We had planned for breakfast in camp this morning, which meant a more leisurely start to the day than our previous one, where we had been out on the trail in the dark and had enjoyed sunrise from well out on the Serengeti Plain rather than in the Sopa valley where our camp resided and the sun was blocked by the hill when it came up. The roads were still a bit muddy as even thought things dry up quickly with the rain, in areas of significant wetness, the water still sits just below the surface so that a several ton vehicle easily breaks through the dry crust.
Our stay at Dancing Duma had been absolutely incredible, which wasn’t at all surprising to me as I have stayed here a number of times in the recent past (the camp is only a few years old), but for the others, it was all their first time and a chance to lead a bit of a pampered life given the amenities. The food was absolutely delicious, and I think the chef tries to outdo himself every time we visit. The staff have always been super helpful and friendly and the accommodations in the tents are simply over the top and downright luxurious. Staying in a tented camp in the Serengeti is a must when one comes here to visit, but staying in Dancing Duma has always exceeded everyone’s expectations by a mile.
The entire camp staff came out after breakfast to bid us all farewell down by the vehicle, and as we began our game drive once again, they were still waving to us as we lost sight of them. We were once again heading to Seronera as we had to refuel for the drive home since we had run out of time last night. There are no fuel stations between the Central Serengeti and Njiapanda, just outside the Lodoare Gate, a drive of at least four hours and not one during which getting stranded out of fuel is a good option. After filling up, we drove directly to Naabi Hill and its gate to check out of the Serengeti and back into Ngorongoro Conservation Area that we would once again traverse on our way home.
But for today, as we had done on our last trip three weeks ago, we had planned on visiting Lake Ndutu with the hopes of seeing most of the migration there, and we were not disappointed. There were hundreds of thousands of wildebeests and a bit fewer zebras scattered throughout the Southern Serengeti and the Lake Ndutu region and were visible regardless of the direction you were looking. And the numbers of babies, especially the wildebeest, were truly remarkable as each cow has an incredibly high percentage of giving birth each season.
We drove to Lake Ndutu but then headed for the Big Marsh area and south where the number of animals only grew in number until we were certain that every single member of the migration had to be here, following the grasses and getting strong enough for the remainder of the trip to the Northern Serengeti and finally crossing the Mara River into Kenya and the Masai Mara. We took a brief break from our game viewing to eat lunch on a hill overlooking the Big Marsh, a place where I’ve seen the migration in past years, but most now were out on the open plain where the grasses were prime for them.
After lunch, we ran across three cheetahs who were brothers and had killed an adult wildebeest, a feat that a single cheetah would have a hard time with, but with the three hunting together, it was likely not an issue. The kill was hours old, and they were all taking turns feeding, their bellies looking like they were ready to burst. Two jackals were a short distance away and moving closer each time we looked at them, though they were keeping a very close eye on the cheetahs to be certain that they didn’t become their next meal. The wildebeest was not a particularly good sight as its very large stomach and intestines (which the cheetahs do not eat) were clearly visible while the three brothers focused on the more tender meat of the hind quarters and lower back. Cheetahs fill themselves as quickly as possible as they will often lose their prey to other predators such as lions, a leopard, or hyenas. These jackals were merely looking for scraps as they wouldn’t be able challenge these three brothers for the wildebeest.
We finally left the kill, looking for others we might find, and quickly ran across a wildebeest calf who had been killed recently, likely by a cheetah, so still had plenty of meat on the bone, but was being devoured by dozens of fighting vultures as well as an aggressive group of marabou storks. Each of these birds has a particular function at a kill such as this – some with smaller, surgically sharp beaks to open the abdomen, others with long necks and featherless heads who can stick their heads inside and pull out the organ meat. The marabou storks can devour the largest chunks of meat and store them in their neck pouches to eat and digest later.
