I woke up around 5am this morning, about an hour earlier than my alarm was set, so I went through the last 3 days blogs and fixed the spelling of Winnipeg, lol. And remembered a few things from yesterday that I wanted to add - so in no particular order:
The Serengeti itself is beautiful - some of these are photos from today and some from yesterday of the scenery - I tend to focus on the animals (because they're so spectacular) but the environment is also stunning and so different from what is at home.
We had dinner with Abraham last night and Jay asked him what his favourite part of our Safari has been so far and he said the Hippo fight, he had never seen that before and wasn't aware that Hippos could get up on their hind legs so high considering how heavy they are. As we suspected we are very lucky to have all that we have in the first 2-3 days. We talked about how plentiful the wildlife is here, even just driving on the road from Ngorogoro to Serengeti to have seen Giraffes and that Canada has wildlife but you may go your whole life and not see a Moose even if you live in the Country. We talked about our dogs, because the most wildlife we see is what they've killed on our property, and learned that in Tanzania they have porcupine and also skunks as well (two of our stupid dogs favourites unfortunately). And 25% of the land mass of Tanzania is dedicated to Conservation areas.
When Abraham retires he wants to farm bananas on his property and raise chickens because there is a big demand for eggs in the high season so you can sell them to hotels.
At the Melia Crater Lodge Abraham stayed in a dorm style accommodation on the property, but here at Lake Masek he shares a tent with one other Guide (which is nice).
Tanzania is located 3 degrees south of the equator, which I think is the closest Jay and I have ever visited to the equator but I would have to check! I just googled it, this is definitely the closest to the equator we have ever been.
The Serengeti is about 15,000 sq km, Jay looked up Yellowstone National Park (the first ever National Park and the largest in the US and it was 8,900 sq km so just a little larger than Ngorogoro Conservation Area.
Now for today.
When Jay woke to the alarm at 6am it was still dark so I asked him if he thought we would need to have an escort to the restaurant at 6:20am. He said he didn't think so but called Reception and asked and they said that they would send someone over. Our escort was a Maasai and he asked us if we saw any animals last night - we had seen a few Zebra, Jay saw an Elephant and there are a lot of Dikdik and that's it - he said that there were Hippos and Giraffe through the camp last night.
Abraham joined us for breakfast and we all slept well. I think he and I slept the best - my Mom was focussed on the noises in the Camp and Jay still isn't doing well with the time (but I think his naps aren't helping his case) so he was up in the night for several hours. We had a quick breakfast, the highlight of which was Jay cracking his hard boiled egg only to realize he picked up 2 fresh eggs, lol. So he traded his fresh eggs for hard boiled eggs and we carried on with breakfast. I had some mixed berry jam on one of those fried dough balls and a few pc of watermelon and few pc of potato, it was delicious.
At 6:45am we left the Camp, walked to the parking area and the truck is CLEAN! I didn't notice before now but Abraham cleans the truck at the end of every day.
Very quickly after getting on the road Abraham met another truck at a crossroads. I love that the Guides all communicate with one another to tell them about what they've seen and where. The Guide told Abraham that he had seen a male Lion and we followed them just a tiny bit up the road to intersect where the Lion was walking. We saw him marking his scent by rubbing his mane onto the Acacia tree. We continued to follow him for maybe 5 minutes before one of us said "there is another one!". Following the first by maybe 100M but in a friendly way. I said to Abraham "They're travelling together obviously?" He said yes they would be brothers, probably about 9 years old. Lions live to be about 12 years old. We followed them down to the beach and got one of my favourite photos of the one Lion looking up into the morning sun as it rose over the hills.
(rubbing his mane on the bush)
After leaving the Lions we saw a herd of Elephants, it was the same ones that we had seen yesterday and Abraham said they had travelled quite a way from where we saw them before (I have no concept of where we are). Abraham says that they eat a lot because their digestive system isn't efficient and they only digest about 50% of what they eat. Their dung then becomes food for other animals because it will contain undigested nuts and mangos.
Jay asked Abraham on a scale of 1 - 10 how successful has our safari experience been and he said he would say 8/10. We feel very fortunate - one of my friends messaged on Instagram yesterday that my photos remind her of a trip to Kenya that she took but she went in a drought (I don't know if it was dry season or an unusual drought) and didn't see many animals. We are hoping to come back sometime in the next 4 years with the Girls, maybe over Christmas because they start University next year and Abraham said that December is also a good month for viewing animals.
Shortly after the elephants we saw a Jackal. I don't know why I thought that Jackals were larger for some reason. He was hunting a bird but missed it. Jay said "look how lean and athletic he looks and he can't catch a bird...yet Willow can catch a crow? Riddle me that". Then we went on to have a conversation about all the animals the dogs have killed on the property and how Jay thinks it’s all Willow because Sage is afraid of birds.
This whole time we have been weaving in and out of a relatively small area and Jay said it would be interesting to be able to see where we had driven because it had been about 40mins and we feel like we didn't move more than a total of about a km. He started Strava at 7:50 but then we took a main road to go to another part of the park.
