Safari: Part 2

After seeing the elephants off at Tarangire, we headed back to Arusha. Thankfully, the majority of the trip was done over paved roads. We stopped for lunch at a different coffee lodge. I had the earliest flight out of Arusha. Catherine and Fabrizio were headed to Zanzibar for some sun, and Mary, Diane and Cynthia were heading back to Australia. It was a bit of a race to the airport, as there was quite a bit of traffic in Arusha. While I had flown to Tanzania from Nairobi’s international airport, I was flying back through the smaller Wilson airport, so I could catch a bush flight to Masai Mara. As I checked in, I had to pay and extra fee for overweight baggage. I had 35 pounds of bags, including carry on. There was no paperwork, and the cash went into the check in agent’s pocket. This is Africa.

My original flight was running late, so I was moved onto an earlier one, so as to make my connection. The check in consisted of matching your name against a list of passengers. As you can imagine it went very smoothly, with only 5 passengers on the plane. As I walked out to the plane, I became less impressed. While I’m not a nervous flying by any stretch of the imagination, I was not thrilled to see a Cessna 208B, with the first officer’s seat empty, and a captain named Moses. One engine/one pilot is not a confidence inspiring combination, and as there were no bodies of water between Arusha and Nairobi, neither was the captain. We endured a moderately bumpy flight back to Nairobi. The entire area sits at roughly 5,000 feet of elevation and the planes, which are not pressurized, have a ceiling of 10,000, so the plane’s altitude over the ground is not that high. Add in heat thermals and you have a fairly bumpy flight. My transfer at Wilson airport was quite smooth, and I was much more at ease, with the DeHaviland Twin Otter I boarded for my flight to Masai Mara. It has two engines, and had two pilots at the controls. After an hours flight, we landed on the dirt strip that is Musiara Airstrip.

Someone from the camp I was staying at met me, and it was a short drive to get there. In Masai Mara, I stayed a permanent tented camp that’s been there for 30+ years. The tents line the banks of the Mara River. It was an incredible place. The place had a serenity and feel to it that was unlike anywhere I’d been in my life. Wildlife wandered in and out of the camp at will, and after dinner, security guards walked you back to your tent as you never knew what animals might be behind the next bush (or tent). My first night, there were hippos in the camp, and elephants had a taste for some leaves that grew right over my tent. I woke up at 2am to a deep guttural rumbling that I felt in the pit of my stomach. It is the way elephants communicate and the source of the noise was very, very close. My better judgment won out over my curiosity, and I stayed in my tent.

I arrived in the late afternoon owing to some delays with flights. After a quick introduction to the camp, I set out with my guide, Koech for a quick afternoon game drive. As I would find out later, Koech has been a guide in Masai Mara for over 25 years. He is an incredible source of information, and he really enjoys what he does. At this point it was already getting dark, but we were very fortunate. Within 10 minutes of leaving the camp gates, we came upon a pride of lions, relaxing in the afternoon sun. It was an indicator of things to come. As the sun set, we headed back to camp, where I met up with the other people I would be sharing a truck with. While the Land Cruisers in Tanzania were outfitted for long haul travel, the Land Rovers in Masai Mara were solely for game viewing. They were open topped, with seating for 6 passengers, although our only had 3. Along with our guide Koech, I shared the Land Rover with David and Demian, two brothers from the States (Demian lives in Carmel Valley, small world).

While in Tanzania we moved from place to place, in Kenya, we went back to the same camp every night. One of the side benefits of this was that we grew accustomed to the big cats living around us. During my stay in the Mara, we encountered 3 different lions prides, a young female cheetah, and a mother cheetah with 3 sub-adult cubs, on multiple days. Each of these was distinguishable from the others, and it was very interesting to see unique behaviors and how the big cats related to one another. The area of Masai Mara we stayed in was also where the BBC/Animal Planet series “Big Cat Diary” was filmed. We saw many of the same cats they profiled, and the small amount of time they spend filming does not do them justice.

On our first full day in the Mara, we set out as the sun was rising. The first animal we encountered was a jackal, which does not come out in the broad daylight. They are scavengers, but easily outmuscled by hyena and even vultures. We soon saw vultures circling, and went to investigate. We found an almost fully eaten wildebeest carcass. (I would later realize that this was the work of the Marsh pride, the lions that lived closest to the camp.) It was surrounded by vultures and marabou storks. There are certain parts of a prey animal that cats, hyenas and jackals won’t eat, most notably the digestive tract, due to its bacteria. While hyenas can digest bone, vultures are immune to the harmful bacteria.

