Who Let the (Wild) Dogs Out?

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By Dan

Safari guides take a lot of personal responsibility in making sure that their clients see good stuff, so I think our friend Felix was feeling a little bad about our relatively quiet day in the Serengeti. Not that it was his fault, of course. Nonetheless, he was clearly going to make sure that we had every opportunity the next day. In fact, he came charging over to our tents about 6:30 in the morning, reporting that he had come across a pride of lions right on the road very near camp. So, we were in the car in about 3 minutes flat, and admiring a large group of a dozen lions about 3 minutes later. They were a beautiful sight. Big cats tend to move very slowly and deliberately, unless they’re in the midst of a chase, and these lions were no exception. They’d sit up, sniff around, and eye the zebra or hartebeest in the distance. Then, they’d lie down again and have a little rest. Then, one of them would walk around to the others, seeming to take a poll as to whether the group was in the mood to expend some serious energy. Ultimately, we left them to their kibitzing, and headed back to Ronjo for breakfast. What a way to start a morning, though!

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Heading out for more driving, we first had to work our way right through an enormous herd of buffalo that had parked its collective self right in the road. Buffalo are notorious for being bad tempered, unpredictable, and dangerous, so it was actually kind of fun to watch Felix, whose is normally as cool and smooth as one can imagine, act a little tense. Moving on, we came across our first really significant groups of wildebeest. We knew that the famous wildebeest migration of the Serengeti/Masai Mara was happening near us, but thus far hadn’t seen any big groups. The wildebeest apparently don’t follow any particular set route. Instead, they move towards where they think the rains are that very minute. The rains come and go in different places with no schedule, so you just never quite know. When we finally found a huge group running along in single file, clearly with a destination in mind, it was pretty neat. Things can be so quiet that you really do hear and even feel the thundering hooves of the hundreds of wildebeest. Wow!

Masai warriors
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You spend a lot of time with your guide when you’re on safari, and everyone gets a little punchy sometimes. Felix had such a great sense of humor, that it was easy for us all to laugh. As I mentioned in the last blog entry, we had a lot of fun with East African pronunciation, too. We probably laughed harder over one exchange than any other. Watching a group of mongoose (what is that? A herd? A gaggle? A pride? Abby would know.) running around, Felix said, “Those are dwof mongoose.” “Ah,” I responded, “dwarf mongoose. Thanks.” “No,” said Felix, “they’re dwof mongoose.” “They’re giraffe mongoose?” I asked, thinking that was a rather odd name. “No,” came back Felix, “they’re dwof mongoose.” “OK, then,” said I, and turned around to the back of the car to report to the rest of the family that we were looking at “dwof mongoose”. After a little more discussion, it was finally determined that these were indeed dwarf mongoose. We were all crying, we were laughing so hard. Maybe you had to be there, though. Our other running joke with Felix was about another of the big cats. He told of having had some Indian tourists with him, who after seeing lots of stuff turned to him and said, “Yes, this is all very nice, but what about the tigers? When will we see the tigers?” Delivered in a perfect Indian accent, it was pretty hilarious. (OK, if you don’t get it, let me remind you that there are no tigers in Africa.)

Migrating wildebeest
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Something that I neglected to mention in my last blog entry was our stop at a Maasai village near Olduvai Camp. On prior trips to East Africa, Christina and I have both been reluctant to do this, since it has felt a little weird. With our Ethiopian experience under our belts, though, we figured we could handle the awkwardness of having to pay to see people. So, we pulled into a village that Felix knew, and after negotiating an entry fee, were greeted by a group of men and women who did some singing, dancing, and jumping to welcome us. Jumping is a big part of Maasai tradition, and it was pretty cool to see it going on. I was invited to join in, and sadly proved to all present that I do have the dreaded white man’s disease – definitely not a threat to slam dunk on anybody. Betty tried to join in with the fellas, but was shunted over to the women’s side, where she quickly bonded with the oldest woman in the village, who was probably all of 50.

