Serengeti - Utangulizi

The Serengeti - Prelude

It seems to have been raining forever. Even here in the south of France, land of sunshine and wine, the ground is utterly sodden. Thank god for the wine. Walking our dog risks slipping base over apex. The ducks think it is Christmas (they’re not far wrong). The climate change nerds have been rubbing their hands in an ‘I told you so’ frenzy. The end of all times

Well, sod that (pun intended), it was time to get away. We set off for a ten day break in the unending sunshine of Tanzania, to escape the omnipresent dreary damp and creeping cold. We headed off for the Serengeti. Only shorts, sun cream and sandals required.

Well. That didn't work out too well did it...

The Serengeti is absolutely my favourite place on the planet for watching wildlife. It has a surfeit of stunning stuff. As Tolkien said; 

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You just might trip over a leopard.”

And leopards we saw by the dozen. More leopards than you can shake a stick at. Or would want to...

We were back with our guide and friend, Ian Kiwelu. Here he is providing my dose of morning medicine. Strong coffee.

We were there in "Mvuli', the season of small rains. We now realise that their definition of 'small' may not correspond with ours.

Our goal was to see the Migration, that enormous continuous mass movement of wildebeest and zebra that circulates around the vast plains of the Serengeti all year round. We went there late in the year (November) so as to catch them in the central Serengeti. And wherever there are masses of wildebeest, there will also be masses of predators.

And, unfortunately, masses of flies...

Our trip to Africa involved the usual four different planes and the usual three stressful transfers. During the whole trip we noticed an unusually persistent amount of clouds. Our last plane, a small box with wings on it and a propeller wound up on a large elastic band, spent much of its time dodging thunderbolts.

On landing and meeting up with Ian, we thought we would make a small detour into the Mara triangle, involving a short trip over the Mara itself.

Erm. No. Water levels were rising. Rapidly. Rainfall was significantly more than normal for this time of year.

We were to spend the first three nights next to the river Mara in camp Lamai. This would be a good opportunity to sleep in luxurious beds and spot lots of leopards. Hopefully we would achieve both these goals at different times.

As we were there to see the migration, which had already long passed the river, we needed to go much further south. We therefore left there to stay five nights in a mobile camp strategically placed to see the hoards of wildebeest (gnu) and zebra.

All did not go according to plan.

As usual.

After driving south for a day, we then spent the next day checking out the area. It was as we were having our normal lunchtime picnic amongst the local wildlife that we noticed the approaching apocalypse.

Our spirits were about to be dampened, along with our chapati rolls.

Over the following couple of days, the roads, already somewhat tricky to navigate, were to gradually turn into streams, and the streams turn to rivers.

Then the rivers, to lakes.

This was the main road crossing in central Serengeti. Totally impossible to traverse, even in our 4-wheel drive safari vehicles. No one in their right mind would attempt to cross that.

Not all were in their right mind.

First, a safari jeep had attempted to cross. The car was swept sideways with the force of the flow of water. The driver and guests were rescued using a rope to pull them out. Seeing this lack of success, a truck driver decided that his dilapidated antique would succeed where others had failed. After reversing far enough to get up speed, with engine revving and smoke billowing, he appeared to think that he could bounce his way across the deluge like a demented stone skipping across the surface of a pond.

No one was shocked at the complete failure of this crazy attempt.

Please bear in mind, the driver holding precariously onto the truck could not swim. This is normal for Tanzanians, as most available pools have prior occupants. In fact, the previous day, we had photographed these two gentle creatures at this exact same spot. They were now in the water.

Somewhere.

Waiting patiently.

Hungry.

The flooding was everywhere. Thankfully we had managed a couple of days over in west Serengeti to see the migration before the floods blocked most main routes and bridges. After that we were confined to a much smaller area of (only) a few hundred square miles.

Even here the roads had tuned to bogs. There are no tarmac roads in the Serengeti. Driving became a form of mud wrestling.

Thankfully our guide overcame these dire conditions. In fact we only needed rescuing once. We had managed to free ourselves from bogs, but we did need rescuing from a lion...

The lighting conditions for photography were 'challenging'. Focusing my camera was at times difficult as it often preferred to focus on the raindrops hammering down. When there was no rain, it then often chose to focus on the mass of insect life that followed the migration and the rains.

They were everywhere.

The migration attracted is own highly irritating insect life, small flies that had clearly made it their goal in life to pester any living creature, especially me. Our camp also suffered with terrifying numbers of bugs; mostly flying termites and kamikaze beetles. Evening meals in the camp meant added protein.

All this; the weather, the bugs, the floods, made photography a real challenge.

I love a challenge.

Despite all these handicaps, we saw more wildlife action than we had ever seen before. As an example, on out last full day, we saw thirty different lions and eight different cheetahs. That just has to be some kind of a record.

In total I took nearly 11,000 photos. Some are rubbish, like the above fly photo-bomb, but there are almost too many that I love. I think the best way to post them is as different 'chapters'. Each chapter to be of a different species or occurrence. Sometimes cute, sometimes calm and peaceful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly, and sometimes leaning towards full-on gore.

I'll start with the species that won the prize in numbers of photos taken; the leopard. Once I've had chance to edit them (there are only 2,300 of them) I'll post the first chapter. This may take a while...

Fear not. I'll cut out a few here and there.

In the meantime, here are a couple of teasers.

A 2-week old leopard cub taking his first steps:

A month-old lion cub hunting his siblings:

and some 2 month old cheetah cubs practicing snogging:

Chapter one, strangely entitled  'Chui Watoto wa Serengeti' (Leopard Cubs of the Serengeti) will be coming soon. Try to be patient, the gore will come to those that wait...
Wait no more! It's here!

Sura ya kwanza - Chui watoto wa Serengeti

Chapter One - Leopard Cubs of the Serengeti