A Photo Journal: African Safari - Part II (The Serengeti)

We spent five days of our African Safari at Serengeti National Park. 

Serengeti is a Maasai word that means "endless plains." What an apt description! The plains extended on and on, endlessly in all directions.

The endless plains of the Serengeti.

The endless plains of the Serengeti in a storm. How dramatic!

Occasionally the plains were accented by trees, which provided a lovely texture to the landscape.

Look at that flat-top acacia...

...and that something-or-another tree.

I love how some trees even provided humor to the otherwise stoic landscape. When I saw this tree for the first time, I said, "Those look like sausages hanging from that tree"...to which Goodluck replied, "That is called a sausage tree." When I chuckled thinking he had pulled one over on me, Goodluck winked at me and said, "No joke."

A sausage tree. 😉 No joke.

As we roamed the plains, we learned to scan the trees for animals.

Does that look like something in that tree?

There had been some record-breaking rains in the weeks preceding our visit. I was worried the grasses might be so tall that we wouldn't be able to see any wildlife, especially members of the Felidae family. While the grasses were certainly tall —at times taller than a person — we still saw plenty. 

Mom scanning the endless plains with her binoculars at the ready!

We saw all sorts of animals I expected (and hoped!) to see in the Serengeti — elephants, zebras, lions, baboons, giraffes, gazelles, warthogs, and dik-diks, for example. 

It was fascinating to watch the elephants.
Despite their enormous size, they are incredibly graceful beings!

The zebras are some of my favorites.
They are horses in delicately striped costumes.
What out-of-this-world creatures!

With time, our eyes got better at spotting animals in the distance.
Can you spot the animal?
Cue up The Lion King, ladies and gentlemen.
🎵 Can you feel the love tonight? 🎵

The vervet monkeys were great fun to watch — especially the babies.

I loved watching the birds catch a lift on the backs of the buffalo.

And I really enjoyed seeing the hippos submerged in the water.
What funny creatures!

 We saw lots of Geoffreys, too.

Whenever I saw giraffes, I couldn't stop imagining an inventor sitting at a bench in a workshop. She takes out a glob of clay, shapes it into a horse, paints spots on its body, and then pinches its neck between her fingers and pulls on the neck until it becomes ridiculously long. She leans back in her chair, admires her work, and cracks a smile."I've just made a spotted, long-necked horse," she says, rubbing her hands together. "I shall call this a 'giraffe.'"

I digress.

We also saw animals I didn't expect to see, like crocodiles...and even ostriches...in the Serengeti!

Ostriches!

We were really fortunate to come across a pair of mating lions. Goodluck told us, "Very rarely do guests get to see wildlife porn up-close." Feeling all good and lucky, we watched the couple mate three times within an hour. 

The mating couple, resting in between their bouts of sexy time.

As it turns out, pairs typically mate every 15-30 minutes for up to 50 times in a 24-hour period. Holy fuck, and I mean that literally! Fifty fucks in a day! When it was time to do the deed, Mister Lion would walk over to Miss Lioness, mount her, do his thing, roar his roar, ejaculate his ejaculation, and then dismount — all in the course of a minute. Each time when the lion was done, the lioness would fall over in exhaustion. I kid you not. There wasn't even a massage, or roses, or any sweet talking. Poor thing! 

Poor Miss Lionness after Coitus #38, plus or minus.
Though her body language clearly says "enough already,"
Mr. Lion is thinking, "Rest up, honey. We got 12 more to go."

The heavy rains meant that the roads were far more water-logged than usual. 

Is that one foot of water? Three feet of water?
Might there be a hippo hiding out in that gigantic puddle?

In my book, this was a good thing. For one, it cut down on the dust. We were told to bring scarves or face masks to cover our faces, but fortunately we didn't need them. The water also helped to cut down on the bumpiness of the roads, something our guide, Goodluck, tried to pass off as a "complimentary massage." 

I'm grateful the roads weren't as bumpy as usual, as I can't imagine what it would have been like if they had been. There were days when we spent 8+ hours driving 80+ miles in search of wildlife. That's a long time to sit, let alone in a vehicle. I was surprised how physically demanding the safaris were considering I did nothing but sit and gawk all day. My back was tired and my body ached. I definitely felt for my older tour companions, especially those who might have had chronic back pain. A massage would have been nice — a real massage, that is.

Mom and I really enjoyed the stretches of road when they were completely inundated with water, as this meant we'd get in some exciting off-roading in addition to the safari. 