As we moved away from the vultures, our guide Koech saw something off in the distance. We quickly realized this was a hunting cheetah. We quickly raced off to try and get there before anything happened. As we were a few hundred yards off, we saw the cheetah break. It is really incredible to see something that fast in action. The cheetah was chasing after a young Thompson’s gazelle. She quickly caught it, and was just moving it to a sheltered place to eat as we were approaching. Life is not easy for cheetahs. They are solitary hunters, who hunt by day. Their success ratio on stalking prey is relatively low, and they are easily outmuscled by lions or hyenas once they make a kill. As a result they have to eat very quickly. Nonetheless, we were very lucky, and watched her as she ate. I will spare the more gory details, but we did not see much as she was eating in a patch of long grass.

This young female cheetah had become specialized in hunting young Thompson’s gazelle. Rather than stalk the herd, risk being seen, and expending large amount of energy in the process, she would casually walk up to the heard, looking for young animals close to her. As the animals would flee, younger, slower gazelle would be readily apparent. It was like a hunter who sent his dog to flush out ducks. She would not have to run nearly as fast to catch a young gazelle, and losing surprise wasn’t as much of a detriment.

After seeing the cheetah kill, we moved along, and came up on some young adult members of the Marsh pride who had made another kill and had eaten their fill of wildebeest. While they were not actively eating, the lions were still not very happy about vultures getting to it. The lions would periodically chase off the vultures. With the lions relaxing in their version of the food coma, we moved on. As we headed back towards camp for breakfast, we went along the river, and spent some time fooling around with a troop of baboons. All would be quiet until someone in the truck pulled a face, and would send the baboons scurrying off, jumping off trees, or doing other strange things.

After grabbing breakfast, we headed off to try and find one of the more spectacular occurrences, the annual wildebeest crossing of the Mara River. Wildebeest use the same crossing points year after year, even though there are numerous other ones that are much less dangerous. We timed our arrival very well. The herd was massing for a crossing, and we didn’t have to wait long. The actual crossing itself is a bit strange. A small group of wildebeest will go down to the riverbank and mull about. The herd will follow them down, but it takes a few tries. Often, the leaders won’t like what they see and will turn back, going back up to graze. A new group will come down and do the same thing. Eventually, one group actually jumps, and the herd mentality kicks in. We were in Masai Mara near the end of the wildebeest season there. Most of the herd had already crossed at this point. We saw a group of roughly 2000 animals cross, of a total population believed to be 1.8 Million. Of the 2000, we only counted six that were taken by crocodiles, but they tried for far more. Many of the crocs we saw were massive, truly ancient, and had a menacing ‘grin’ on their faces. They are believed to live up to an age of roughly 70, and never stop growing. Many of these larger ones had clearly been feeding heavily on wildebeest. We stayed on after the crossing to watch the crocs eat what they had taken.

From there, we headed on to look for more animals. It seemed what ever we said we wanted to see, would show up within 30 minutes. We decided to try for leopard, and we soon rewarded with a leopard, crouched on a fallen tree, just relaxing. Leopards are known to be more skittish than any other big cat, and we were amazed how calm it was. My guess was, given its proximity to the camp, this leopard was fairly used to humans. It stayed for about 15 minutes, but as another truck drove up, it decided to leave.

Before the sun set, we got some more time with the Marsh pride, and came upon eleven of them all relaxing. While we had seen numerous females and sub adults, we hadn’t yet seen the big males of the pride. One of them was there this time, and we got very, very close to him. It was the one time the entire trip, where I was uneasy about our proximity to the animals while in the vehicle. Needless to say, this encounter produced to spectacular photographs.

The next morning we set out again, and encountered the Marsh pride, in the middle of their meal. The males and adult females had already eaten and resting, and the sub adults were coming in for their turn at the wildebeest. The amount of playing that goes on amongst siblings and cousins in a pride gives these cats a human-ness that really can’t be described. The ‘teenagers’ would bound up, usually chasing or wrestling with each other in the process, and then greet each of the adult females and show their respect by rubbing heads with each of the adult family members. Only then would the go and eat. We stayed around for quite a while and saw the sub adults finish their turn, and go off to drink.

At that point we left the Marsh pride and headed back in the direction where we saw the wildebeest crossing. It wasn’t long before we came up on a family of cheetahs. For those that watch Big Cat Diary, the cheetah we found is named Shakirah. She originally had a litter of 5 cubs, but only 3 females survived. The cubs are now almost fully grown but the family lives and hunts together. We found them resting on top of a large termite mound. The cheetah cubs are as playful as the young lions and it was amazing to watch these usually solitary cats interacting with each other. They would wrestle and chase each other, but the chasing was much faster, and the movement more elegant. Cheetahs’ elongated bodies are really built for running. They played around for a while and then moved off together. We were a bit confused because we had seen gazelle and impala in the other direction but the cheetahs seemed to be headed off towards nothing. Suddenly all four broke into a run, and we saw what they were after. There were some young warthogs nearby and the group of cheetahs was trying to get one. Cheetahs are usually solitary hunters, and warthogs are dangerous food even for lions and leopards. There was a bit of a melee around the warthogs as cheetahs chased babies, and the adults chased the cheetahs. The adults managed to give the babies enough time to get into the burrow before running off to ensure they didn’t become food either.