It was finally time for us to begin making our way home as we needed to be through the Lodoare Gate by 6 pm, for that’s when the gates close and arriving after that time is not an option for it means spending the night in the conservation area and paying an extra day’s worth of fees. Three weeks ago, when we had come this way, we had taken the Endulen road that leaves from Ndutu and runs through some of the most gorgeous scenery in the conservation area with a great many Maasai bomas and herds of livestock. The only problem, though, is that it had been raining over the last days and the Ndutu area is notorious for becoming impassable during the wet season. Back in 2017, we had been stuck here in Ndutu for the better part of the morning along with at least half a dozen other vehicles until we were finally able to free ourselves and make it to the Lodoare gate just in the nick of time. I think I still have a bit of PTSD from that time being stranded with the possibility of not getting out of the mud.
We took our leave of the Ndutu Lake and marsh region and began our drive in the direction of the Endulen Road we had taken only three weeks ago. At that time, which was prior to some of the recent rains that we gotten, the road was reasonably wet, but passable, and other than one or two detours to make it around a washed-out area, we had done just fine. To be honest, in retrospect, I was a little bit surprised that Vitalis had decided to take this route home, for notwithstanding the beauty of this route, the recent rains gave me a bit of a pause as to what the condition of the road would be. When driving in water where the road beneath is mud, it is essential to keep one’s speed up to prevent sinking as there is no traction in the mud below. If the road is firm below, though, there’s no worry as there’s plenty of traction and the Land Rovers are made for river crossings, being able to submerge to the engine block.
We sped along what seemed like a very reasonable, albeit wet, road and Ashley and I were standing in the back of the vehicle as spray was continually flying up over Turtle’s hood and soaking us every several minutes. It was great fun and akin to riding on Splash Mountain over and over again for those of you who are familiar with this long time Disney “E-ticket” ride. There was a great deal of water not only on the road, but all across plain for as far as you could see – it was muddy everywhere and I was beginning to worry about our path going forward, though we were probably at least 45 minutes into traveling this route, and the possibility of going back to another way out of the area seemed to be slowly diminishing the further we traveled as we’d be late making the gate in time.
I recognized that we were nearing the end of this bad section of the road and approaching the river crossing where we had cheered three weeks ago when having successfully navigated it but then realized that there was a lake before us, and it was a long way to the other side. Vitalis decided to make a go of it, though it was clearly not the right choice for after having traveled 25 yards or so with reasonable speed, we began to slow and the car lost traction, causing us to slide to the left until we came to an abrupt stop in the middle of a what would have passed easily for a lake or a river as the water was flowing past us in a single direction. Standing in the back of the vehicle, I had the sudden, sickening feeling in the bottom of my stomach as we were clearly stuck in the middle of nowhere that was once the Endulen Road but was no longer. What was worse was that the good road was only a short distance in front of us if we only could have reached it.
I had brought my tall rubber work boots along in the car, which Saidi promptly “borrowed,” though to be honest, he was going to be of more use in getting us out of this muck than me given the differences in our ages. Both he and Vitalis hopped out of the car into the muck to see what they could do with our tall jack and the sand ladders (long rigid plastic devices that you put under your tires to gain traction or to cross a ditch and which I had just bought for this trip). I followed them out in my flip flops, which lasted only a short time for the mud would grab your feet with every step and the tops of them were eventually ripped off. I spent the rest of the time out of the car in my bare feet walking in the water and mud, the latter being at least six inches of gooey, gushy muck, and the former being a good foot in most places and deeper in others. We worked on freeing the car for at least several hours, finally getting it to move a little forward, but the clutch ended up going out and that was it for any hope of getting out on our own.
It was probably 5:00 pm when the clutch went, which meant that we had about another 1 ½ hours of usable daylight. During this who time, Vitalis and Saidi were busily trying to call anyone they could reach, but the network service where we were was extremely poor and the majority of times, the call either dropped or didn’t go through. Meanwhile, in the back of the vehicle, Theandra had been calling anyone she could reach and apparently had a better signal than the rest and had contacted Dr. Annie to let her know of our dilemma. Annie had launched into action and somehow contacted the head of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Administration (NCAA) to tell him that we were stuck and that we were important volunteers at FAME. With that having occurred, we now had the reassurance that they were sending NCAA rangers out to look for us and it seemed like the chances of us having to spend the night in the car were becoming less and less which was a good thing, at least we thought.
