This morning we are meeting Abraham at 8am to leave for Lake Masek Tented Camp in the Serengeti. We woke up just after 6:30am to shower, pack up and have breakfast. We didn't have breakfast here today so didn't know that you ordered off the menu vs it being a buffet. We still had lots of time because they are quick - Jay had 3 poached eggs on toast and 3 dollar pancakes (he said to remind him not to have pancakes or waffles again because the syrup is a sugar syrup not maple), Mom and I both had 2 scrambled eggs on toast. They brought some breads to the table and a little bit of fruit and then some buns that were like not sweet crispy donuts, just deep fried dough and were delicious with the pineapple jam so I had one of those. I forgot to take any photos of it. There was a Maasai woman on the floor on the restaurant making the fried bread and the dough wraps and they were both my favourite (I didn't eat my toast, I ate my eggs with the thin dough wraps - like a really thin naan).
We met with Abraham and checked out - our balance from dinner last night was $166USD after we had the 300,000 shilling credit (about $120) which was less than I expected given we had 2 Wagu steaks and a few sides so I was pleasantly surprised. We settled up in cash and off we went.
As we left the rim of the Crater Abraham called it the Rain Shadow side, its much drier and so we should see Giraffe on this side which there were none in the Crater.
On the way we stopped and took photos of a couple of Maasai villages. Young boys rushed over each time hoping we would take a photo of them and then pay. Abraham said it discourages them from getting jobs and working later if tourists pay for photos so better to not get the photo and encourage the behaviour - like when Mom asked yesterday at the picnic area "Are you allowed to feed the birds some bread" and he said "No, because when you are gone they will starve". Same same but different.
The Maasai villages are built with the livestock pen in the centre in order to protect them from predators and fencing made of sticks for both protection and camouflage. The Maasai are a highly educated people, they have a Clan structure with one overall Chief and then each Clan has a Chief as well - there may be several villages in a Clan. They can drive but most don't have vehicles, they have cell phones and solar power but most villages don't have fresh water (wells) so they use donkeys and may have to go long distances depending on the season, they are peaceful (there isn't any conflict between Clans) and they wear red because predators identify the red as 'not natural' and avoid them. When we asked then why tourists were advised to wear bland colours (nothing bright, nothing red) he said because we want you to blend into the environment...haha - safety first.
Giraffes were one of the animals that, when Jay and the girls asked, I had on my list to see. Not Lions - Giraffes and Zebra (I have now seen enough Zebra to last me my entire life). It wasn't long into our drive when we saw our first Giraffe - because Jay was on the right side of the car I handed him my camera and he took pictures. This is the infamous headless African Giraffe, lol.
These are Maasai Giraffe which Abraham said can be identified by their pattern. They have tensile tongues and flexible jaws and can digest the thorny Acacia tree. They have 4 stomachs, don't drink much and because of that have feces like pellets to conserve as much water as possible out of the vegetation they eat. Mom asked if they have a birthing season and he said no, because their gestation is 16 months they have babies whenever they get pregnant.
When we arrived to the Serengeti Gate we didn't go through but stopped at the entrance to get a few photos.
The Serengeti and Ngorogoro Conservation Area were one combined park up until the 1950's, at which point they split them into two. There are white markers throughout the drive which mark the boundary between the two parks. Even though the Serengeti is 3rd larges in area it's the most famous of all the parks in Tanzania - I, of course, had heard of the Serengeti (probably from Discovery Earth movies) but had no idea that they were in Tanzania..like someone might know Niagara Falls or the Rocky Mountains are in Canada but not which Province they're in. I asked if Tanzania is set up with Provinces and Abraham said there are multiple Regions but not separate governments like we have, just one central Federal Prime Minister.
In 1959 the government had all the Maasai move from the Serengeti into Ngorogoro and I asked if they paid them or helped to pay to move them and rebuild and he said no, so they were just displaced out of the Serengeti - at the time there were about 5,000 Maasai people and they signed an Agreement that they couldn't be moved again. Now they are talking about moving them, but can't because of the Agreement and now there are almost 100,000 Maasai people in Ngorogoro Region.
The Plains here are very flat because when the volcano would erupt the ash would blow across this area and eventually ash filled up all the crevaces. Then it would rain and create almost a concrete like base so the soil is not very dep here. The Wildebeest gather in this area though because the grass is short and it's high in minerals - we didn't see many Zebra again until the grass lengthened. There were hundreds of thousands of Wildebeest in this area, it was so hard to get any photo or video that would do justice to the sheer number of them and how far they stretched. Abraham said there are up to 2,000,000 in the Serengeti alone.
The dung beetle follows the Wildebeest around and rolls their dung to a nesting spot in order to hatch their eggs. A dung beetle flew into the car a little while later and Jay scooped it out with his sunglass case, lol. They fly super fast, we saw a few that were keeping pace with the truck!
Abraham said a little while later "do you need to stop for the bathroom?" Jay and my Mom both said they didn't because this would be the second stop in about 2.5 hours since we left the Lodge..I asked "when is the next one?" He said "Well, we enter the park now so the next one will be the bush". Then yes, I'll use the bathroom. Turns out everyone needed to use the bathroom then - I'm happy to report I did not need to use a bush before we arrived at our Tented Camp!
This African Headless giraffe on the left is old, you can tell by the colour of its pelt. Abraham said that at one point Giraffe were hunted because there was a rumour that their bone marrow would cure AIDS, so there were studies done and it was debunked. Naturally they live from 23-25 years. The African Headless giraffe on the right it’s hard to tell. lol.
