Driving to Northern Serengeti and Njozi Camp, Part 7

Last night instead of lions and hyenas we were serenaded with rolling thunder and the pounding of rain on our canvas tent. Um, this is supposed to be the dry season. George had called the afternoon showers that occurred when we were at Kusini “weird”, so I wonder what he will say about this deluge.

We are up before daylight and Paul turns our flashlight on, sticks it out the tent opening and waves the beam of light into the darkness. Before long a staff worker is trotting our way, he calls out “Jambo” and escorts us up the soggy path to the main tent. The rest of the crew has arrived and soon we are clambering into the Toyota that we have spent so many hours riding in the past several days. We do take time to admire and snap photos of the incredible sunrise that has greeted us this morning.

As we drive over muddy roads in the predawn we see a grazing hippo with a tiny baby at her side, but it is to dark for a decent photo. We see more hippos out grazing that are startled by our presence. They gape at us and break into a stiff-legged run heading for the safety of nearby water.

It seems that the heavy rain has dispersed the wildlife because we really don’t see many critters. Carl spies a bird in the road which appears to be dying to me, so I turn my head. I only look back when Paul studies the tiny bird closer and proclaims that there are two birds and they are fighting. George takes a look, identifying them as cisticolas and says when they fight the small birds lock legs and whack away at each other using their wings and beaks. There are lots of feathers scattered all around the birds proving that this is a vicious fight. I suppose the birds spat is over territory and/or a female. One of the cisticolas breaks free and flies away with the victor literally on his tail to make sure the loser leaves the area.

We turn back for Ang’ata camp as we are scheduled to eat breakfast at eight o’clock. Up ahead of us we see lines of vehicles on parallel sides of a field of high grass and bushes. One of the guides we pass by points to the field and tells George there is a leopard in there somewhere. Jesse soon finds the head of the leopard poking out of the tall cover. Jesse tells the rest of us where to look, (the cat is to our left, near the bank, close to the dark green bushes, etc.). Okay I’m making all that up to demonstrate how darned hard it is to tell people where the subject you are looking at through your binoculars can be found. All of us end up finding the regal feline except Connie, darn it. It is hard to keep track of the leopard as he ducks in and out of sight. Luckily, the leopard briefly walks out into the open and we get a really good look at it. The beautiful cat is so far away that I don’t attempt a photo instead I just enjoy looking at him through my binoculars. When we arrived, there were around twenty vehicles parked along the roads bordering the field. There are more trucks streaming in and since the leopard has disappeared again we say “good enough” and head on to camp.  A great way to end the early morning game drive!

After eating breakfast all of us finish last-minute packing and let the staff carry our luggage to the main tent. Paul presents the card containing the tip money for the staff to the manager who thanks us. Since George hasn’t returned most of us walk up and down the paths leading to the tents to get some much-needed exercise. George pulls into the camp entrance just before ten, it seems there was still some problem getting everything to work on the new computer system, plus he had to drive to the ranger station to fill up with gas and also to buy water for us. We pull away from Ang’ata at ten o’clock and begin the final leg of our safari.

George informs us that there were two bull giraffes fighting just outside of camp when he came back so he is hoping the duo are still there. The towering giants are still present and are using their heads like sledge hammers to whack each other. The giraffe on our left seems to be landing more and harder hits on the slightly smaller fellow. We watch for several minutes and when we leave the combatants are still sparring.

The farther north we drive the landscape becomes greener. We also begin to see lots of grazers. Topi, hartebeest, impalas, Thompson gazelles, cape buffalo and giraffe. The eye opener however is the herds of zebra that go on for several miles. We all agree that we had to have seen thousands of the striped beauties.

George finds a spot overlooking a lush valley and decides this is a good place to have lunch. We place the lunch boxes on the “bonnet” of the truck and enjoy looking over the sweeping vista while we eat. There is wildlife scattered over the verdant valley but they are barely visible to the naked eye. When scanning with binoculars we find gazelles, wildebeest, zebra, and some warthogs.

Continuing our northern drive, the herds of zebra are replaced by thousands of wildebeest. I wish I could do justice with a photo to the seemingly endless numbers of the odd-looking critters but it is just impossible. We stop to observe one wildebeest acting completely silly as he gallops and bucks and entices a couple of his herd mates to playfully fight.

As we continue driving next to the legion of wildebeest we notice a vehicle parked a few hundred yards away observing a couple of lionesses. We drive closer to the splendid pair; one lion is lying in the open while the other girl is partially obscured by a mound of dirt. Eventually, both cats stand up and walk very close to the truck, heading in the direction of the enormous herd of wildebeest that are grazing a few hundred yards away. The wildebeests are browsing in a field of short green grass that has been burned. There is a plot of tall dead grass across the road from the wildebeest which will give good cover for the lions.

