Last week we visited Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. This week, I'm making a start on our time in Ngorogoro Conservation Area, specifically the South Serengeti. It ought to be one post, also, but true confession time: this is as far as I've gotten in editing photos, so the next chunk will have to wait. This also means I get to post more photos :D
The drive between the two parks/reserves was pretty long, and involved a change of plans. We broke the trip by spending the night in the Marera Valley Lodge, a short way outside the south entrance of the reserve. It was a beautiful hotel (also much higher and cooler!) and a gorgeous morning.
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Petey Possum does like a bit of luxury.
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Sunrise from the balcony.
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We hit the road early, with the intention of going for a hike in Embakaai Caldera in the Ngorogoro reserve--the high part, where it would be cooler. However, something somewhere didn't happen, and we couldn't get our walking permit (I am pretty sure you have to have an armed ranger, so it's not just a matter of going for a walk). You accept this when traveling or you go nuts. The change of plans sent us on the long drive to the South Serengeti portion of the conservation area. As it turned out, we were grateful we hadn't added another couple of hours out and back to Embakaai; you can only tolerate so many hours of "African massage".
It was a delight to be driving in cool temperatures, though that gradually changed as the day went on, the rough gravel roads got old, and we descended to ever hotter and dustier lands. We will return to the Ngorogoro crater and the highlands later in the trip.
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A masai village high on the mountain, clearly a more habitable zone (in my opinion!) than the hot lands below.
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A bonus none of us realized we would have was a quick stop to acknowledge that we were crossing over the Olduvai Gorge--the "Cradle of Humankind" where Mary and Louis Leakey excavated some of the earliest precursors of homo sapiens. I wish we'd known and planned on a visit to the excavations, but we at least were in the area.
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On the left, paranthropus boisel ("Nutcracker man"--note the massive and powerful lower jaw--which died out a few hundred thousand years later), and on the right, homo habilis (believed to be in our direct lineage). Both date to the same period, about 1.84 million years ago. Which just kind of blows my mind.
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The thing about the mountain is that not so many animals roam the high slopes. But now we were back on the plains, and things began happening to take our minds off the bumpy ride.
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Not our first ostriches, but the first close enough for a decent photo.
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Soon we were stopping for wildebeest traffic jams.
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The herds were immense, and difficult to capture in a photo or even a video.
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Abruptly, our driver followed some other trucks off the road and we found this fine lady.
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Mid-day nap.
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Maribou stork--a good 3' tall.
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A really special event that day was our first leopard. It took some shifting and craning, but eventually I was able to photograph more than that lovely tail.
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A fine game of spot-the-spotted-kitty!
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Locate the eye looking at you!
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It was a good day for the Big Cats. I hope I may be forgiven for too many photos!
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A young male, without a pride of his own. He presumably had dined on the zebra carcass nearby, now abandoned to the vultures and other scavengers.
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Whatever their size, cats are cats.
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Soon after the lion we met our first cheetahs! A trio of males was out for a stroll, maybe thinking about hunting, but not in any very industrious way. A couple dozen safari trucks surrounding them may have contributed to their ultimate decision to take a nap.
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Two of the three. Definitely built for speed.
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As noted, cats will be cats.
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| Nap time. They would suddenly flop down between one step and another, and disappear into the vegetation. |
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The cheetahs may have been thinking about taking one of the nearby zebra foals. They can't take a full-grown zebra--only a lion can do that--but the young are fair game, along with gazelles, impala, etc.
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As a consolation for not getting our longer hike, and a chance to stretch our legs (but not really get any measurable exercise), our people at Popote arranged for us to do a little walk with a ranger near the Ndutu Airstrip and ranger station. The walk showed us how comfortable the animals are with the safari vehicles--and how much less trusting they are of people on foot! We got no close-up views of large animals, but the hike took us down to Lake Ndutu, where we watched the flamingos.
We also got to see dung beetles in action--now my brother-in-law's favorite animals, or so he claims.
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One climbs to the top and uses its weight to help the ball roll, while the other uses its hind legs to push like crazy. They take the ball away to their secret lair and bury it, either to eat or for the female to lay eggs in (and for the larvae to eat, presumably). Elephants provide abundant supplies for them.
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After our walk, it was time to head to our lodgings, the Angata Migration camp, a sort of glamping set-up, with tents each having their own bathroom, complete with hot shower!
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The room my friend and I share had 3 beds, providing a nice spot to explode our suitcases!
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The dining tent, where our driver admitted to far preferring ugali and the traditional local dishes to our European food, and we got a chance to discover how good it was! Ugali is essentially polenta, and has little flavor of its own, but is a great means of conveying yummy meats and veg to the mouth.
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I just can't get enough of the quizzical-looking giraffes!
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See you next week, for a very exciting morning game drive and our first look at the true plains of the Serengeti, covered with herd beasts as far as the eye can see.
©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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