Sura ya tatu - Swala wa Serengeti

Chapter Three - The Antelopes of the Serengeti

The sun rises in the Serengeti

the birth light of the morning sun

silhouettes a distant antelope

our search for breakfast done.

This particular monster, a giant male Eland would not make an easy breakfast.

Most predators would opt for an easier kill.
Impala seems to be the flavour of the month.

These are the walking dead. They are everywhere in tempting numbers. The 'M' shape on their butts is often jokingly referred to as MacDonalds. Fast food and found everywhere.

One of the downsides of safaris can be the repeated dogma of the guides. The MacDonalds joke is one, to which I can now proudly respond that the UK has twice as many food-banks as the ubiquitous McDonalds. It's good to make obscure political points to someone who hasn't the faintest idea what you are talking about.

On the other hand, this kind of quip does not go down well at the dinner table, at which one often finds a bigoted English couple ready to spring out of the undergrowth and rip your throat out.

Other oft repeated comments include the gestation period of every living organism you happen across, or maybe the number of neck vertebrae in a giraffe (which they always get wrong), or perhaps the life expectancy of tourists...

Another problem with using a new guide every time you set out on a game drive is that they assume that you've never seen an Impala before and will stop the truck for half an hour to admire them. Since we are now old hands and use the same guide, we now tend to ignore these poor creatures. Now that I realize this I thought that an entire chapter on them would be a good idea.

So I suppose that I'd better get on with it...

Also common in the Serengeti are the Topi.

Their gestation period is 238 days...

This Thomsons Gazelle is grateful that they are born without horns after a mere 166 days.

A waterbuck attempting semaphore. It's probably telling us about its gestation period...
280 days by the way...

This hartebeest (230 days) appears to have been put through a mangle.

OK, that's enough about antelopes, with one important exception. The world famous wildebeest. He and his chum the zebra (making a cameo appearance here) will be appearing in a chapter near you, in great numbers, soon...

As the sun sets on the Serengeti

and the blue sky turns to black

the antelope stands on distant horizons

still awaiting leopard attack.

Coming soon:

Sura ya Nne - Mazingira ya Serengeti.

Chapter Four - Serengeti Landscapes