Safari Day Three – Dec 29th, 2006

With our time at the Serengeti Serena Lodge at an end, we awoke the next morning and after a big breakfast and with much joy all around we once again piled into our trustworthy jeep. OK, technically it was a Land Cruiser but that’s just too much to type every time I refer to the truck, so Jeep is what you get. Today, we knew, we were headed out of the center of the Serengeti and further south through country we had driven through the first day. Our ultimate destination was the Ndutu Lodge, where we would stay one night. In fact, for the remainder of the safari we would stay at each lodge only one night before moving on.

Ndutu was the last lodging confirmation Barbara at Safari Makers had made for us only a few days before we had arrived and was basically our only option for our third night. We were just happy to have a place to sleep night three other than in a tent!! Especially after seeing so many lions and hyenas after the first few days!! As luck would have it and as I may have mentioned earlier, the wildebeest migration was already well south of where it would normally be during this time of year and the Ndutu Lodge was smack dab in the middle of it all!

So…where was I? Oh yes, we piled into our jeep eager to discover what this day had in store for us. We talked excitedly about what each of us wanted to see today. It always seemed to work best if we said out loud what we wanted to see. We all thought it lucky when we did see the things we said out loud, but I think Dumas was listening to us and trying to find what we wanted. Either way worked for me!

Today we agreed we needed to see a big male lion with a mane and all. We had seen lionesses, and a few younger males but without the full mane. And of course I wanted to see my Cheetah or Leopard. Mary and Nancy were both pulling for me! Nancy and I had brought a few snacks with us from Cairo for the trip, not knowing what we’d find in Tanzania. One of these was a bag of Cheetos which of course has Chester the Cheetah prominently displayed on the front, cautioning snackers on the dangers of too much cheese. It was decided that we needed to eat these snacks while standing up in the jeep as we drove before we would see our prized cats. Perhaps there was something about the cheesiness that would lure them out? Might Frito-Lay know something we didn’t? We figured it was worth a shot so we packed them up front with us. You can only rely so much on luck, for the rest you need Cheetos!

Once on the road again we were seeing animals again immediately, scores of impala were fairly common and while we loved watching them run we didn't stop as we had on days one and two. We also came upon this troop of giraffes. Not only was this one of the largest we had seen so far with at least ten, but it was the first time we saw them running. We didn't see anything chasing them so we're not sure why they were running but it was a fantastic sight as they galloped along beside the road. We had to drive ahead of them a little bit so I could fit most of them into the same picture.

Ten minutes later we saw these dudes hanging out in a tree. You can all probably imagine what it means to see something like this.

Yup, food. There were a bunch more on the ground but it was grassy and we couldn't tell what was for breakfast. We learned a few things about VULTURES on our safari. According to our guide there are three different kinds, he told us that one of these does not have a beak sharp enough to penetrate the carcass of an animal so if they arrive on the scene first they must wait for one of the other kind to arrive to start.

Here's a close-up of the bald ugly kind...oh wait, they're all bald and ugly...well...I'm sure his mother loves him.

Actually the vulture was considered an excellent mother by the Ancient Egyptians, with its wide all-encompassing wingspan symbolizing protection for its young. There's even a vulture hieroglyph that represents the glottal sound (called aleph) in the Egyptian language that is found in words such as mother and ruler. This sound is made by constricting the vocal cords in the back of the throat to cut off the flow of air, then releasing them again. Like when we say Uh-Oh to a child that has dropped something...(its the sound in the middle).

Since we couldn't see what they were eating and there's only so long you can watch birds digesting food in a tree, we moved on. Fifteen minutes later we took this postcard picture which Dumas told me later was the best one I had taken because you didn't see them doing this often.

After reaching a stream that was flowing over the road and moving too fast to cross, we headed upstream to find another place we might be able to cross. We were just starting to wonder if we were going to actually be able to make it across and to our next lodge when maybe 15 minutes later and only about an hour or two after the start of our day, we got our wish. Lions, big ones, manes and all, these guys were massive and they were lying near the river bank which was right beside the road. This guy was on one side of the road, lying so quietly and still we almost didn't notice him until Mary pointed him out. We were focused on the other side of the road where the other male lion, lioness and cubs were lying in high grass. WOW! If it hadn't been for the flooded river we would never have seen these guys.

Yeah, we were that close.

We watched them for a while until several other jeeps came along and Dumas was still anxious to find a place to cross the river so we continued along the muddy almost impassable road. Finally we found a place Dumas dared to attempt a crossing through the swollen river. We made it across without much difficulty, those jeeps are amazing. We saw some jeeps off in the distance and there were too many for it to be anything but something spectacular. We headed down a muddy road toward the gaggle of jeeps only to turn back. It was too muddy and Dumas didn't want to risk getting mired, we didn't blame him, it would have been all to easy to get stuck. We backed out and made our way down some other roads trying to get to the spot. Dumas seemed to be driving a little more aggressively than normal so we knew it must be something good. At one point he stopped and spoke to another driver in Swahili, of which we understood not a word, but we did gather whatever the driver told him was down there was worth the risk of all the mud when Dumas set off. Mary finally got him to admit that there was something there we wanted to see, but that he didn't want to tell us in case it was gone when we arrived. Apparently this was the one passable way into the place we were headed and we met several other jeeps on their way out. Dumas had to move off the road, into the soft muddy soil, every time. The other drivers seemed afraid to go off the main track, afraid of the mud. Dumas spoke to them in Swahili at several showdowns and although we didn't understand any of it, it sounded like he was telling them to stop being babies....he denied this of course but he chuckled at our interpretation so I'm not sure we were far off. As we were stopped at one of these showdowns we spotted these guys in the tree above us. Lovebirds.

