Our intruder from yesterday still had fruit and chocolates on his mind! He figured if we were dumb enough to leave our patio door unlocked yesterday, we might do it again today. As soon as he heard the patio door slide, he hopped on the deck for a closer look. We were camera ready but frankly were surprised with how agile and smart this baboon was!
The past few days of game viewing were great, especially with all the lions and giraffes we’d seen, but I was puzzled by the lack of elephants. Except for the lone bull we’d spotted from the balloon, we had not seen elephants. The same was true for others at our lodge. Peculiar because last time we were in the Serengeti, we saw hundreds of elephants – solitary bulls, large herds of females, adolescents and babies led by a matriarch, groups of young males. Where were all the elephants?
After lunch, I was the only one interested in a game ride. Enzi, my guide, asked me what I wanted to see. Elephants! He assured me we would find elephants if I were willing to head north and drive through some difficult terrain. Herds were heading north to find greener pasture. I agreed and off we went on my own private safari!
We first had to pass through what I called the tsetse fly forest. This was a grove of short, brush-like acacia trees – an ideal breeding ground for tsetse flies. Females lay their eggs in the tree bark of this particular species of acacia tree where the larva safely grow and develop into biting adults! There were hordes of flies. The road was bumpy and winding, so Enzi had to drive slowly. Our vehicle quickly filled with blood sucking flies – I used insect repellent with DEET so only got a few bites. Because Enzi is in the bush every day, he stays away from DEET, concerned that regular use of the chemical is more harmful than bites. For the first twenty minutes of our drive, he had flies all over his face, neck and back!
Once we survived the tsetse fly forest, we took the road, or more descriptively, the dirt track, to Kenya. We drove for an hour through yellowed, dry grassland without seeing much wildlife beyond a few cape buffaloes and birds. Enzi began to drive faster – we needed to manage our time as I had a sundowner to attend that evening, so I became the official elephant spotter as he drove Eventually, the terrain changed – more trees, greener, longer grasses and we started seeing big herds of animals – gazelles, hartebeests, topis and zebras. There were lots of babies in these herds. We kept driving – our goal was elephants!
Right at the time we were considering turning around, I spotted a large female elephant ahead in the road. Eureka! Enzi knew immediately that we had found a herd!
Sure enough about 100 feet ahead to the right, we saw a herd of 25 or so elephants grazing in the tall grass. This area of the Serengeti was green and moist with plenty of vegetation – a great spot for the elephant herds!
We enjoyed watching and photographing the elephants. Elephants are matriarchal – the oldest, largest female leads the herd. This herd had several mothers with adolescents and babies. Elephants are great mothers and spend significant time teaching their offspring how to survive – we saw many instances of babies following and imitating their mothers!
We had to hustle back to the lodge so I could attend the sundowner and dinner in the bush. Enzi sped back – we only stopped once more to watch a few more elephants who appeared along the roadside. This one was using the tree trunk for a good scratch! We realized we had driven over 100km and half way to Kenya to find elephants! It was well worth the drive and the tsetse flies to observe these impressive animals in their natural habitat!
The sundowner and bush dinner this evening was a short 10 min drive from the lodge – it was in the direction of the tsetse fly forest but far enough away that we were not bothered by these pests. Majuto dancers in their brilliantly colored skirts and tunics were performing as we arrived. The style of dance is fast with a lot of body shaking to a vibrant drum beat.
Shortly after, a group of Maasai warriors approached marching with their staffs and chanting in deep resonant tones.
The warriors performed the same jumping competition we saw our first night at the lodge restaurant – the difference being that here they had more room to compete. It was incredible to see how high these men could jump!
We had an excellent dinner in the bush with meats, fish, vegetable and fruit. We finished the evening with a few shots of amarula, the cream liquor made from the fruit of the African marula or elephant tree, toasting our wonderful time in the Serengeti!
We savored our final sunset over the Serengeti! We leave for Aqaba, Jordan tomorrow!
Our last glimpse of Tanzania from the plane the next morning was of its second tallest peak, Mt. Meru. Kilimanjaro was cloud covered but we had clear views of Meru and Lake Manyara as we flew away!
