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March 4

Herds on the Serengeti

Campsite on the Serengeti

River Crossing on the Serengeti

I was awakened by people outside saying the sun was about to rise. It rose as a beautiful golden disk. The elephant which had been lurking near camp wandered off further into the woods. It was a big one. We had breakfast at 7:30, and quickly loaded into the vehicle for a morning game drive. We would go a long way today to find the migrating wildebeast herds in the south Serengeti. First, we searched some rocky places for cheetahs, but didn't find any. We did see a poisonous green mamba snake. After a long drive across mostly empty plains, we found a large herd of zebras mixed with wildebeasts crossing a river. Elephants were here too. We stayed a long time watching the herds cross the river, and then drove up-stream along the river to see the wildebeasts walking single file. We found an even larger herd, plus a great number of elephants spread out along the river.

Wildebeast Migration

Herds on the Serengeti

Having seen what we came for, we drove back across the bumpy, roadless plains, looking for cats. We saw a small spotted one, which appeared to be a serval according to our driver's wildlife guidebook. It was after noon and quite hot when we arrived at the Seratona Lodge, not far from our camp. This was a very deluxe safari hotel. The driver went inside a while, and we tried to go to the gift shop, but it was closed. Some of us took advantage of the washrooms to clean up, since our camp had no running water.

The driver had been talking to his boss on the phone to straighten out a problem with our itinerary which we had recently become aware of. We had been promised a campsite by the Ngorogoro Crater rim tonight. This was a special point stressed by the ladies from Oregon when they made the arrangements. But our contracts showed Kudu Campground, which our guide said was in town, not on the rim. So apparently A.J. was trying to trick us. Our guide told us a story about a robbery by some Masai at Simba Camp on the rim a couple of weeks ago, and said the change was for our safety, but we all assumed he was just trying to save money. Our driver was trying to straighten this out by phone. He told us he had no money to spend on Simba Camp, and if we wanted to stay there, we would have to pay $20 per person ourselves. He claimed A.J. would reimburse us, but we were skeptical. We all decided, however, that we really wanted to stay on the rim, and we would work it out with A.J. later.

We tried to get fuel before lunch, but there was none, though the driver was able to get a little from a friend. We had used more fuel than expected on the long drive across he plain. For lunch, we had tomato beef with peppery potatoes and carrots and mango. Before we set out for Ngorogoro Crater, we drove a little more to try to find a cheetah, but all we found were some water bok. On the way out of the Serengeti, we did come across three more female lions. At park headquarters, we paid the extra $20 per person for Simba Camp, promising trouble if A.J. didn't reimburse us.

Masai on the Plains

We followed a fast truck across the plain, which churned up clouds of dust. We passed lots of gazelles. We entered Masai land and climbed into the hills toward the crater rim. The vehicle stopped briefly when the fuel pump overheated. Later, around 5:30, it stopped for good - we were out of gas, still a few miles from camp. Richard drained the remaining fuel into a plastic jug, punched a hole in it with his knife, and fed the hose to the fuel pump directly into it, sealing it (more or less) with a plastic bag. In the mean time, Eric hitched a ride to camp in another vehicle. At 6:20, we tried Richard's contraption, and it worked for a while, getting us only another mile or so before the fuel ran out again. Then another vehicle came by. It pulled in front of us and the driver got out a rope. They towed us the last few miles to camp, and we arrived shortly before sunset.

We set up camp and Richard went off to look for fuel while dinner was prepared by our cook, Mushaka. We had spaghetti with tomato-meat sauce, soup, and fried caramel bananas - a good meal, but not very filling. It was chilly tonight on the rim. A couple of armed Masai guards wandered about for protection. We could see just the dipper part of the big dipper over the crater. We met some Swedes who had come through Ethiopia and a Frenchman who claimed to be comfortable in his t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. I got out my fleece jacket. The Frenchman said someone stole his watch in Zanzibar, but he got it back, saying the thief would not be seeing much with his right eye for a while. He was a big guy, not a good choice for a robbery victim. I went to bed at 10. After midnight, I heard a lot of noise outside, and looked out. Mushaka was loading all of his equipment into the vehicle for the night. I slept well in the cool night air.

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