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Later, I was a little chagrined to hear that in Maasai culture, when you hit 40 you are no longer a warrior, but instead treated as an old man. Respect is great and all, but I want to be out hunting lions, not sitting around and acting wise! We spent some time in a hut, chatting with a Maasai guy who gave us an overview of customs, and then we paid a visit to the pre-school, where three and four year olds are already being drilled on letters and numbers. They really knew their stuff, and Betty the ex-teacher bonded with the Masai schoolteacher.

Sundowners at Sunset
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All in all, we were glad to have gone to the village. Maasai are so colorful, and so proud of their traditions, and so omnipresent around here, that it was nice to learn more about them. I don’t think any of us were ready to sign up for an extended cultural exchange program, though – it’s a tough life they lead, and I’m not even getting into the circumcision rituals. . . . .

Needless to say, we were sad to say goodbye to Felix when he dropped us at Sanjay Camp, which was outside of Serengeti N.P. nestled in the hills on the east side, back in the direction of Ngorogoro. Sanjay was decidedly upscale, and a truly amazing experience. For six months of each year, canvas tents are erected on a hillside looking out over gorgeous rolling hills. It reminded us a bit of Briones, but a whole lot better. The staff greeted us with wet towels and cool drinks, and never stopped taking care of us. We went on morning and night game drives, enjoyed sundowners from a hilltop looking out over the Serengeti, ate spectacular food, and managed to laze around soaking up the ambience. Luxury camping has a certain appeal!

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Sanjay’s big claim to fame is that there are African wild dogs that live in the vicinity. Wild dogs are one of the rarer species of carnivores in Africa these days, their numbers having been reduced by a number of things, including canine distemper that they caught from domesticated dogs. Unfortunately, despite being out on drives both at dusk and at dawn for two days in a row, we never found any wild dogs. Once again, that’s life on safari.

The night game drives were a lot more successful and a lot of fun. After an hour or two of driving around, we’d stop at the top of a hill with a beautiful view overlooking the Serengeti plains for sundowners. Seeing the guides and accompanying Maasai spotters set up a full bar from out of a cooler in a matter of about 5 minutes was quite impressive. After things were dark, we’d do more driving, with the spotter using a powerful spotlight to find things. Different animals come out at night, obviously, so it was a complete change. Among other things, we were lucky enough to see three striped hyenas, a civet, bat eared foxes with kits, a genet cat, a bush baby (look that one up!) and had fun watching spring hare bounding around. Just looking up at the stars was worth the price of admission, though – with no lights of any significance for hundreds of miles, and the wide flat plain around us, it made for some of the best star-gazing I’ve ever seen.

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Our last morning at Sanjay, we woke early to see a very special sight. Following a string of earthquakes last July (including some that were 6+ on the Richter scale), Mount Lengai, started to act up. It has occasionally spit smoke and ash, and had just started doing so again. Silhouetted with the rising sun behind it, we watched the classically pyramid-shaped volcano spewing smoke and ash high into the atmosphere 60 km away. As an added bonus, we also saw Kilimanjaro and its flat top, 160 km away, in the background. (Note to geography geeks: technically, we were not in the Serengeti, but Ngorogoro Conservation Area, and you can’t see Kili from anywhere in the Serengeti, so I stand by my criticism of the cheesy song lyrics.) What a sight!

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Finally, having seen just about every one of the million wildebeest that do the annual migration through the Serengeti, not to mention enough zebra, gazelle, dung beetles, and other odd buck to satisfy even the most demanding game-viewer, we drove back into Serengeti. We had a plane to catch, so we couldn’t spend much time looking for game. Knowing that a bunch of jeeps stopped in one spot means something good, it was frustrating to have to keep driving. But, we had seen a lot of great stuff. The last great sight of the morning was a male lion, posed majestically on top of a rock kopje. It was so perfect, that you kept waiting for somebody to come out and admit that he was fake, or something. Clearly, this guy was Simba, and the kopje was Pride Rock. Very cool. On we went to the dirt air strip at Seronera. There, we climbed on a 12-seater Cessna for our flight back to Arusha. Abby is not a big fan of take-offs and landings, and bouncing along on the dirt didn’t thrill her, but we did manage to get where we were going. Our two stops along the way let us see more stuff from the air, and flying over the Ngorogoro Crater was spectacular. This is truly an amazing part of the world.

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There a ton more photos attached to this entry - too many great pictures made it hard to choose!