’S the king of the jungle?".

As we headed back to the lodge, we saw a long line of wildebeest, all moving in the same direction. We believe that this is part of the Great Migration that takes place around this time of year.

Rosemary: In the late afternoon, the air was heavy with smoke. The rangers burn the dry grass so that new grass will sprout as soon as it rains. This helps provide more food for the herds.

Some of the animals we saw today: Lion, cheetah, baboon, vervet monkey, zebra, hyena, rock hyrax, elephant, vulture, egret, goose, stork, crocodile, hippo, giraffe, buffalo, mouse, weaver bird, gazelle, impala, water buck, and the usual variety of small birds.

Steve: We reached the lodge at 5:30, exhausted, having been out since 8:00 AM. We showered and went to dinner.

Thursday (June 7) - Serengeti

Steve: We awoke at 5:30 AM for an early morning game drive. The baboons that had been along the road yesterday morning were still asleep.

We saw the "usual" herds of gazelle, wildebeest and zebra, plus a few hyena along the road. At one point, we saw a number of hyena all in one spot. A closer look showed them getting ready to attack a baby zebra, which was not more than a couple of days old. Hassan kept saying, "They’re going to kill the baby zebra." As exciting as it was to possibly see a kill in action, we were obviously rooting for the zebra. As the hyenas tried to attack, two adult zebras tried to keep the baby shielded from them, with a third adult chasing them off.

Rosemary: The zebras were amazing. They would face the hyenas, lower their heads, and charge. This was just intimidating enough to get the hyenas to back up. If the hyenas tried to attack from the side or the rear, the zebras would kick with their powerful back legs. No hyena wants to risk broken bones.

Steve: At one point, we thought the hyenas would be too many to fight off, but the zebras won this battle, to a sigh of relief from all of us. It was fascinating to perceive the strategies of each side as it unfolded.

On the flip side, we saw a female lion who looked hungry. We followed her for a while as she tried to sneak up on a wildebeest, but she kept getting spotted by them. Fickle humans - rooting for the prey, then the predator. We gave up and headed back to the lodge, barely making it in time for breakfast. A couple of hours off, then lunch and an afternoon game drive.

At lunch, we were the only people in the dining room until around 1:00, with everyone else having a picnic or hadn’t returned from their morning drive.

After lunch, Hassan got a report of a leopard in a tree on the main road from the lodge. It took a little while to find him, but he was stretched out on a limb, asleep. We went off the road and got right underneath him, but he didn’t move. Hassan commented that the leopard "was supposed to be in another tree" which raised several questions to us, such as: How do the guides tell one tree from another? It’s not like there are street signs here. Had the leopard moved since the report?

We saw lots of zebra again and saw a spot with a lot of vultures in a tree. Down below was the corpse of a zebra, killed by a lioness. The vultures were nervous because she was still in the area and soon she walked out of the tall grass.

The rest of the afternoon we spent sightseeing, going to see some interesting rock formations. One was called "Gong Rock", because one of the boulders, when struck with another stone, made a ringing sound. Long ago, the Maasai used it to communicate with each other.

In another place, we saw some Maasai paintings on some rocks where they once lived in a cave. The Maasai lived in this section of the Serengeti until around 1950, when the conservancy was formed and they were displaced.

Still more enormous herds of zebra everywhere as we headed back to the lodge, arriving just as it was getting dark. A long day, as we were tired an hungry as usual.

All during the trip, we had been hoping to sample some local dishes. Dinner tonight was a buffet of what was supposed to be African cuisine, but it was the worst meal we had at this location. We loaded up on what was edible and went to bed.

This was the "terminal building" at the Seronera Valley airstrip where we left the Serengeti.

Friday, June 8 to Saturday, June 9
Serengeti to Arusha
Kilimanjaro to Amsterdam (via Dar es Salaam)
Amsterdam to Los Angeles

Steve: Our last day in Africa started early so that we could pack for the trip home. We were going to fly from Serengeti to the Arusha airport. On the way, we saw two female lions stalking a herd of wildebeest, but they ended up lying in the shade after passing a few feet from our jeep. Our last lions, as it turned out.

