Tales From the Chicken Bus

Day 275

We weren’t getting the early start I thought we would today, I was eager to get into the Serengeti as soon as possible. The reason thoughdid make sense. The permit for being in the park is valid for 24 hours from the time you enter. So if we entered at noon today then we would have to be out by noon tomorrow. After breakfast the truck was loaded and just after 9am we were off. We passed through some scruffy villages, stopped for fuel and a drink. Actually our driver stopped for a drink, he then got back in the truck and drove off. Never asking if we wanted anything or even telling us what the stop was about. Matter of fact he didn’t really talk to us much at all.

W e entered the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and stopped of for an amazing view of the crater below. We would be back here tomorrow night to camp on the craters rim and then do a game drive the following morning. We continued on towards Serengeti, and soon the road wound it’s way down to the plains below. They seemed to stretch forever in the distance. We saw zebra and wildebeest in groups moving along the plains and a few giraffe. It was amazing, we weren’t even in the park yet. We also saw several Maasai locals walking with their cattle, dressed in their traditional clothing. They would wave at us and shout things, mostly hello, other times to stop and buy something from them. The The Maasai may be semi-nomadic and still very traditional but they aren’t stupid and know how to make a buck from tourism. They sell all kinds of tourists souvenirs, I think they may be semi-nomadic in the sense that they move to where tourists are. The entire trip made for some excellent photos.

Mid-afternoon we reached the gate to the Serengeti, snapped a photo and started our drive in the park. It was very flat here with rocky outcrops spread amongst the plains. A scene straight out of the Lion King, heck I was waiting for the theme music to kick in and a lion to be peering out off one of those outcrops. We saw thousands of zebra and wildebeest moving along the plains. I think part of the annual migration, but I’m not sure since our “guide” had no clue either. Either way it was quite a sight to see so many animals all moving in the same direction. We turned off the main road onto a smaller dirt track while some dark rain clouds gathered in the distance.  We put the roof on anticipating a downpour soon.  Just minutes after doing this we saw it, finally our first lion sighting!  Not one but two lions lying in the grass next to each other no more than 10 meters from us.  I looked at Jordana and she just laughed, it was such an incredible sight to see.  We stayed just watching the lions for a good 10 minutes, I must have taken 20 photos.  You know the way it is the first time you ever see something, besides it’s a lion!  Eventually we moved on when not more than 30 minutes later we came across another lion, no wait we came across another 3 lions!  2 large females and a small younger female.  They stared at us and then they rose and walked right across the road in front of the truck.  So large and powerful looking, and so close it’s tough to describe how it feels to see a lion this close.

We continued the drive and saw 2 more lions, several giraffe, buffalo, thousands upon thousands of zebra and wildebeest crossing the plains and of course impala.  The scenery was tremendous and as good as Kruger was it was hard to compete with what we were seeing here today.  A few hours before sunset we arrived at our camp for the night.  This was more what I had in mind for this safari.  A cleared out spot right in the middle of the Serengeti with a few trees about.  No fences here like in Kruger, animals can and have wandered right through the camp.  As interesting as that sounded I was kinda hoping they would just keep their distance tonight.  Maybe they had a new years party to go to, hopefully.

Well we didn’t have a party to attend and our New Years consisted of the 5 of us drinking some ridiculously warm beer that we had packed in our bags and some kongyagi.  A pretty decent Tanzania spirit made from sugarcane that the Swedes pulled out of their bag.  It was surprisingly smooth.  I’m hoping to be able to find it at the LCBO back home, if not I’m thinking I should start importing it.  It may sound like we had a big drink up for new years but in fact we shared the 6 cans of Castle lager between us and then rationed the Kongyagi as well.  It was far from a drunken new years and by 9:30pm we were all in bed.  It was the first new years I can ever remember when I wasn’t awake at midnight, but it didn’t matter.  Camping in the Serengeti for new years sure beats any drunken night out at a bar.  Now a drunken night of camping in the Serengeti?  hmmm, maybe next year.

