Serengeti Expedition

Where to even begin… Classes came winding down to an end last week and exams started piling up. After hours of studying for my 4 exams, I must say I’m glad their officially over. To kick off the week (well Friday) we had another non-program day, which was spent relaxing, by the pool at a local lodge in Karatu, this time trying very hard not to get sun burnt like the last time we were there. We concluded the day with drinks at happy days (the local bar) and soon headed back to camp to start pre-departure orientation for our camping expedition in the Serengeti.

         Saturday we had a quick rundown of what to expect and rules & safety regulations. The rest of the day was spent packing our bags and loading the rhino (our truck) with food, fresh water, and tents. Before we knew it 6am Sunday rolled around and we were up and dressed, eating breakfast, and packing our packed lunches ready to start this 6hr trek across Northern Tanzania to the middle of the Serengeti (with a few stops along the way). By 7:30 all 4 cars were off, we were happily singing along excited to start this expedition when not even 10 minutes down a car broke down and we had to turn around to help them out. We knew this was a bad sign because it was Neru, the mechanic’s car and if he couldn’t fix it we were in trouble. After brief consulting we squished 7 more people into the remaining 3 cars. 20 minutes later we reached Ngorongoro’s entrance gate where another car was waiting. We were allowed to get out and stretch/pee while they worked on getting permits for the cars to pass through the gate. In order to reach the campsite the cars had to drive through the outside crater of Ngorongoro and into the entrance gate of the Serengeti. Anyway I met up with my friend Ashley who was in a different car (we were assigned cars for the trip there) and we stood by the cars watching all these mzungu (tourists) stand 3ft from the baboons taking pictures. We were talking about how stupid it was to be that close to a baboon, although they were used to people when one alpha male breaks away and starts walking soon running towards us. Thinking its coming to get me I freak out and sprint towards my car. Not even bothering to put the seat down I dived into the back seat and safely watched everyone else. Soon we were told to load up, though I haven’t moved from my initial position and we were cleared to enter. We were on our way again through the bumpy crater as I popped in my headphones and realized one of the earbuds wasn’t working. Bummer, we just started the trip but at least I had an extra pair back at camp so I could make it 5 days with 1 just one headphone. After a long ride we stop at Oldupai Gorge, the origin of where humans began as our tour guide told us. We got a brief lecture on the gorge and ate our packed lunches while walking around a small museum that held some bones that were found in the gorge and long extinct. 

         Then we were on our way again, driving along when all of sudden you could see black masses spread across the vast grassland in front of us. THE GREAT MIGRATION! Literally thousands of wildebeest spread across the landscape. After watching for a while I quickly fell asleep and was awake by Kioko knocking on my window asking if I wanted to get out of the car to stretch. Thinking we were at the campsite already I was proven wrong. We were only at the entrance gate of the Serengeti which meant another 3 or 4 hours of driving. While walking around the entrance, I bought some cookies to munch on and climb a few rocks to get a good lookout point of the Serengeti. It was beautiful, open grasslands as far as the eye can see, and I took some scenic pictures. We then started our 3-hour game drive though the Serengeti to reach our campsite. It was only day 1 but we saw a bunch of animals, lions sleeping on rocks, impalas in the sunset and since we were in the car that didn’t have a roof (pop-top) the cool breeze felt so refreshing as Kioko blazed through the trails. Of course rain was in and out throughout our game drive, sometimes it was a light drizzle so we didn’t mind being wet and other times it was a downpour so we were constantly putting the roof back on the cars only to take them off a few minutes later when the rain stopped.          

         We reached our campsite just as the sun was setting and enough time to put our tents up. It was a race to get them up and ourselves dry since the rain decided to act up again this time giving us a quick downpour. Ironically when everyone’s tents were up the rain let up and dinner was cooking and a fire was blazing. We concluded the night by relaxing and eating dinner by the bonfire and were off to bed early since we had an early morning ahead of us. 

DAY 2:

         It was 6 am and outside our tents the sun was just starting to rise. We caught an early game drive around the Serengeti hoping to see some animals and complete one of our field exercises, observations of giraffes (YAYY!) and elephants, although there aren’t many elephants to be found in the Serengeti while still recording Christian’s species association. We then arrived back at the campsite at 9:30 for breakfast and spent the afternoon sleeping/reading/sitting around till lunch at 12:45. I caught a few zzs under a tree the heat soon becoming unbearable and finally lunch was served. After lunch we drove to a lion research facility where we had a guest lecture about their research in tracking and observing lions behavior and social structure. It was actually pretty interesting. We concluded the afternoon with another game drive. I decided to cram myself into a small car (the one that replaced the car that broke down) and it was pretty interesting bumping around squished next to 2 other people (6 person car) trying not to ram them into the sharp metal objects on the side of the car. I was soon to find a few bruises on myself from that specific car. The day wove down to an end as we heading back to the campsite to eat dinner by the fire and share our stories of all the animals we saw and play catchphrase. I quickly fell asleep to the sounds of baboons and hyenas whooping near out campsite and was up again at 6 am for….

