3/1/07 On to the Serengeti
We left Gibb Farm around 8:30 and headed for the Serengeti by way of the Ngorongoro Crater rim road. We stopped briefly at a crater overlook and could see the rest area( the only one on the crater floor) where a cache is hidden far below us. We won't actually enter the crater for at least four more days.
As we dropped down from the rim (7200 feet above sea level) we began to see much wildlife and Maasi herdsmen, mostly boys, with their goats, donkeys, and cattle. Animals seen close up included Zebras, Thompson's Gazelle, Eland (the largest of the deer family), Grant's Gazelle, a silver-backed Jackal, countless Wildebeests, giraffe, Hartebeest, and a hyena that was badly injured, lying in the road. On the open plain we saw several Kori's Bustards. These are perhaps the largest flying birds, being 41-50" long. At the Naabi Hill park gate, which has a rest stop and picnic area we saw Hildebrant's Starling and Red-billed Buffalo Weavers and many other birds. As we were leaving a Flap Necked Chameleon walked across the road ahead of us. It was bright chartreuse, having just come out of the grass. I jumped out and took several pictures of it. They are really weird looking and about one foot long.
Soon after leaving this area our guide heard, over his radio, about a leopard being seen in a tree so we went to see it along with most other visitors out this day. They are fairly rare here and hard to find near the roads so this one drew quite a crowd. We spotted many interesting birds along the way including Pin-tailed Whydah, and Lilac-breasted Rollers. As we swung back to our lodge for the next three nights we just made lunch around 2:30 PM. Just beside our open air table sat a Von Der Decken's Hornbill, and later, on the same perch a Ruppell's long-tailed Starling; looking very much like our Grackles with a white eye.
After lunch we registered then took a one hour rest, meeting Eustace again for a 4 PM game drive. He was originally going to take us to the "hippo hole" but it looked like rain over there so we continued looking for birds and had a fantastic late afternoon spotting things like a pair of Ostrich, a Pygmy Falcon, with a large grasshopper, white-crowned and white-headed Shrike and Helmeted Guineafowl with many young beside the road. We also saw our first Hartebeests.
Turning around we had great looks at the rare Abyssinian Scimitarbill. Picture a one and a half foot long deep violet bird with a curved bright orange-red bill. Nearby we found a Steel-blue Whydah which is 4" of blue-black bird with 7 more inches of whispy tail the same color.
As we again approached our lodge(the Serengeti Serena Lodge) we saw two Cape Buffalo on the lodge grounds. Earlier, someone mentioned that a buffalo had walked up to the swimming pool while they were swimming. They do not advise anyone to walk around the grounds at night without a lodge escort due to the danger of running into wild animals.
I went on the internet for about 25 minutes ($10 for 1/2 hour), we then had a large buffet supper before retiring to our room to read and write this journal. Our room here is as nice as most any in the states and the electricity seems to be one 24/7 :) It is rather amazing to come off these narrow, bad roads into an oasis of civilization at the lodges.
The Maasi are a pastoral people who prefer living in the traditional ways of the past. Thus they live in "grass" (actually they form sticks in a circle and build this up to the height needed, then "plaster" the wall with a mud mixture) houses and depend on their livestock for a living. It was interesting to see their flocks out near the wild animals herds.
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