We moved farther towards the river and encountered another lion pride, the Paradise pride. This pride had three females, each with cubs of different age, ranging from newborns to 5 months old. Even the newborns moved like lions, albeit a little more clumsily. The one mother kept her cubs herself, but the other two, evidently sisters, would take turns watching all 4 cubs. Two of the cubs were left in reeds, a hundred yards from the two females. As we pulled up, they came out to drink from a puddle that was just near them. This encounter produced one of my favorite images from the trip, of the two drinking side by side.

The morning of my final full day in Kenya, Demian and David decided to do a walking safari in the morning, leaving me to go in search of a lion stalk and kill, similar to the one I’d seen in Serengeti. It was not to be, as the Marsh pride seemed to kill right before dawn. There were some more fantastic lion moments with the Marsh Pride and Paradise Pride, however the real highlight came in the afternoon, when Demian, David and I ventured across the river in search of black rhino. These animals are extremely endangered, with a wild population believed to be less than 3,000. They are so threatened by illegal poaching, that at one point, every black rhino was given around-the-clock armed protection. There are though to be fewer than 70 in Masai Mara. After spending a few hours driving around, we found a mother and baby, who fed briefly before moving back into the densely wooded bush.

On our last day, we set out early, and took our breakfast with use, heading to a part of the reserve we hadn’t been to before. On the way, we encountered a lioness with three very young cubs, and a male. These were from a third pride, the Ridge pride. After our extended morning game drive, we returned to camp for lunch, and packing our bags. While Tanzania had been great, Masai Mara was in a completely different league. The camp I stayed at in Kenya is managed by a fantastic couple, Colin and Chala, who I became friendly with during my time there. Colin is South African (Eastern Cape) and Chala is a native Kenyan. They are a big part of what makes the camp a very special place. It is so serene and feels like home. I was really fortunate to meet great people on the trip, and I took off from Musiara airstrip sad to be leaving. It really was an incredible trip.

Safari: Part 1

Shannah Tovah to everyone. I’m back in London, and enjoyed a great Rosh Hashannah with my family, who I cannot ever seem to get enough time with. Just to catch everything up, I took the New York Bar at the end of July, and the Multistate Proffesional Responsibility Exam on August 7. I spent a great week in New York with the Greenbergs and the Waynik Larrisons, and then made my way out to California. After seeing too many close friends and family to name, the week was capped off with the great privilege of being at Nicole (Scher) and Ari Gesher’s wedding. I then headed back to Atlanta where I finished selling the last of my furniture and packing up my life after 4 years of Grad School at Emory. I flew to London on September 3^rd, and spent a few days there before leaving Europe for Africa.

While my sisters got off easy, my parents took a hard line towards my television watching habits when I was growing up. Rather than cartoons, which were forbidden at all times except early weekend mornings, I grew up on a steady stream of A&E and the Discovery Channel. Nature documentaries on Africa were common viewing, and seeing all this incredible wildlife, in person, became a goal of mine from a very young age.

After a daytime flight from London to Nairobi, I spent one night in Kenya before catching an early morning flight to Tanzania. I was met at Kilimanjaro airport by Masha, my guide from Rangers Safaris, who would drive me and the other members of my group through the National Parks of Tanzania. At the coffee lodge, I met the other members of my group. There were Mary, Diane and Cynthia, three ladies from Cairns, Australia, who were travelling through Africa together for a month. There was also Fabrizio and Catherine, who were from a town near Lusanne, Switzerland. After lunch, the six of us settled into our seats in a modified Toyota Land Cruiser, and headed for a our first stop, Lake Manyara National Park. We arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon.

The hotel is situated overlooking the Great Rift Valley, one of the truly incredible geologic featrues of the world. It is the boundary between two tectonic plates that have pulled away from each other, forming a massive valley. It runs from Lebanon in the north, forming the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, all the way to Mozambique in the south. The valley and its geologic activity are responsible for the rift lakes of Malawi and Tanganyika, which are two of largest, deepest lakes in the world (and home to African Cichlids, a family of tropical fish which I kept for many years). It created the fertile soil that made Zimbabwe Africa’s breadbasket, and the gold and diamond deposits that enriched much of the African continent.

We arrived at Lake Manyara too late to go on a afternoon game drive, however early the next morning, we set out for the valley floor. This was my first game viewing experience,  my senses were heightened. At first, one notices the absence of the sounds most of us are used to, however, you soon become aware of a whole other catalog of sounds that indicate the wildlife present just out of sight. Lake Manyara was the most forested area we visited the entire time. The highlights of Lake Manyara were definitely the hippo pool and the giraffes.