We went to a small grass airstrip we named "Serengeti International Airport". Strangely enough, the parking lot began to fill up as there were three small planes of about twelve seats each all getting ready to take off at about the same time.

We said our goodbyes to Hassan, thanking him for all he did and the great time we had, leaving him with a bottle of Deet, before he started the nine hour drive back to Arusha.

Our flight took about an hour, during which we could see the circles of the Maasai villages below us. We were met at the Arusha airport by Ibrahim, who took us to the Bushbuck Safari offices for a "de-briefing" by Mahool, the head guy. We praised Hassan and gave good comments to all of their services, while telling him about our minor complaints regarding some of the hotels and the food.

We then went back to the Mountain Village Lodge (our original stop) for lunch and a day room. The buffet lunch was the best meal we had all week.

And now another word from one of our sponsors: Pepto Bismol chewable tablets. By regular use of these and careful avoidance of any local water, dairy or raw vegetables, neither of us have had any stomach problems during the trip.

We attempted to nap in our day room but it was too noisy. While getting dressed, I realized that I had left my belt pack with my passport, airline tickets and money in the dining room. After looking all around and getting the hotel staff involved, I found that one of the waiters had discovered it on the floor and had given it to Ibrahim, who locked it in his jeep.

A short drive took us back to the airport at Kilimanjaro and a relatively easy immigration process. We had a snack in the first class lounge after buying one last souvenir in a gift shop.

We took off for the short flight to Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania. We deplaned for the 90 minute layover. This is a nasty little airport, with not a friendly face on any of the staff, including the receptionist at the first class lounge.

We reboarded for an eight hour flight to Amsterdam Service on KLM was good as usual and we both got a little sleep, arriving at 8:00 AM local time in Amsterdam. As our flight to LAX wasn’t until 11:30, we spent a couple of hours in the lounge.

The flight to LA was twelve hours long which, despite being in first class, is WAY too long to be on an airplane. Neither of us slept, so we watched parts of the several movies on the personal video screens. KLM gives out little ceramic houses, representing different styles of homes in Holland, filled with a liqueur. We had four of them from the two trips (and Rosemary has started collecting them on eBay).

We got through customs in a breeze, still having only carry-on luggage, and I called the limo service we had arranged for, who said that the driver would meet us at the curb. Upon surfacing in the terminal, we were met inside by our driver, a stocky Russian who seemed familiar. Turns out he was the driver that picked us up on our return from St. Barth in December. We only realized this, though, as we pulled up to our house. The problem was that his company was NOT the one we hired to pick us up. Martine did call them to get a price and had to give them our flight info in order to get a quote, but they were never hired. The driver of the company we DID hire didn’t show up while we were waiting for the other driver to get his car from the parking structure, so their on-time record couldn’t have been too good. I had to fight with both of them when I got back into the office to avoid being charged full price for both drivers.

Anyway, we got home Saturday about 4:00 PM (4:00 AM Sunday in Tanzania) after being awake for almost 48 hours, and immediately collapsed into bed for a few hours sleep before waking up hungry a few hours later. We went out for a quick bite and fell back asleep until Sunday morning.

All in all, we arrived in Tanzania tired, we stayed tired the whole trip and we returned home tired. Nevertheless, this was a trip of a lifetime for both of us. Although it was Rosemary’s dream to go, I was also eager to see what we could see. Judging by others we’ve spoken to who have made similar trips, we were very lucky in all regards, from having our own driver, to the amount of animals we saw, to our health, etc. The pictures will help us remember the specifics, but what I’ll remember most is the look of joy on Rosemary’s face for the whole two weeks.

Rosemary: This trip was a lifelong dream for me. I had often said that if I could take only one trip in my life, this would be it. And I still say that. It was everything I could have asked for. Steve, thank you for making my dream come true. I'm so glad I got to share it with you.

Steve: I love you, Sweetie Vai!