A Lion of a New Years
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Day 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.
Michael Coroneos