Lions and Rhinos, North Serengeti

Nyamalumbwa, North Serengeti – July 2012

It’s been very wet in this part of the world, so we arrive to long grass, still lush and green – and plumes of smoke, with the annual onslaught of TANAPA’s early burning programme in full swing.

Kakae tells us that the normal route to our camp is treacherous at the moment, so, not wanting to spend a cramped night in a bogged-down land cruiser, we decide to take the long way round.  It’s actually fine: for the first hour or so we come across many smallish herds of wildebeest, the forerunners of the torrent that will soon arrive.  (We are hoping to catch the migration during our 3-day stay, but the better-than-usual rains means that there is still plenty of grazing further south, reducing the pressure to head this way).

We come across a lovely breeding herd of elephant, feeding peacefully on either side of the road, and a statuesque male giraffe doing a passable impression of a drunken telephone pole.

As we near Kogakuria kopje, the land drops away to the north, giving us sweeping views over the northern Serengeti and Maasai Mara, with the dark band of the Mara River snaking through it.

During dinner, lions start calling nearby and they keep it up for most of the night – so at daybreak, we have a mission: find those pusscats!  The early light is stunning and smoke from a still-burning bush fire drifts across the landscape.  We stop to scan and I hear a soft grunt behind.  A lion calling?  We turn to check.  A few hundred metres away, three Hooded Vultures on a low branch show us the way; and there they are, a pair of tawny shapes pushing through the grass. It takes us several minutes to find the whole pride, 9 animals in total, including two males and a subadult.  One of the males has a fresh gash on his face and the group appears agitated, moving restlessly and stopping frequently to sniff bushes.  Maybe there are other lions around, interlopers on their territory.  This would explain all the roaring last night, as well as the war wounds... but we will never know for sure.

We set off for the Mara River, but it is not to be: on a nearby ridge, we spot a pair of black rhino.  20 minutes later, we have bumped and ground our tortuous way to the place and there they are – a mother and her well-grown calf.  They are incredibly calm, letting us get to within 50 metres.  What a privilege, with this species under so much pressure from poachers!  They trundle off towards the setting sun, a poignant image - I can’t help wondering how many more times I can hope to see a sight like this.

(Click this link to see Richard's rhino video)

We plan a big day out, heading south to try to catch the full migration. Luckily for us, more and more wildebeest and zebra have been flooding into the area over the last couple of days: we find a herd of several thousand crossing the Bologonja River.  They are skittish, as the dense band of forest along its banks could easily hide predators, so they take it at a full gallop, to the accompaniment of clouds of swirling dust and their own demented honkings.