LAKE MANYARA, NGORONGORO, PIYAYA AND NDUTU – MARCH 2012

March saw my first ever Set Departure safari – and I’m glad to say it was a resounding success.

We all met up for a night at Rivertrees in Usa River – and a very diverse bunch we were!  We had a couple from Australia, a

Scots lady and two Filipinas, as well as myself – a Kenyo-Tz-Brit??

Our itinerary took us  to Lake Manyara in the Great Rift Valley, where Iain Douglas-Hamilton did his ground-breaking research into elephant in the ‘60s, before heading up to Ngorongoro Crater.  After the Crater, we spent a couple of days in Piyaya, the wonderful Maasai community area on the edge of Serengeti; and finally to Ndutu where we were hoping for the Great Migration, as well as good cat viewing.

Trip highlights included watching a lioness stalk a warthog, making excellent use of a concealed ditch as she inched her way closer.  Eventually, the pig sensed her presence and her final charge was in vain… but it was wonderful to watch a predator in action, all focus and stealth – quite unlike the usual lion sighting, with all four paws in the air, accompanied by loud snoring!

One of our number was a keen birder and he was fascinated by the colony of weavers that had taken up residence by the camp kitchen: all these gorgeous yellow birds, in a frenzy of courtship activity, oblivious to the goings-on below as the busy crew got on with the business of pampering us.

One morning, we decided to split up, with 3 of us opting to go for a morning game walk, while one of our number decided to go on a birding drive with Philip.  The walkers had hardly gone 200m when a radio call came through – the ‘birders’ had found a cheetah on a kill!  So we abandoned our walk and climbed into the car for a lovely hour watching this beautiful cat feeding on her fresh kill of a Grant’s Gazelle.  (Funnily enough, we walkers had spotted the kerfuffle of the chase, with gazelle and impala running in all directions; but had concluded that they had been disturbed by us).  It was great to be able to spend a wonderful morning with this cat within a couple of hundred metres of camp – and not another vehicle to be seen! We weren’t even inside a National Park, which makes moments like these all the more special.

We got to spend a fascinating afternoon with members of the nearby Maasai community when we were in Piyaya.  It is always an eye-opener for outsiders to experience first hand a way of life that goes back centuries.  Our host had a herd of several hundred cattle, so in monetary terms he was pretty wealthy.  To our ‘modern’ way of thinking, living in a cramped & smoky hut made of cow dung & with almost no personal possessions seems utterly inexplicable, when simply selling off his herd would enable him to upgrade to a different way of life… but that fails to grasp the self-evident fact that these folk are perfectly happy with what they have, and that living without their beloved cattle would itself be an intolerable existence.  In a world rushing ever faster towards bland homogeneity, that is something to be celebrated.  Vive la difference!

As is so often the case, one of the most memorable moments of all was at the micro end of the safari spectrum: in this case, a dung beetle earnestly pushing its precious ball of dung across the plain.  To the human eye, this is the epitome of pointless endeavour – where on earth can he be going?  The plain stretches for 40 kilometres in all directions, and it all looks exactly the same, so why not just… bury the stupid thing and be done with it? But beetles clearly know best, and so they trundle across the plain looking for THE perfect place to bury their ball of dung…

At the end, we all went our separate ways.  Which, in this case, meant the UK, Australia, Usa River, Hong Kong and Zanzibar.  All in all, it was a great week with plenty of variety on offer – and a fun group of people to travel with into the bargain!

Katavi and Ruaha moments - August 2011

The plane leaves early from Arusha airport on its long flight round Western Tanzania.

After Tabora ,the brown patchwork of maize fields gives way to the silver and sepia of the miombo woodland in the dry season. We fly over unbroken woodland for most of the hour-long flight.

Katavi is dry but there is still water in the Katuma river, small fetid pools full of hippo. To call it water is over-egging it somewhat. In reality it is a slightly diluted solution of hippo dung, pungent when you get down wind. Eau de Hippeau? Anyone?

The crocs are already somnambulant in their caves in the riverbank or under shady bushes. They won’t get active again till it rains in November.

In the afternoon a group of giraffes standing stiffly to attention, all staring the same way. A scan with binos reveals a sedately walking lioness who wanders to a shady spot - and there is the rest of the pride, several cubs and a big male, a lovely family portrait. The cubs are hungry, latching onto any nipple that presents itself, but it seems the females are out of milk. Sharp teeth and urgent sucking are too much and she pushes them away with a snarl and a grimace.

Off to Paradise, where the palm fronds clatter in the stiff breeze. In front of us, an idyllic pastoral scene. Herds of buffalo and impala graze peacefully alongside warthog, reedbuck and hippo. A fish eagle flies past and a great cloud of water birds lifts and settles again once the danger has past   The hippos sigh gustily in the spring nearby

To the Katuma again where a bull elephant in full musth is right by the road. He ignores us but gives himself an elaborate dust shower in the road. He turns to glare at a truck that appears round the corner and then ambles away into the woodland.

***

In Ruaha, the Mwagusi River attracts a steady stream of thirsty customers. It is largely dry at this time of year but the elephant are adept at digging water holes and siphoning the filtered water up with their trunks. When they are done, baboons, impala and wart hog take advantage of these shallow wells.

In pearly morning light baboon barking alerts us. We drive to the Mwagusi. the baboons are in a large tamarind tree, barking hysterically. We are about to change position when a leopard comes into sight, dragging a freshly killed baboon. This provokes a new volley of barks. She drags her prey across the sand river and disappears into a dense combretum thicket.

Later that morning, we pick up fresh leopard spoor in a wooded gully.  Moments later, there she is – a pretty young female sprawled on a low baobab branch. She blinks sleepy green eyes at us but does not move.

News comes in that 2 lionesses from the Mwagusi pride are stalking a giraffe. We arrive to find a stalemate. The bull giraffe is standing firm, staring at the two lionesses, who are not trying anything on. The giraffe is bleeding from a wound on his hind leg. Presumably, the lion will wait till he turns his back before making a move? In the end the giraffe wanders off unmolested but there is a significant pool of congealed blood on the grass

Down to the Mwagusi again, where a herd of elephant is slowly coming back to life after snoozing through the heat of the day. A large female makes her way to a favourite rock and proceeds to scratch herself  - first her flanks then under her chin and finally an intensely pleasurable work out on her bottom.

There is a flash of crimson overhead as a turaco flies into the canopy of a nearby fig.

What an intense pleasure there is to be had in these tableaux of everyday bush life – so ordinary, so very special.