Safari in the Serengeti

During our rest day in Moshi we moved to the Buffalo Hotel and hung out with a trio of young Americans (2 girls and a guy in their mid-20's) from the East Coast. One of the girls was going to do a medical internship for 3 months in a little town a few hours south of Moshi. In addition to souvenir shopping we even went to a dance club. The next morning when the promised ride to our safari trip didn't show up, we found out our tour operator had forgotten about us. So they set up a trip just for us, and we were able to leave early in the afternoon. This turned out quite nice for us: with a minibus, a driver, and a cook, just for the two of us for 4 days, no sharing with other tourists. Our driver was Al-Bakari, a shrewd guy who knew everything. His dry sense of humor was quite entertaining during the long drives.

We camped at Mto Wa Mbu ("Mosquito River" in Swahili) for the first night. We were able to visit nearby Lake Manyara National Park that evening as well as next morning. The game viewing was absolutely incredible. I had never experienced anything like this in my life; the large, beautiful, compelling animals and the endless open vistas of Africa made a magical, indelible impression in my mind. This is no wildlife game park as we knew it, it's the primordial paradise. In the background of all this wildlife the majestic mountainous escarpment forming the Great Rift Valley marched in a straight line to the horizon. The next day we drove further west on a modern Japanese-built highway toward Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the way to the the Crater Highlands Massai herders could frequently be seen walking in their traditional red or purple capes. The largest intact volcanic crater in the world (12 miles wide and 2000 feet deep), the Ngorongoro epitomizes nature at its most compelling. Bones of earliest humans have been found at nearby Olduvai Gorge, and the nearby active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai is the "Mountain of God" for the Massai. I suggested driving a bit off the beaten track to see this special mountain, but the long, rough trip on dirt tracks would have taken more time and gas than we had. The game viewing in Ngorongoro was a bit crowded: many safari vehicles vied for the best view points, but none of the big animals showed any concern for us. Lionesses even used the line of vehicles as cover to stalk their prey. This evening we camped on the rim of the crater in a magical setting overlooking the vast recesses below. The camp guards here carried rifles to guard against large predators. Dirk was excited to see an elephant roaming the vicinity, and during our drive to the campground we passed numerous giraffes.

The third day we drove to Serengeti National Park, the most famous African game park frequently shown on PBS back home. The long drive was over a wide dirt road in a completely featureless plain with low shrubs and dry, red dirt. In the distant horizons hundreds of miles away were chains of low ranges. The wide open views were mind-boggling, occasionally groups of animals could be seen traveling in the distance. As we got closer to the heart of the park the landscape changed to the stereotypical African savannah with occasional acacia trees grazed clean below the height of average giraffes. There were also occasional thickets, but dried grass was the predominant vegetation. Here our campground was well-equipped with dining pavilions surrounded by metal wire fences much like fishing nets, designed to prevent attack by predators. I tried to walk a couple hundred feet from the campground, but several passing drivers who saw me made sure to let me know that walking around was not allowed for my own safety. This was also the night of New Year's eve, Dirk specifically bought a bottle of champagne at the park store. As night darkened there were a few other tourist parties in the dining pavilion, one was a big Japanese party. We met a middle aged man from eastern Germany from another party who stayed on after dinner. Since Dirk also speaks German, three of us hung out that evening and shared the champagne among us. It was just great to have our own New Years celebration here deep in the African wilderness. The next morning Bakari took us around the vast park for more game viewing, here the most memorable for me was a large herd of elephants traveling in unison. I was impressed by how fast they walked and the powerful rumble of these majestic animals. Over these four days I had pretty much seen every species I've heard of in my childhood. To be able to see their full glory in close range and to be compelled by their power and beauty was just fantastic.