It wasn’t as if we were lost for, we knew that we were on the Endulen Road, granted it didn’t look like much of a road and looked more like a lake, but at least it was a reasonable landmark, and we knew that we were just short of the river crossing. The problem, though, was that no one could really get close to where we were without the likelihood of becoming hopelessly stuck themselves, and there was no good way for us to give directions to the rescuers nor for them to give us directions to reach them. Despite this, it seemed in the conversations that Vitalis and Saidi were having with the rangers (all in Swahilli, of course) that they wanted us to leave the vehicle and hike in a direction where they thought that either we or they would be able to see the other’s lights as it was now dark.
Leaving the vehicle meant that we would have to bring everything from the car as anything left would be very likely stolen. We had all our bags, my camera backpack, Saidi’s camera backpack, and more that we had to strap on our bodies, front and back, and carry with us as we left the vehicle in the supposed direction of the rangers. The going was quite rough and there were holes along the way that couldn’t be seen and stepping into these was a real thriller as on one occasion, I went down on my knees in the muck. Now for full disclosure, I will concede that leaving the car may not seem like the smartest of ideas, and Ashley, Laura, and Theandra had clearly voiced their concern to me, though as I explained to them later, I felt that we had two Tanzanians who were directly speaking to the rangers who had instructed us to try to walk to them. Whether this was the right decision or not, I felt it appropriate to defer to Vitalis and Saidi. Jill summed it up pretty well later when she asked me in a text about my blog if I was posting the, “everything they tell you not to do (in a horror film) when your car gets stuck in the Serengeti surrounded by nocturnal animal piece???”
We walked for perhaps half to a full kilometer until we found a small hillock that was relatively above water and where we could stand without sinking while Vitalis and Saidi continued to communicate with the rangers. It was downright miserable out there as the termites had decided to swarm (yes, termites grow wings and swarm to find new locations to begin their colonies) just this night and were attracted by our lights, landing on each of us as we stood quite helpless. Meanwhile, we kept a watch for wild animals and when I spotted something running about 50 yards away and shined my light, illuminating a spotted hyena whose beady red eyes shone back at us while he watched, I think there was a definite sense that it was probably not the best place to be hanging out at the moment.
At that point, with the gentle, yet firm urging of my residents, I told Saidi that if we didn’t have a definite commitment from the rescuers that they knew were we were or they had seen our lights, then we really needed to go back to the vehicle and wait it out until they either found us or we’d just spend the night in the vehicle and figure things out in the morning. Thankfully, there was really no discussion after that and we began to make our way back to the vehicle, all the while carrying all of our belongings. The major concern by the residents was that we were in the middle of the Serengeti at night with wild animals all around which didn’t seem like a smart idea and was very dangerous.
Though in the end, trying to hike to where the rangers were didn’t help us in any way, I did reassure them the following day that I didn’t believe we were in any danger from the animals that were in the area as the predators would have never considered attacking a group of six humans with flashlights who were made even bigger by all the baggage we were carrying. They simply don’t register us as prey. Unfortunately, there had been the leopard attack on the young boy in the conservation area the week before, so that didn’t help bolster my argument, though that had really been a one-off event and exceedingly rare to have even occurred, given the fact that the Maasai live in this region of the Serengeti every day of the year and attacks just don’t occur. Nevertheless, being out there was clearly frightening whether or not there was a likelihood of being attacked by an animal and whether we were truly vulnerable or not just wasn’t the point.
We slogged our way back to Turtle and made it there without incident other than the fact that it was back through the muck that we had originally traveled and, thankfully, we spotted a good amount of our footprints on our way back such that the return trip was pretty much of a breeze. The three residents and I loaded back into Turtle, while Saidi and Vitalis stayed outside trying their best to reach our rescue party and make some sense of where they were in relation to where we were. Inside my first aid kit (which I recently learned was very out of date as far as any medications inside) was an old emergency strobe light that my son had left behind years ago and, amazingly, it still worked with the D cell battery inside that I later learned had expired in 2022! I had given it to Vitalis when we began our unproductive hike to nowhere and he carried it along with him but now had it up high on top of the vehicle where it could be seen from a good distance.