 

You should know that when I was a kid, Mom owned a Jeep and would occasionally take us kids on off-road adventures. I remember one time after a fresh snow when Mom drove us to an empty parking lot at night and made donuts in the snow. (I also remember the cop who turned on his lights and flagged down Mom asking her what she was doing. I'm guessing he expected to see a teenager behind the wheel. Instead, he saw an adult woman with three children buckled into the back seats! Mom probably wouldn't want me to share this, so that's why this part is in parentheses.) Back to the Serengeti...

Whenever the driver guide paused to size up a water crossing, Mom and I would look at each other and smile. Then, as soon as the driver would push his foot on the accelerator to gun us through the puddles, Mom and I would hoot and holler while the other guests looked at us like we were nuts.

The Serengeti is known for the Great Migration, the seasonal movement of masses of animals as they search for water and food. We were really hoping we'd get to see the Great Migration. Surely enough, we did! While we were told we weren't seeing peak migration, it was still pretty great as there were animals in every direction as far as the eye could see. Wow, just wow! 

Animals migrating greatly.

Suffice it to say that we witnessed some pretty spectacular wildlife occurrences. (Make sure to check out the forthcoming Part IV post about the big kitties!)

Goodluck and I doing our "We saw spectacular wildlife occurrences" dance!

While I could go on and on about the animals, I want to give you a brief overview of the camp where we spent four nights in the Serengeti. This camp space was leased to our tour provider, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). OAT sets up the camp and maintains it for a period of months at a time while it rotates through its different safari tours. Suffice it to say that the camp was might impressive!

Guests (or pairs of guests) had their own tent. This was our tent. Everything was zippered so as to keep the mosquitos and other creepy crawlies out of our living quarters.

Our tent.
Notice the solar panel that provided our electricity.

The tents had electricity, and bathrooms complete with a flushing toilet, sink, and shower. Whenever we wanted a shower, the camp staff would heat up 20L of water, pour the water into a bucket, hoist the bucket into the air, and scream "Your shower is ready!" We had a lever inside the shower that would release the water upon demand. One bucket provided 2-3 minutes of a warm shower, which felt like an absolute luxury after being in a hot vehicle all day. Each tent had a small septic tank to collect the gray and black water. The tanks are buried at the beginning of each tenting season and removed at the end of the season. Wow, what an operation!

Our gravity-fed shower.

We did laundry the old-fashioned way. Here's Mom washing her clothes.

Mom doing laundry.

As you can imagine, it takes quite a crew to run an operation like this. The were five camp staff who stayed at the camp for the entire season.

The camp staff.

The staff truly spoiled us. Despite the dearth of trees, somehow they managed to get firewood for campfires. And so each night we sat around the fire pit enjoying the views and each other's company.

Our nightly gathering around the campfire.

Our gathering from afar, with our tents in the background.
Just look at that view!

Because of the potential danger of wildlife, we had strict orders to stay within the mowed perimeter of the camp. Though we could walk within the perimeter freely during the day, at night we were escorted from the campfire to our tents. Miya, one of the driver guides, and I stayed out late one night chatting about guiding and life and everything in between. When he escorted me back to my tent, he aimed his flashlight on a pair of hyena eyes just beyond the grasses edge. Yikes!

I'll be honest, it was hard for me to stay within that perimeter. I'm a wanderer and a curious one at that. When one of the camp staff saw me staring down this road leading away from camp, he offered to walk with me a ways. I was grateful for his willingness to accompany me, as this doubletrack beckoned the heck out of me deeper into the endless plains.

A road beckoning an exploration of the endless plains.

Before I move on from the Serengeti, I have two observations I'd like to share with you about our game-viewing drives:

Observation #1: It's funny how quickly our species can normalize novelty. When we spotted wildlife the first day or two of the safari, we held our cameras to our eyes and continually snapped photos. I probably took 25 photos of the first giraffe we saw, even though he was mostly blocked from view by a tree. Even though the animals were 100+ ft away and mostly hidden behind trees or bushes, we told the drivers, "Pole, pole. Slow down, we want to take a photo!" As the trip went on, though, and as we realized we'd be observing animals up-close for extended periods of time, we were more conservative in our zealousness. Later on in the trip, after we took the photos we wanted of animals up-close, we put our cameras away and simply observed. By the end of the trip, we laughed when the drivers asked if we wanted to stop to see a nearby herd of elephants. "Nah," we said. "We've already seen enough elephants." 

Observation #2: When Mom first brought up the idea of a safari trip, I thought to myself, "Do I really need to go across the planet to see animals? I've observed them up-close at zoos." What an imbecile am I! Having been on a safari, I doubt I will ever again step foot inside a zoo. Seeing animals up-close in a zoo is nothing like seeing them up-close in their natural habitat.

Over and out from Camp Serengeti!