Jay took this picture and I may have said something about where is the rest of the giraffe and he told Abraham to then find some wildlife on the right side of the car, lol.
This is what we found next - the Dikdik, a small deer that lives in pairs. Mom said "did you say it was a predator? It's awfully small". No Mom, it's a Deer. This is the only Dikdik pic I want and the only one you'll find here.
We entered into an area with a dried up lake/reservoir and saw 4 Giraffe, including a baby who was very shy and hid from his mother. All of the animals we have seen today are much more aware of the vehicles and more skittish - the Crater animals were so accustomed to the vehicle they paid them no mind, even if we were close. These animals are much more wary. Also, which is nice here, we can go off the road to see animals though Abraham always stays a safe, respectable distance away.
Here there are a bunch of skulls from animals trying to cross the lake and drowning, they get washed up to the shore with the wind.
We saw a truck crossing the muddy part of the dry lake bed and its hard to see here but it looked like, in person, they should have opted for a drier route! I have a good video.
There were several trucks with water tanks at wells along the lake bed, the water here is soapy because of the minerals in it so Abraham said a lot of the temporary Tented Camps come here to get water for washing. The Camp that we're in is permanent, it has a pool and decking, etc a lot of the other camps are temporarily here while the weather is wetter and the animals are here and then move to another location when the animals move.
We were driving and the Giraffe like the Acacia Trees, they're the typical flat top Acacia's that you associate with Africa.
When we entered another area of wide open space Abraham started to look for wildlife - but really all you have to do is look for Land Cruisers. Where the trucks accumulate you investigate.
There was a pride of female Lions lounging in the sun. As we were observing them more trucks came and then they went on the move. They were really close to the vehicles (you can see the one picture with the frame of the truck in it).
From here we went to investigate the next gathering of trucks and there were 3 Cheetahs! They weren't very far away from where we saw the lions, maybe half a kilometre - so then when the Cheetahs saw the Lions they spent some time watching and assessing where the Lions were going. Mom said "can't Cheetah's outrun Lions?" And Jay, Captain Trivia, said they're only fast over short distances and then they're tired. The last picture is where the Cheetah saw the Lion.
After that we went to the next area and saw a mother Cheetah with 4 cubs. Abraham said she used to have 6 but now there are only 4. The cubs were hiding in the shade of the truck which eventually started and slowly backed away. I love the picture with the 2 cubs peaking behind their Mom at us. Then a couple started nursing. After about 5 minutes the mother Cheetah noticed the 3 Cheetahs that we had just left so then she stopped to asses and eventually took the cubs to lay down under a small tree for a nap.
We saw another Serval too and Jay asked is it unusual to see so many cats in a small area. He said you don't always see Lions and several groups of Cheetahs in a small area like that.
Another example of how Abraham has eagle eyes - he said "do you see that? There are zebra there and they have lion following them". I have a video but not a good one and no pictures but the 6 Lionesses from earlier were stalking 5 Zebra, including 1 baby, but when the Zebra stopped, turned and started stomping and flicking their head at the Lionesses they knew they'd been spotted and got up out of their crouch and then Abraham left because he said they won't attack now that they don't have the advantage of surprise.
We passed a bunch of Vultures around the bloated carcass of a gazelle. Jay asked why they weren't eating it and Abraham said he thought they might have eaten their fill already but the 3 large Vultures moved towards it as we left and I think they just got the party started because when we went back there 15-20 mins later, after lunch, the carcass was almost striped clean and there was a chaotic feast happening.
We stopped for lunch which we had packed by the hotel and included fried chicken, rice and a beef sandwich. I ate the rice and the chicken - there wasn't anything wrong with the sandwich that's just a lot of food! There was also a wrapped pc of cornbread and I had half of that.
There was a Hyena running, Abraham said he can probably scent the carcass but doesn't know where it is.
We continued driving out of the Plain and into a more treed area. Abraham said someone had seen a Leopard and so we were going to the area where it was seen when we saw the tell tale group of Land Rovers under a tree. Not only was it a Leopard but he had dragged a kill (an Antelope or Grand Gazelle) up into the tree with him (which we couldn't get a good picture of because it was perched atop a higher branch). He was napping but wasn't comfortable so kept shifting around so I got some good photos.
Then we saw a couple new Antelope and Impala and a pretty bird and then came across an Elephant.
And then a herd of Elephants with young calfs which Abraham drove right into the middle of them so we had some really close on one side and some really close on the other side!
That was only maybe 5 minutes away from our destination. We got to the Lake Malek Tented Camp and got a run down - we are not to walk unescorted past 7:30pm - if you want to go anywhere outside after 7;30pm you have to be escorted (by someone with a flashlight and some kind of weapon) as there are Hippos, Lions, Zebra and Elephants that will come through the camp. Any other time of day you're fine and can walk about. Power in the Tent isn't limited unless you want to use a hair dryer and then you have to call Reception and they have to start a generator for you, lol, each room has wifi and inter room calling using the phone. Each room does not have air conditioning...it's a little hot. We've opened a few more of the sides of the tent but they have additional shades tilted away from the tent sides for shade and privacy so you don't really get a good breeze but I think it cools at night and there is a stand up fan. We are meeting for dinner at 7pm and asked Abraham if he could join us for dinner so he asked the staff and they said yes.
While Mom went to lay down Jay and I went back to the restaurant area to have a beer, he did some work and I worked on the blog..and have a beer.
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