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| Cheetah and cubs |
Because we had come into the Serengeti only after
lunch, we knew that we would have plenty of time to have a morning game drive
before heading out to the gate. We
decided to use the time to take the long way round to the gate, more or less
the same way we had come in. That way we
got a nice game drive, and also avoided most of the badly corrugated road from
Seronera to Naabi Hill.
 |
| Having coffee with lions |
We wanted to see if we could catch the big pride one
last time (yes, we’re lion obsessed) but they were nowhere to be seen this time
around. By looking for them though, we
ended up on the Maasai plains, and eventually found 2 male lions right on the
side of the road.
 |
| Zebras on the plains |
I had actually missed
them, having looked down to find a juice box, but luckily Dru spotted them and
we ended up spending our early morning coffee with them while they slept
virtually oblivious to us. We figure
that they were the 2 males that we had seen a couple of days earlier near to
the spot they were now. We also spotted
a lioness on top of a nearby group of koppies, but couldn’t see any more
although we figured a pride was holed in there somewhere.
 |
| European roller with breakfast |
We were now getting relatively close to Simba Koppies,
and were debating whether to check them out or not as they’d been good to us in
the past. We turned off to head there,
when we spotted a clump of cars in the rear view mirror. It was an unusual place and time to see cars,
and we know not to ignore that – so turned the car to quickly check out what
they had sighted.
 |
| Cheetah with cubs |
And Serengeti gave us one last surprise – a cheetah
mom with 2 cubs! As we approached, she
climbed up a small mound and sat down scanning the horizon, while her 2 cubs
climbed up next to her and copied her moves, also looking around, though
probably not sure what they should be looking for ;) It only lasted a few minutes, but it was
fantastic to see. Soon though, she
decided to move, and headed off down the dune, with the small cubs in tow. Quickly crossing the road, she headed off
into the plains, with the cubs in tow barely visible in the grass. A fantastic goodbye from the Serengeti for
us!
 |
| Cheetah cubs following mom |
It was still relatively early by the time we got to
the gate, and we decided to take advantage of the last few hours by going to
check out Gol Koppies – a corner of the Serengeti in the south east that hosts
the wildebeest migration as they pass to the Ngorongoro Crater Area (NCA). Indeed we’d spotted herds of wildebeest in
the distance as we’d got closer to the gate, so after paying the “rip off the
tourist more” extra $10 for the car to head into that area (of the Serengeti
which we’d already paid for), we took the turn at the gate and drove into the
plains.
 |
| Hyena chilling in a puddle |
It’s absolutely flat Serengeti plains with the koppies
in the distance, and sure enough we found the wildebeest milling around. Again they were spread out while grazing, so
it was difficult to capture, but the drive through them was really nice. And what stunned us were how many hyenas were
around – almost every waterhole we passed had a clan of hyenas in and around
the water. We doubt that they are
resident since the area seemed devoid of any other animals besides the
migratory gazelles, zebra and wildebeest, so we can only assume that they are
actually following the migration as they move around the circuit.
 |
| Lappet-faced vulture near the remains of a kill |
We had planned to drive north for a bit and then turn
off into the NCA and head out that way, but we didn’t know the route. Dru had gotten (vague) directions from one of
the guides but after about 2 hours of driving, we suddenly spotted Naabi Hill
again… where we’d come from?! After a
bit of a discussion, we decided to take the cautious option and head for the
gate, rather than try to find our way out through the route we had
planned. We only had about an hour or so
left on our permit (nope, the extra $10 doesn’t get us extra time), so we
headed back to the gate and got out with about 15 minutes to spare.
 |
| Hyena with his prize of a gazelle skin |
After a quick lunch, it was back to the slog of a
drive through the NCA and out to Karatu where we planned to stay the
night. But it’s a bitch of a drive with
the corrugations, and for us it’s extremely slow going. We also had a problem, we has slightly
miscalculated the fuel and weren’t sure if we’d get to the Crater fuel station
to fill up. We still had fuel on the
roof but were wary of stopping anywhere along the road because the Maasai
materialize out of nowhere demanding money.
 |
| Cape teals |
But in the end the road made the decision for us. While slowly bouncing along the road with the
air con off to conserve fuel, we suddenly heard a metal “plonk” as if something
had come loose in the car. Hoping
against hope that it wasn’t something bad, we stopped to investigate (luckily
in one of the few areas where there were no Maasai).
 |
| Reedbuck |
Turns out that it was the metal brace for the
jerry can holder on the roof. The road
had actually rattled the bolt loose and the cross brace and rattled itself into
2 pieces before falling off the car, which meant that the cans weren’t secure
on the roof. Which meant that we had to
empty the cans and put them in the car.