I know that I was totally drained from having tried to get the vehicle out and then walking a distance in the water, and I’m sure that Ashley, Laura, and Theandra had also had pretty much enough of this experience, so the four of us had mostly resolved ourselves to spending the night in the vehicle, which, given the alternatives at that moment, didn’t seem like such a bad idea. It was cozy, there were no animals inside, we had a few scraps of food with us, and it would soon be light enough to walk out. After about half an hour, though, the news came that the NCAA rangers had finally located us, and that they could see our lights as well as we could see theirs.
The only problem, though, was that their vehicle couldn’t get very close to us and was on the other side of the river of water that was flowing quite quickly at this point. This meant that we would have to once again leave the vehicle with all of our baggage and now cross what amounted to a nice little stretch of water whose depth was mostly unknown, though had to be shallow enough as Saidi had walked over to them, and they were now crossing to help us. Again, it was pitch black outside other than the beams of several flashlights. I remember someone remarking when one of the rangers showed up that they were thankful they had a rifle with them, though I think any predator would have cleared the area long before given the activity that was now going on.
I remember seeing Ashley walking unassisted across to where the ranger’s vehicle was, but one of them thankfully helped steady me as we crossed for I stepped into a huge hole that was totally hidden by the flowing water and nearly tumbled over. I had a backpack on my front and my heavy camera bag on my back plus was carrying one of my cameras with a long lens that wouldn’t fit into the camera bag. Had the camera dropped into the water, it would have been pretty much ruined, but thankfully it didn’t. When we reached their vehicle, it was a Land Cruiser pick-up truck with a crew cab and I started to climb into the back, but they insisted that I sit in the front seat with the three residents in the back seat, which I’m glad they did for if I had ridden in the back, I think I might not have made it. They were going to take us to Ndutu Safari Lodge at the request of the head of the NCAA, and we were going to spend the night there as it was unsafe to make the journey back to Karatu at night, so they were going to drive us back home in the morning. Vitalis would have to extract Turtle with the help of a tractor in the morning and make his way out of the conservation area without us. Thankfully, we were informed that we were spending the night and being returned to Karatu at the behest of the head of the conservation area and that we would not be paying for any of it!
Two of the rangers stood in the back with Vitalis and Saidi while Samwel, our driver who was also one of the rangers and who also turned out to be the clinical officer for the Ndutu region, drove at breakneck speed once we were clear of the watery muck that had stranded us in the first place. Samwel later clarified that he was only driving at his normal speed (twice what I would have been driving) given the amount of work they need to complete in the little time they have. Saidi later told me that he feared for his life in the back and eventually sat down so he wasn’t bounced out of the back of the truck. At one point, we came around a somewhat tight corner in the pitch black and there was a huge bull elephant that had just crossed the road right in front of us, and he wasn’t very thrilled that we had interrupted his nighttime stroll.
We finally reached Ndutu Safari Lodge, which is a very old and traditional establishment, and we must have all looked like total vagabonds as our clothes were wet and muddy as were most everyone’s shoes – I had been completely barefoot for the entire adventure, and I had a thick covering of now dry mud that completely caked my feet. The manager met us at registration and told us they were going to make us dinner even though it was already 10 pm, though we were all allowed to take showers first. We were led to our rooms with our bags and were all so incredibly thankful that we had beds to sleep in and that dinner was only minutes away.
I had realized that my right foot was killing me, though wasn’t quite sure why until after I had washed off the caked mud from my feet only to find that I had a large thorn in the sole of my foot. With the aid of my Leatherman, Saidi removed a ½ inch thorn and though my foot felt better, I was to later remove at least three additional thorns over the next two weeks and probably still have others to go. We had dinner and all made our way back to our rooms – the residents with a triple, Saidi and I sharing a room, and Vitalis staying alone. I don’t think I have every been so relieved in my entire life to have had a soft bed and clean linens to lie on after the ordeal we had all been through. We had survived, and though I’d like to say no worse for the wear, I did know that it would take everyone a bit of time to process the entire experience. It would be an incredible story that no one would actually wish they could tell, but if they had too, they’d at least be grateful that it had gone the way that it did.