Entering the Serengeti

Today we traversed the Serengeti from Southeast to Northwest. Serengeti means "endless plain" and that's exactly how it felt as came out of a treed area and saw flat grassland as far as the eye could see. The grassland plain is there because the soil is too thin to sustain trees, a layer of volcanic ash on top of volcanic rock.

Of course the Serengeti is well know for the annual migration of Wildebeest. Wildebeest like to drink daily and can only go five days without water. So they move based on where the rains go. Following the Wildebeest are the Zebras who with sharper teeth can eat the grass after the Wildebeest have moved on. Then come the Gazelles who can eat the short grass nubs and can go without water for 3 months. In all, some 2 million animals are involved in the migration.

Shortly after entering the Serengeti, we encountered Gazelles, both Thomson's Gazelles and Grant's Gazelles. once we found them, you could see Gazelles all the way to the horizon. We were traveling about 30 mph and it took forty minutes to reach the end of the herd. We traveled for another thirty minutes with only the occasional animal until we reached Kopjes, a rock island in a sea of grass. Here we found four lion cubs up in one outcropping and 6-8 lionesses (nobody could agree on the exact count because we never saw all of them at the same time. The lionesses were mostly lying around, but the cubs came out and explored.

Just south of the Kopjes, we started driving through Zebras. There was a river nearby with several watering holes, called the Hidden Valley of the Central Plains. The grass here was longer and greener than the plains we had just passed. We traveled for 35 minutes through the herds of Zebras, most in family groups of 4-6 consisting of one male, several females, and their colts. We stopped for lunch at a watering hole with Zebras and Hippos. On the west end of the park, we ran into two herds of Wildebeest heading toward the river. They travel 30-50 kilometers per day and these animals looked pretty thin.

We stopped at the visitor center for break, the Hyrax were eating near the picnic area and we saw a Spotted-backed Weaver and then as we headed west came up close to Hyenas. The group had been asking for some exercise, so once we left the park, we walked about three kilometers to a nearby village. We talked to two Maasai warriors tending a large herd of cattle. They had trucked the cattle across the park because the land was too dry where they lived. Then we came upon a four year old tending 20-30 goats. As we came into the village, lots of kids stopped and waved, yelling "Jambo". Our camp is nice, outside the park, small and isolated. As I'm writing this, we hear Lions, not roaring but making their low hur-hah noise.