Cute eh? But they weren't what we drove all the way in here for. Shortly, we arrived under another tree. This one didn't have any birds in it though. It was otherwise occupied by this fellow...

LEOPARD!!! We were so lucky to see this guy hanging out in a tree right beside the road! Some people never see one on safari or only from a long way off according to Dumas. This guy was dozing when we arrived. We admired him through the binoculars and my camera for a little while but he was just sleeping. Dumas said he was quite comfortable and could lay there all day but Mary and I disagreed. His hind leg didn't look comfortable to us at all and it looked like he wasn't getting good support. Several jeeps left and as soon as they did, our leopard decided to get up and find a more cozy spot in his tree. What a treat for us to watch this amazing creature stand up, stretch, turn around on that little branch and stroll down to a little nook where he could curl up in total comfort.

What a beautiful cat. What an amazing safari. What's that line? "and the hits just keep on coming..."

Oh and just as an aside and further proof of Nancy's uncanny, almost supernatural ability to spot elusive pachyderms, while we were admiring the leopard, Nancy, true to form, came out with "is that an elephant over there on the horizon?" I'm not sure what the laser eye surgeon did to Nancy that he didn't do to me but here's a picture I snapped with my 400mm lens. Yeah that's an elephant.

Next up was everyone's favorite, especially after the making of "Lion King", Pumba!

By this time we were absolutely famished so we stopped at a permanent picnic area they have set up somewhere in the park. There's a short walking path that you can take with informational signs along the way. Oh and these cute little Rock Hyrax. I think they are used to handouts since we had about 10 of them following us the whole way around, skipping over the steep rocks and trees like they weren't even there.

This metal statue was on the walk too, not really sure what it was supposed to be but it made for a good photo op.

Ok, reader poll: Which one's scarier?

During lunch Maggie spotted something slinking along the edge of the picnic area and while she didn't know what to call it, she pointed it out to us. Having not seen one of these yet we described it to Dumas who said it sounded like a mongoose. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was one of my favorite stories from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" and I couldn't believe we saw the main character, it was one animal I didn't expect to see on safari. Nobody had their cameras with them during lunch so we didn't get a picture of this one, but we did see two more tumbling in the woods near some babboons on day 6.

With the mornings game drive behind us and our bellies full (and our cooler getting fuller, the picnic lunches had alot of food and we never finished everything), we started making our way to the lodge through the great savanna. Since I'm sure you've seen plenty of pictures already and to speed up the posting of this blog a little I'll spare you the photos of the additional giraffe, warthogs, zebra, wildebeest, lions and elephants we saw on the way.

Instead I'll talk more about the mud! We were driving through the open savanna on a dirt road when we came to a small sign that said "Ndutu Lodge --->" pointing perpendicular to the road. Now there were a few tracks headed off in that direction but you would hardly call this a road. Apparently with the rains, a new road to Ndutu had to be forged by the guides and this one was very new. Four-wheel drive never came in so handy. We got up a head of steam and forged through the open fields, stopping was not an option unless we wanted to spend the night in the jeep. Several hours later we arrived at the lodge, checked in and made our way to our cabins.

As you can see, the small stone cabins with thatched roofs were very quaint and while basic they were spotless. I think this was everyone's favorite lodge. It was turning toward dusk by the time we got to our rooms and the staff was putting out these lanterns along the path. There are only 34 cottages at the lodge which makes it small enough to be truly enjoyable. The cabins were situated along a line that looked out over a field and down toward Lake Ndutu, very picturesque. We were also advised when we checked in that we were not to walk the paths after nightfall without an armed watchman as animals are known to be close by. Now that may sound a bit theatrical but I assure you we took them seriously since people tracks were not the only ones we saw on the paths! In fact, shortly after we got to our rooms a herd of giraffes walked by the front of the lodge!

Here's Mary kicking back at her cottage

There was a small campfire going in front of the dining area so we headed over to check it out before dinner. Our hosts brought us a few glasses of amber nectar and some popcorn. It was about the time the popcorn arrived that we noticed a small bird looking like he was going to help himself to the bowl. Our host told us if we put a piece in our hand he would come over an take it. Mary decided to give it a try first, and I got ready with the camera. The bird was quick but I was up to the challenge, it took a few tries but I did get a few good pictures!

Before dinner we were joined by the lodges resident Genet. Maggie seemed to enjoy watching this fella climb through the rafters, peering down at all his guests. Come to think of it, I enjoyed watching him too.

With dinner finished we joined the nightwatchmen who escorted us back to our cabins safe and sound. The end of another great day on safari and we were learning not to ask if it could get better than this! We already knew the answer....

Animals seen today: Ostrich, Lovebirds, Bee-Eater, Blackwinged Stilt, Flamingos, Lions(twice), Hippos, Vervet Monkeys, Warthog, Baby Warthog, Storks, Vultures, Leopard, Elephants, Giraffes, Hyena, Hyrax, Tse-Tse Flies, Babboons, Topi, Water Buffalo, Water Buck, Gecko (spotted by Maggie), Mongoose, Tawny Eagle, Fish Eagle, Genet, Antelope, Wildebeest, Zebra, Dik-Dik, Hartebeest, Egrets, Guinea Fowl, Starlings, Penguins (no not really, but one of us came out with it)

Total pictures taken today: 464