We passed the airstrip and Abraham asked if anyone wanted to use the washroom - I piped up immediately because I was really worried I would have to use a bush to go to the bathroom. I went in and a mother and daughter were just leaving and said "they're plugged up" I said "they're both plugged up?" "Yes". "Ok, well it is what it is, right?". It's not really a me problem it's a next person problem. The one wasn't super bad.
We were out in the Plains again, and in an area that's not busy so no other cars. We saw some Vultures, some Osterich up closer than yesterday, a Hyena, another Jackal, and then another couple of Hyenas.
Jay would pick up the binoculars to try to see something when the car was moving and then put it back down again. I said to him "yeah that never works, now we know when you see that in the movies it's bullshit". It's too shaky and he did it again and said "you'd think I would learn".
As we were out in the Plains it really is just an expanse of nothing as far as you can see. Jay said "I'm just realizing that he doesn't have GPS" "Abraham, this might be a silly questions but how do you know where you are?" Abraham said "I watch the hills and from experience - some new drivers get lost for 2 days". 2 days with passengers!?
As soon as the Hyenas see you they turn around so I said to Abraham "I have a lot of pictures of Hyena butts"
We then moved into the busier area that we were in yesterday - there is a lot more vegetation here so the larger animals are on this side. We saw a group of 3 Cheetahs, a mother and 2 older cubs.
Then we went to check out the Leopard from yesterday to see what he was up to, he was still just hanging around - same position, different branch.
It was about here that we said to Abraham that we were ready to head back, it was about an hour back to our Tented Camp so Abraham started driving the Safari Express and we just stopped when there was something interesting to see (we no longer searched for it). I got a bunch of good videos of the landscape as we were driving and then we came across a herd of Wildebeest who were running and would cross the small river in front of us. They run in single file, gather at the edge of the water, and then all run across.
Just a few minutes further down the river we were stopped by a truck and the Driver asked "is this the way to the swamp?" Wait a second, this is just a dude and his family in this car. "To the marsh? yes, just a few minutes this way, 10 minutes". I said to Abraham "did they just rent a car and are driving on their own?" He said yes and I said "they're going to be lost for 4 days"...Jay said "that sounds like they're about 10 minutes from getting stuck".
Every time Abraham stops the car and lifts his binoculars Jay does the same thing. Jay said "I'm getting my Junior Guide Badge". lol
Abraham talked to a Guide who said they'd seen another Leopard in a tree so we went to investigate, we couldn't get close because it was up on top of a hill and there were already several trucks there (2 in the prime spot) but did the best I can!
We're now in an area we recognize! We're at the lake before Masek where the wells were yesterday and as we're driving around there is a truck stuck right in the middle (who did not drive around). Jay asked if they needed help so we stopped the truck and Abraham and Jay went to talk to the driver. We did pull him out of the mud and during the process 2 other drivers stopped to give assistance as well.
Last animal of the drive today - we saw a big male elephant. Abraham estimated his age at about 50 years! He didn't seem bothered by us at all, just kept munching on his Acacia and when he couldn't get it lose with his trunk he would give the bush a kick!
Back at the Camp Jay and I came to the restaurant for a beer and to pull out our computers. The wifi isn't really strong here and we find it's best in this area. I tried to do a bit of work but the wifi isn't strong enough for Dropbox so I'm working on the blog for today. Jay did some work and then Mom and Abraham met us for lunch. Lunch was family style they just brought out some pasta with a spicy bolognes sauce, some tilapia with a light curry seasoning, some white rice with vegetables, bread with butter, some stewed tomatoes and a mango salad. I had a little of everything, including the tilapia (I'm not a fish person) and it was all great - they topped off lunch with an option of chocolate or vanilla-strawberry ice cream. Jay got both (surprise surprise) and the rest of us had just vanilla-strawberry.
It's now almost 3pm, Mom and Jay have gone back to the rooms to rest (nap) and we'll regroup for dinner at 7pm"ish". I stayed to sit and enjoy the view but I'll head back now and read my book.
At 6pm I went and met Mom on the path and we went to the restaurant to have a beer and some nuts before dinner. She didn't sleep well last night because of the noises around her tent and said that she was happy to hear this morning that it was Hippos and Giraffes - I asked what kind of animals would she have been worried about if not Hippos and Giraffes and she said "Lions" - but even if there were Lions they wouldn't be trying to get into your tent. She said "the noises could have been people, strange men" I looked at her and said "Mom, I don't think that you're the person they're looking for, I think that you're safe". And we had a good laugh. But, as a single person in a tent she does have a point that there is no sense of security when you're in a room that doesn't lock.
I pointed to near the tall grass as more and more Impala came onto the short grass, eating it, closer to the Camp and my Mom said "I guess that explains why they don't upkeep the property, when we first got here I was thinking this place wasn't that nice, they don't even cut the grass". OMG Mom, lol.
We had a nice dinner with Abraham. It is buffet so I had some rice, lentils with coconut, beef goulash, stir fry pork and some vegetables (carrots and eggplant). It was all good, just a little bit of everything. Now it's 8:30pm and we were up early so it's time for bed.
In other news - look what's coming to UXBRIDGE!! Can't wait, already have 2 lunch dates.
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