Day 244

We spent last night in the town of Phalaborwa, just outside of the gate of Kruger National Park. From Jo’Burg it was an uneventful full day drive here along good highways. The driving really is easy here and it makes me regret not renting a car for other parts of South Africa. Phalaborwa is a bustling and prosperous town that benefits from its location right at one of the gates to the huge national park. By 7:30am the car was packed to go and we exited our air conditioned room into the already extreme heat of the day. It was easily 30 Celsius already and the forecast was highs near or into the 40’s.

Kruger National Park, the size of Israel was one place in Africa that we’d talked about visiting for years. Over 150 species of mammals live in the park, lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, rhino, buffalo, zebra, hyena, wildebeest and impala to name a few. The best part is that you can easily self drive through the park and stay at the several restcamps within Kruger. We entered the central section of the park through the Phalaborwa gate, paid our entrance fees and were given our permits. I started up the Yaris and we drove under the archway into Kruger National Park, we were on safari!

Not more than 10 minutes of driving did we come across a large group of impala, something we were to discover is very common here. We stopped took a bunch of photos and were surprised how easily we saw these impalas. “Look, an elephant!” I shouted as a large elephant moved across the road behind us. Another slowly strolled through the grassland not more than 10 meters from us. Wow, this was an incredible start we both thought. A further 30 minutes down the road we spotted lots more. Impala, zebra, hippos, waterbuck and then just past one of the restcamps we came across a group of about 60 buffalo. Believe it or not but the buffalo is one of the most dangerous animal in Africa. They will attack unprovoked, especially old males. We slowly drove right by the huge buffalo as they lay in whatever shade they could find. Most were just off the road and not phased at all by our presence. The day was going great and surpassed my expectations already. I mean we spoke to people who said the wildlife viewing was great but you just don’t believe it till you actually are here.

Just before Oliphants restcamp, our stop for the night we came across a giraffe. A giraffe is a funny creature, such an odd comical animal it was incredible to see this one in the wild and so close. He was eating leaves from a shade while trying to shelter himself from the sun. Such elegant looking animals giraffes, I could watch their graceful movements all day. We arrived at the Oliphants camp shortly after 10am. The camp is fenced in with high electrical wire, finally though it was not to keep out criminals but lions! Sitting on a cliff with the wide rocky Oliphant river way below the camp has an incredible setting. We found our bungalow and cranked on our air conditioning. “This heat is ridiculous!” Jordana commented as we unloaded our stuff from the car. I agreed, I’m not sure I have felt heat like this before. With no breeze and not a cloud in sight it was easily 40 Celsius and not even noon. Even the staff said it was hot. The Oliphant camp is a beautiful place complete with restaurant and a well stocked shop. Unfortunately the main restaurant was closed for renovations but the fast food counter was open. We both had a fish burger and veggie burger while we tried to stay cool.

We bought popsicles and went to the shaded viewpoint to sit on some benches. With an absolutely amazing view of the river and surrounding savannah we hoped to spot some animals from here. Far below in the river we could see hippos in the water and one even walking across a shallow section. We could even hear there snorting and grunting. As good as it was we were absolutely roasting, even sitting in the shade was unbearable so we returned to rest in our cool room for a while.

At nightfall we signed up for a night safari drive organised by the park. The advantage of this is the high height of the vehicles, much easier to spot animals. Also after 6:30pm the gates of the camp close and nobody other than these vehicles is allowed on the roads. As we waited to depart we had our third popsicles of the day to cool off. Bridgeman, our guide and driver introduced himself, switched on a bright spotlight and off we went. There were three other lights along the sides of the truck to spot animals with. We started the drive and soon spotted some hippos in a valley that were out of the water. They were munching away and were quite a sight, during the day they are always submerged in the water. Next we saw some elephants and of course impala. Impala are everywhere in Kruger. Unfortunately the drive wasn’t that successful and the only other new things we saw were a gennet, a small cat that looks like a mongoose, a spring hare and a bush hare. The spring hare is hilarious, picture a rabbits body with mini kangaroo legs. The bush hare is just a plain old rabbit. That was it. We pulled back into camp after 2 hours and the driver apologised about the slow night, wasn’t his fault. I figured it might have something to do with the weather. It was now after 10pm and the temperature was still in the 30’s. I’m lazy in this heat as well. So lazy in fact that we walked right back to our very cold room and crashed for the night. We were more than thankful for the a/c on this night.