After lunch, we set off on the long drive to Serengetti National Park. It took most of the afternoon, mostly along dirt roads. We travelled through the Ngorongoro Conservation area, and briefly along the ridge of the crater. The conservation area and Seregngeti border each other. The key difference between the two is that the Masai are permitted to graze their cattle and live in the conservation area, but not in Serengeti.

We enterred Serengeti National Park and immediately popped the roof up on our Land Cruiser. August is not the best time of year for viewing animals in the eastern Serengeti. The wildebeast and zebra have migrated to the north, leaving the Serengeti plain sparsely populated. As we moved northwest through the park, the amount of animals around us gradually increased. We started seeing small groups of thompson’s gazelle and impala. As we got further northeast, elephants and buffalo began appearing. This was when we saw our first lions. On that first afternoon, we saw two individual females, a female with two cubs, and briefly before reaching our lodge for the evening, a lion and lioness.

Early the next morning we set out for a full day of game viewing in Serengeti. There were two particular highlights of that day. First, we were driving through the park when we spotted a lioness walking with a particularly purposeful stride. Every minute or so she would pause, put her head up and look off to our left. After she did this a few times, we looked off to where she was looking, as saw a herd of gazelle. We quickly drove around to get ahead of her and positioned ourselves in prime viewing area of where she would stalk from.

It was one of the more gripping things I’ve ever seen in my life. We watched as the lioness crouched down and stalked towards the unsuspecting gazelle. She got very low to the ground in a way that exagerated the movement of her shoulder blades. She used the road we were on as cover and moved closer to the gazelle. She was less than 50ft from me when she broke. Fortunately for the gazelle, she hadn’t picked a specific one to go after, and was unsuccesful. Even so, it was incredible thing to watch.

Secondly, we encountered a family of elephants at the river. Elephants travel in family groups led by a matriarch along with other adult females and their babies and young adults. As the approach maturity, young males are kicked out of their herds and often times form small groups of their own. Fully grown bulls tend to travel on their own. As we approached the river, the elephants backed away, but gradually become more comfortable with our presence. Everything was fairly calm for a while. We watched the elephants as they bathed, and drank, and threw mud on themselves. Suddenly, the matriarch became very alert, the adults surrounded the babies, and the entire herd focussed its attention away from us. Our guide said he thought he had seen a lion. Then the matriarch spread her ear, raised her head,s and rushed towards a patch of grass at full speed. As she approached it, we saw two lions scatter away in retreat. Whether or not they intended to attack the elephants is unknown, but the protective habits of adult elephants were on display in a very big way.

The next day we travelled to the Ngorongoro crater, which is the world’s biggest intact caldera. Ngorongoro is interesting because it has a permanent water supply, and as a result, its animal populations tend not to migrate. After driving much of the previous afternoon, we arrived at Ngorongoro as the sun was setting. Our lodge was on the crater rim, and it got quite cool at night. We set off early in the morning for the crater floor, taking our breakfast with us. As we descended the 2000ft to the crater floor, we encountered a large family of hyena, as well as a sizeable wildebeast herd. The lions were not long in in showing up, and we saw a pair of black-maned brothers chasing off some young intruders. Later we found a family of adult females, subadults and cubs as they were starting their morning routine. Lions prides are very similar to elephant herd in their structures. They are generally comprised of an alpha female as well as other adult females, subadults and cubs, and are led by as many as 3 dominant males who tend to be brothers. Young males are expelled as they approach maturity. Recently, Ngorongoro has developed issues with inbreeding in its lion population due to the lack of migration of lions in and out, and the limitted number of prides in the crater.

After Ngorongoro, there was one more park to visit in Tanzania before heading north to Kenya. Tarangire is the third largest national park in Tanzania. It was the most barren of the 4 we visitted, and the most devoid of life. We did not see any predators, btu we did see lots of elephants. As we approached our lodge, we saw an entire herd at the entrance. This is the dry season in Tanzania, and they were making themselves at home, using a spigot that was left on at the hotel. It’s not exactly easy to get in and turn it off with a bunch of elephants around. The other interesting thing that happened in Tarangire was that one of the trucks we were travelling with got a flat. We stopped and Masha helped their guide change it. I had spent all this time observing the wildlife from inside the protected confines of the Land Cruiser. This was the first time I had been outside, itn eh middle of a park. Things were very quiet, and I walked up the dirt path a little bit (with Fabrizio). There were no animal tracks in the road at all, which was unusual as we were used to having animals clear out from in front of us as we drove. It made me feel a little safer. Little did I know that I’d get a lot closer to the animals when I got to Kenya.