Waking to the sounds of the Serengeti is an experience that is not to be missed. It was difficult to tell what the day would be like since it was pitch black when my alarm went off, the others waking to their morning “Jambo” call with a tray of coffee for their room. There was a chill in the air, but on my walk to the main tent for my morning coffee, I could see that there was a layer of thin clouds overhead signaling that it was going to be a gorgeous day for us on the trail. We were planning to leave at 5:45 am, and we came very close as we were under way by 6:00. We left the valley heading for the best possible view as the sun broke the horizon, but before that event was to occur, there would be a kaleidoscope of colors bouncing off the clouds that were present.
With the trees in the foreground, we stood in the car as the wonderful show before us unfolded as it has here for millions of years, and it was difficult for me not to think of our distant ancestors having stood on the very same ground, pausing to watch in amazement and were grateful that the new day was now reality. It is truly a remarkable thing, that the sun rises and sets each and every day, and without the knowledge we now possess, what must they have thought or was it just a recurring miracle to be seen on a daily basis.
Our cameras clicked away, capturing the moments that were passing in time, as the air slowly warmed with the radiant heat of the sun, and within a flash, the Serengeti was bathed again in rays of light. We waited several minutes until the miracle was over and then moved on in the direction of the Seronera river. Up until now, things had been running smoothly, though as many of you know, driving a Land Rover in the bush is always an adventure and things can change in a very short time. There was a rhythmic noise that I could hear from my place standing up in the back of Turtle (my favorite spot), and by the time Saidi leaned over to take a look at was a front left wheel that was wiggling, we had lost three of our five lug nuts, and the wheel was loose.
Now this might not seem like a huge problem for those of you who are adept at changing a flat, but the issue was that we were apparently missing our spanner (lug wrench) which must have been taken out of the car during its many repairs and had never been replaced. Changing a tire without a wrench is an impossible task and, given that we were in the low season and hadn’t seen a vehicle yet this morning, it appeared that we were in a tough position. Thankfully, within 10 or 15 minutes, another vehicle was spotted approaching us on the same road. The driver stopped, and though his lug wrench didn’t fit for Land Rovers and Land Cruisers use different sized lug nuts, he did have a set of wrenches that worked just fine to remove the remaining lug nuts, pull the wheel off the car, and place the new one with the help two lug nuts from our spare tire. The wheel that had been on the vehicle, had unfortunately been damaged running loose, but our spare was good, and we were back on the road in a very short time.
It was time for breakfast, so we went to the visitor’s center, that is still under construction, but has numerous tables on which to eat, as well as small kiosks selling drinks and souvenirs. There were vervet monkeys hanging around the picnic area, and not matter how cute they look, they can become very aggressive when it comes to food. There were also tree hyrax that live here and though they do not harass you in any way for food, the small birds make up to it. Turtle was parked in the very same spot it had been three weeks ago, and after a short while, I once again heard a clicking sound coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. Sure enough, it had to have been the very same bird that was obsessed with our mirror, constantly chirping and hopping into the mirror as if it were attacking its reflection. This went on constantly.
We had a hearty breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, toast, sweet rolls, cut up fruit, sausages, pancakes, coffee, tea, and juice, though shared what was left over with several men that were working at the picnic area. Vitalis took the Turtle to the “balloon camp,” which has a shop and could help with fixing things regarding the loose wheel that we had, though in the end, it worked best that we would borrow some parts from a Land Rover truck that was at Dancing Duma with a dead engine. Once Vitalis was back, we started our adventure for the day as we had planned to head far out to the eastern border of the park.
The dominant geological feature of the Central Serengeti is the kopjes, which means “little head” in Dutch, and are granite outcroppings that occur in various sizes throughout this region. They may be single, or at times occur in a cluster. Pride Rock in the Lion King was an excellent example of a kopjes, and all life here revolves around these little islands of activity. Lion prides will occupy many of them, as well as leopards, and even an occasional cheetah. The roads throughout this area crisscross between the kopjes and when searching for cats, you drive from kopjes to kopjes in hopes of locating their resting spot.
One of the biggest groupings of kopjes is Maasai Kopjes, named for the fact that prior to the formation of the park, there were several Maasai bomas here. They are located centrally and are quite distinct so they can be easily spotted from a distance. We began our game drive here, though the game were very sparse as we knew the migration was in Southern Serengeti and Lake Ndutu.
We had really wanted to search for cheetahs and leopards today, though in listening to the short-wave radio, there were few spottings of leopards this weekend. We knew, though, that should be cheetahs out in the direction of the Gol Kopjes, as this is where we’d also find the bulk of the migration – the wildebeest and zebras with all their recently delivered babies who would be prey for the normally solitary cheetahs that would have difficulty taking down a full-grown animal other than the smaller Thompson or Grant’s gazelle.
We kept on driving further and further out until we were nearing the eastern border of the park and eventually came upon two cheetah who were being observed by a cheetah research vehicle. As mentioned, cheetahs are solitary animals who typically live and hunt along except for mothers and their babies, or siblings of the same sex who live and hunt together for a time but will eventually go it alone and then find a mate. For the two cheetahs we were observing, it wasn’t initially clear, but they turned out to be a younger appearing male, who was very interested in mating, and an older female, who wasn’t.
They sat in the grass for some time, but then moved closer to the road, with the female lying on one side of a bush, and the male on the other, though constantly moving around on either side and the female paying very close attention to his advances and snarling each time he got close. It didn’t appear there would be any action as the female was having none of it and, so, after some time, we drove on to look for other cats.
There were lions on several of the kopjes we drove by, but they were all sleeping which is what they do best when they’re not hunting. A large solitary male was under a try snoozing away and barely looked up as we passed by within several feet of him. These animals are very, very serious about their sleep and there is little they will allow to disturb it. The lions here are typically well fed, either by the animals that are migrating or by the resident animals who remain here in Central Serengeti year-round.
It was getting late in the afternoon, but we continued to drive towards the east and eventually reaching the furthest most of the Gol Kopjes where we found two male lions who were brothers resting with an incredible view of the plains before them. There was another vehicle there who told us of a cheetah hunting that was yet further out, and it was off for the hunt. After a bit of time and scouring the area, we found the lone cheetah who was clearly on the hunt, though unfortunately, the prey it was seeking were a long way off and the shadows were getting longer and longer with a very long way to go to reach our camp. We followed the cheetah for some time but eventually decided not to call it off and head for home.
The drive took us very close to Naabi Hill, the entrance gate we had originally come through, as we finally reached the main road, then left it again to transect the plain heading towards the valley where our camp stood. We typically fuel up on Saturday evening but had been out too far to drive all the way to Seronera and then back to camp, so decided that would happen tomorrow morning. It wasn’t a big deal, but did mean that we’d have to make the hour trek there in a direction opposite of where we were heading for the day, which was to be the Southern Serengeti and Lake Ndutu. We’d make do regardless, and besides, there are animals everywhere here, so any drive is a game drive.
We made it back to camp with time for a shower, then dinner and, of course, a cold Safari beer. It was an African menu tonight that was delicious. We would be having breakfast here in the morning before departing camp.