Ah the Serengeti (Maasai – meaning endless plain). 12,000 square miles – flat and sprinkled with stunning acacia trees. It’s everything I dreamed it would be.
As we entered the park they were doing a controlled burn to get rid of overgrowth to keep the floor of the plains healthy. Burns are done sections at a time and the results are clearly visible. Lush green grass was growing in the areas previously burned.
It’s remarkable how different the flora, terrain and wildlife are in Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and in the Serengeti. Even Tsavo for that matter. It is LUSH!! Tanzania is the place to live if you’re a hungry animal. Poor creatures in Tsavo, Kenya are starving.
We had hoped to see hyenas and cheetahs in Tsavo so it was a real treat to see them here. The gazelles were the bunny rabbits – prolific and everywhere.
Day one we saw:
Hyaena
Ostriches
Thompson’s gazelles
Grants gazelles
Secretary birds – they peck with their feet like typing
Topi antelope
Serval cat like a cheetah
Cokes hartebeest
Cheetahs
Hippos
Blue Herons
Lots of different birds
Impalas
Elephants
Zebras
Click to enlarge photos…
We went with the beer budget safari and it was perfect. However, I was thrilled to see a Micato Land Cruiser pull up next to us. It was the same vehicle that we had and it had six people in it! Same car and ours was just the two of us. Score one for us. I did notice a tiny difference at lunch time. The park had designated eating areas with bathrooms. We had boxed lunches packed by the hotel and French press coffee made by Amon. The chichi tours had a wicker basket with food, drinks and wine served on plates. They sat at the same tables as we and peed in the same toilets. I’ll give that one to them. I can’t speak about the accommodations. Ours tent camp felt like we were one with nature. Tents surrounded by zebras. Rustic but with everything one could need (I didn’t say want). We left with money to live on for the next six months so I’d say we won. Here’ our rustic…
Our tent was approximately 50 yards from the mess tent (reception, lounging and dining area). We were given walkie talkies and were told not to venture from our tent in the dark. “Call for an escort.” We made it to dinner in the daylight but it was dark when it was time to go back to the tent. One of the workers grabbed a flashlight and started leading the way. “Where’s your gun?”, I asked. “Oh we don’t need one. We’ve been doing this for a long time and know what to look for.” Say what??? Hello, we know from the Great Walk of Africa that guns are essential. There were many times that the workers were armed and protecting us. It reminded me of un-armed security guards back home.
Breakfast and dinner were served buffet style. No Covid here.
New animals on the second day:
Cheetah and 2 Cubs eating an impala
Water buck
Lion laying on top of a huge rock
Leopard in the mouth of a big rock formation
Mongoose
Superb starling (blue and Orange bird)
Monitor lizard
Guinea Fowl
Parrots – One tree full of beautiful yellow birds
Ground hornby (big bird)
Dik Dik
Lion with a big mane
Leopard walking in the middle of the road! Again, so lucky. They are nocturnal.
Leopard gets its own gallery:
On our second night at camp – out cold and sleeping. A zebra bumped up against the tent right by our heads and woke me up. For the next 20 minutes it grazed. I could hear it pulling the grass out with its teeth and chewing! It was very cool.
Day 3 on the way out the most majestic and beautiful male lion walking in the field near our camp.
Impalas have one male that rules the herd. They fight for this position – retain it until they are challenged. We watched younger males being trained to fight with their horns by the ruling male. We also watched the ram gather the females to cross a road. He was quite impatient with the flaky females who lingered. He actually wrangled each one individually until they were all in a group again.
The whole safari experience was tremendous. We thoroughly enjoyed it. At the pace we went we were glad it was only 4 days. It was exhausting!
A two hour flight from the coastal region of Lima had us flying over the Andes mountains and landing in the jungle, Iquitos.
Iquitos is the largest city in the world not accessible by road.
Before the road was paved in 2005 the journey from Iquitos to Nauta took 12 hours.
15 Germans, 4 Canadians and 5 Americans filled 13 of the 15 cabins.
The abundance of flora and fauna was staggering.
Every day we took two skiff boat trips – one before lunch and the other later in the day. The naturalists pointed out wildlife while cruising through either muddy brown waters or sleek black water tributaries. Jungle walks gave us the opportunity to get up close and personal with nature and it’s critters.
We visted the small community of Pampacaño – 192 people strong and not in possession of clean water.
However, we did go piranha fishing in the black water and dined on them for dinner. Fishing for those infamous people-eating machines (lore) with tiny vicious teeth is quite basic. Take a four foot stick with fishing line tied to one end, a hook on the other and a little bit of beef for bait. You splash the water with the end of the pole and wait to set the hook. Bill successfully caught one flinging it with excitement right on the bag in front of me! They were served deep fried – had a tiny amount of meat, lots of bones and tasted like the grease they were cooked in.
We visited a shaman/midwife. This calm woman all of five feet tall with hair past her bottom and bare footed, studied deep in the jungle for eight years to learn how to use plants to heal. Part of her spiritual therapy is using the hallucinogenic ayahuasca plant. Nine villages are dependent on her to cure aliments and deliver babies.
Our crew was the best. The two naturalists were informative and have worked on the boat since it’s inception 23 years ago. The chef could make pollo and pescado in so many different ways you barely knew you were eating it twice a day.
It only rained for a short period of time on a couple of days.
Look at the waterline on the trees!