At least it solved our fuel dilemma.
So in the middle of the NCA, Dru had to do his least favourite task –
emptying 40 litres of fuel into the tank.
 |
| Common ostrich |
What made it more amusing (to me at least) is that
we’d been having problems with our back door, and now it decided that it was no
longer going to open! That meant trying
to make space in the back – and our car is always loaded – without being able
to open the back door and sort things out.
There I had to lean over all the things on the back – including a spare
tyre and big cooler box to make enough space for the jerry cans.
 |
| Lappet-faced vulture |
Eventually we managed to squeeze everything
in, now with the fuel in and the air con on, we continued to make the crater
gate before it closed at 6pm. But not
long after we heard another “clunk” and stopped to check – and the brace of the
second set had rattled itself loose.
Luckily it hadn’t broken, so it just meant securing it again. In the meantime 3 Maasai kids had spotted us
and immediately surrounded the car, looking for money. Dru decided to give them something, but
almost before he could hand it to them, they snatched it out of his hand, scratching
him in the process – just shows how desperate these guys are in the middle of a
conservation area that makes millions of dollars off the tourists…
 |
| European migrants - White storks |
Without further incident we managed to get to the
Crater but as we were thinking we were almost at the gate, we came across the
boom at the viewing platform. Now
normally this is open with no one manning it, but this time it was closed and
the NCA officials were at the gate, checking the registration of every car
before letting them through. Totally confused,
we were allowed through, but soon got to the NCA main gate and this too was
closed with a bunch of irate tourists and guides standing outside not able to
get in.
 |
| Black-headed heron |
The officers checked our registration again before
letting us through, and then AGAIN at
the edge of the NCA. We couldn’t figure
out the reason for all these checks, and spent plenty of time coming up with
crazy theories as to what was happening.
We finally found out when we finally got to our campsite in Karatu and
set about setting up camp. We still
hadn’t managed to get the back door of the car open and enlisted the help of
one of the guys milling around.
 |
| Us in the Serengeti |
Turned
out that he was a freelance guide and he told us that the guides were
protesting the slow repair of the main road down to the crater – promised to be
fixed about a year and a half ago, it was still not finished, and it was
hampering their tours. So today was the
day that they had protested by using a road that they weren’t supposed to – the
officials weren’t happy about it and had clamped down – pretty amusing to us,
but a very valid argument to the tour operators – this was their livelihood
after all!
<< Day 5 Day 7 >>
Birds seen in the Serengeti:
* First time sighting
White stork
Speckled pigeon
Lappet-faced vulture
Greater kestrel *
Helmeted guineafowl
Egyptian goose
Saddle-billed stork
Superb starling
White-headed buffalo-weaver
Adbim’s stork
Hilderbrandt’s starling
Secretary bird
Fisher’s lovebird
White-bellied bustard
Coqui francolin
White-crowned shrike
White-backed vulture
Drongo
White-browed coucal
Blacksmith lapwing
Little swift *
Bateleur
White-headed vulture
Yellow-billed oxpecker
Yellow-billed stork
Black-winged stilt
Pied avocet
Fisher’s sparrow-lark
Southern ground hornbill
Tawny eagle
Black-headed heron
Black crake
Pallid harrier
Grey-backed shrike *
Montagu’s harrier *
Three-banded plover
Spur-winged lapwing
Silverbird
Namaqua dove
Red-billed teal
Two-banded courser
Black-lored babbler *
Striped kingfisher
Ruppell’s long-tailed starling
Martial eagle
Pin-tailed whydah
Lesser kestrel *
Black-chested snake-eagle
Yellow-throated sandgrouse
Black-bellied bustard
Greater honeyguide *
Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse
Spotted thickknee
African paradise flycatcher
Little bee-eater
Black-faced sandgrouse
Cape rook *
Caspian plover *
Common moorhen *
African fish eagle
Hamerkop
Grey-crowned crane
European roller
Brown snake-eagle *
Pygmy falcon
Hooded vulture
Beautiful sunbird
Green woodhoopoe
Long-crested eagle *
Bare-faced go-away bird
Red-billed oxpecker
Magpie shrike
Rufous-crowned roller *
Grey-breasted spurfowl
Cliff chat *
Brown parrot
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