DAY 3:        

lilac-breasted roller

         This morning we went birding and drove to a riverine habitat to identify different species of birds. For some reason I wasn’t feeling that well the night before and at a pretty restless sleep so I was pretty tried that morning. My chest was hurting like when you dry swallow a pill and it gets stuck. After trying breathing exercises and also trying to participate in the birding activity my chest was still hurting so I decided to sleep through the rest of the morning game drive. We arrived back at camp for breakfast but we arrived a little late and there was no more food. I was really upset, well actually not really cause there was still some grilled cheese left (which is my favorite here) but no toast, eggs, or potatoes but thank god lunch was at 12 and it was 10:30 at this point. After quick naps and more reading lunch was served and eaten and we were off to the Serengeti’s visitors center. We were able to walk around and have lookout points of the Serengeti while reading about the great migration and the Serengeti’s ecosystem. I sat down and started to watch a few documentaries on cheetahs, wildebeest and gorillas when we were called into another room for a guest lecture. Honestly, I can’t say I paid much attention this one was kind of boring as he blahblah about the Serengeti and really basic overview stuff that we already learned, I put my head on the table and knocked out for the rest of the lecture. (oops). After the lecture we were off on our afternoon game drive. This was my first time driving with Christian, one of the professors and I have to say he was my favorite. I was pretty nervous driving with him cause I herd he sometimes drives like a crazy and I didn’t want to throw up, but I soon changed any previous thoughts I had. We were driving around for a little while when all of sudden we spotted some leopards in a tree. These were the 3^rd leopards I’ve seen on this trip and they were extremely far away nothing my telephoto lens could capture.             

We were talking to Christian about random stuff, killing some time, when all of a sudden a tourist car next to us got a call in about a leopard 10ft away up the road. We suddenly swung around and followed the car and sure enough there was a leopard sleeping in a tree. See photo below. Literally took about 100 pictures.

Here’s the reason I like Christian: he’s a photographer too, he’s got this huge bazooka lens so while we were taking picture I noticed we could move ahead to get a better angle on the leopard’s face, he read my mind cause he moved the car to perfect position and we snapped away, our cameras clicking in tune. After about 45 minutes we decided to move on. We stopped to take some pictures of birds and other animals and soon the sun was setting and Christian, not wanting to be late sped back to camp, where we had dinner and played games by the fire.

         DAY 4:

      This was the final full day we were in the Serengeti. Started out like any typical morning but breakfast came first and then we started our long when I say long I mean like 4/5-hour game drive to the lodge we were going to for the day. Enjoying my time with Christian yesterday I jumped into the front seat of his car and we were off. The front seats have no roof so Ashley and I shared it as we stood blazing through the Serengeti the dust blowing in our faces (also because we were following another car to the lodge the whole time). We stopped to snap pictures of lions sleeping on rocks, which actually are what most my pictures are lately, animals like to sleep a lot. And then about halfway through we stopped at this massive rock we could climb. We reached the top and enjoyed walking around stretching our legs for a little bit and taking pictures of ourselves looking out into the vast grassland of the Serengeti. We climbed down and were on our way again. Driving along for what felt like a while I kept busy by talking with Christian and the people in my car. We soon came upon this huge pool. Looking around I knew immediately what it was …HIPPOS! And before Christian could put the car in park I was out the door running to the pool. I loved watching the hippos, took about another 100 pictures and couldn’t stop smiling. From that point on we only had about half hour left till we reached the lodge. When we finally arrived this place was beautiful, definitely somewhere I’d like to vacation. We enjoyed our $20 buffet filled with salad, fish for me (no chicken, and the rest was red-meat) cheeses of all kinds, soft bread, and stir-fry pasta (ugh, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it again). I had a lovely 3-course meal, coffee and dessert and then quickly changed into my bathing suit to go swimming, and to wash all the dirt out of my hair. The pool was beautiful overlooking the Serengeti high up in the mountains. After a few hours of swimming and more coffee we concluded with an afternoon game drive back to camp. Right out of the lodge we all stopped to watch a herd of elephants unfortunately I was battling tse-tse flies all over again and could not stand up to take many pictures let alone do our field exercise. Other cars feeling the same way we soon took off, while flip-flop in hand Megan and I killed some pesty tse-tse flies. We drove along and stopped for some more lion pictures, saw some cheetahs in the sunset and headed back to camp. What a great day.              

After dinner we were all gathered around the fire talking about our amazing day, and star gazing when all of sudden we herd this deep loud rawr. It was literally the baboons in Ngorongoro all over again I booked it from the fire and leaped into my tent. Peeking out of the flap I hear Bora our guard yell Simba! Simba! Legit a lion was roaming around our campsite. By day 4 we were not the only ones occupying our camp as there were other tourist companies as well. Cautiously looking around BAM! There were 2 lions right by one of the other tourist tents. Cars were started lights blaring and engines roaring in an attempt to chase the lions away. We were safe..for now. Stepping out of our tents we all excitedly shared stories, “hey guys remember that one time when a lion was at our camp” “Yeah I never ran so fast.” I learned that the lions, one male one female were just curious at what was going on since there were about 80 people sleeping at camp that night. After the excitement died down we all headed towards our tents to sleep.   

FINAL DAY: Day 5:

  Morning had come and it was time to pack up our tents and head on home. We ate breakfast loaded the rhino and took off. We did a final game drive out saw some more lions, wildebeest, gazelles, topi and more. Being really tired from all the excitement I popped my headphones on and passed out till we hit the Serengeti’s entrance gate. We were able to get out for a few minutes I bought some Pringles and we were back on the road. And that was pretty much it. We drove for about another 6 hours, all of which I was in and out of consciousness for till we hit Karatu. It felt good to be back in a familiar place. Sadness rushed over me though because I knew this would be the last time I would look out and see familiar landscapes. In a few days, Monday, we will be starting a new chapter in Kenya. I am looking forward to it but I will miss Tanzania and all the friends, and professors I have met while being here. It’s a bittersweet goodbye.

Oh yeah, and I must say a cold shower has never felt so good.

Total number of pictures: 885