George reads the body language of the lions once they reach the lofty grass and tells us he believes the two cats will try to creep up on the wildebeest. George decides to move back to the road next to the wildebeest so we can watch the hunters approach.  Sure enough, the pair begin stalking the herd of wildebeest using the thick grass to help conceal their approach. Although the lions manage to get within a couple hundred yards of the wildebeest their hard work is foiled by the sharp eyes of several Thomsons gazelles. The little gazelles stand at attention, staring out to where the lions are lying in the grass. Soon a topi takes the small sentinels seriously and begins snorting and peering around trying to find the danger. After the Topi alarm call the wildebeest begin to calmly move away from the edge of the road. This leaves a lot of area where there is no cover so the lions would be in full view of their prey. The two girls don’t stand a chance in this scenario and they know it. The pair stop stalking, sit down and just begin looking around knowing full well their cover has been blown by the alert Tommie’s.

We noticed a half-dozen vehicles lined up just down the road when we began watching the two lionesses. There are still a couple of trucks parked there so George drives over to see what the people are watching. Aha! A male and female lion who are obviously only interested in each other. We have hardly come to a stop when the two lions begin mating. Boy did we time that perfectly as lions’ mate over several days and often you must sit for long periods of time to witness the pair mating if you get to see it at all. There is no sense staying around now since both lions have collapsed to the ground and fallen asleep.

We aren’t far from the lion pair when George drives the Toyota through a dip in the road with deep tire ruts. I’m not sure what happened but we slip over so the left tire is in the track where the right tire should be and the right tire is completely off the dirt road. When George tries to maneuver forward the tires just spin and threaten to slip further into the grass, if we slip sideways much more we will end up in a ditch. Our rear bumper is bottomed out so George can’t back up in order to take a run at getting the truck out of this dilemma. All of us crawl out of the marooned truck and look the situation over. George, who I am sure is a bit embarrassed, checks to see if he can get a jack under the back bumper but though possible it will sure take digging away a lot of mud to make that happen. Fortunately, a couple of vehicles drive up and George and the other guides consult about the situation we are in. One vehicle drives within a few feet of our truck’s front bumper and hooks up a strap to both vehicles’ front ends. George and the other driver get back into their trucks and in no time at all our Toyota has been pulled free. The six of us just stayed out of the way, looking over our shoulders from time to time as the lioness’ we were watching earlier weren’t far from here and we sure can’t run as fast as a wildebeest .

We reach Njozi camp which is nestled right in the bush. Stepping out of the truck I instinctively know that I am going to like this camp. There are wildebeest scattered around in the timber and the crew meets us with friendly smiles. After the ritual of washing our faces with the hot towels and sipping our welcome drinks we listen to Andrew give us the camp instructions. Don’t go to or from your tent after dark without an escort who you beckon to come get you by using your flashlight. The times our meals will be ready are given to us and after you order your hot water for bucket showers it will take ten or fifteen minutes to be delivered. Got it. Laundry and drinks are included here. Yes! our clothes need to be washed again.

The staff, carrying our luggage, leads us to our tents and we await the hot water that arrives shortly. Paul showers first only to discover that our shower head only has four holes where water is coming out. If you think trying to get wet, lathered up and worst of all getting the shampoo and soap rinsed off is hard with that little dribble from the shower head you are right! It was kind of funny though. Paul takes a toothpick after we both have finished and pokes it into several of the shower head holes. Paul’s ingenuity works as now instead of four jets of water there are about ten which proves to be adequate for the rest of our stay.

Paul and I walk up to the campfire and join our friends. We both order a beer from Amos who has the most endearing smile. Later they bring nibbles which include samosas. We had samosas in one of our lunches earlier in the safari which we loved them and these are just as delicious. Chopped and seasoned vegetables or meat, wrapped in a pastry sheet and deep-fried. Yummy. Amos comes later to take us to the dining tent for supper. We are joined by the only other guest in camp, Dave, who is an avid photographer and from Colorado. Dave is a soft-spoken man and extremely interesting. I believe he has been coming to Africa for twelve years and often takes multiple trips in a year.

Our soup tonight is carrot soup with ginger spice, this is the first African soup I don’t care for so I leave most of it in the bowl. To our delight at Njozi camp they serve the meal family style. The staff bring out the food in big bowls and we just take what we want. This is wonderful, as at the other camps I probably left half of the food on my plate. We visit after our meal for a bit but most of us retire to our tent by nine or so because we have an early morning wake up call. Another great day in Tanzania!

I am only blogging about one day here instead of the usual two days I have been doing. There will be lots of photos included in the next blog so decided not to make this one so long.

Next blog, Northern Serengeti and wildebeest river crossing. Later, Nancy