Jun 25, 2012
Day 17: Serengeti
We woke to the same gorgeous view of the crater on Day 3 of the safari, and we went about eating our breakfast without any clue about what a crazy day it would be. Would I have done anything differently had I known?
We packed up our gear and loaded the trucks. As we came out of the crater we saw lots of elephants, zebras, and giraffes on either side of the road. It was getting to the point where we were so accustomed to seeing these animals that Godfrey, our driver, wasn’t sure when to stop. That’s when Kapanya told us, “If you want Godfrey to stop just say Shimauma.”
I asked Kapanya why and he said “Our last safari was full of Japanese tourists and one day they yelled ‘Shimauma’ so Godfrey slammed on the brakes becasue he thought it meant stop. But it means zebra.” We all had a good chuckle and enjoyed showing off our new Japanese vocabulary.
Just out of the crater we were treated with a view that summed up my notion of what Africa would look like: green hills, beige grasses, Acacia trees, Maasai huts in the distance. And that’s when we got the treat of seeing a big group of giraffes. Our truck startled a group of 4: a momma and her babies. The babies fled to one side of the road while the momma was stuck beyond the truck on the other side. That’s when Kapanya explained to us that the babies were only about 3 weeks old. I apologize that I was talking baby talk during this whole video. It’s hard to control one’s self in front of giraffes.
From there we headed off to Olduvai Gorge where we enjoyed seeing the museum that chronicled how researchers unearthed evidence of homo sapiens who lived there 17,000 years ago. It was humbling to see the stone tools and footprints, and I especially enjoyed the photographs of the researchers themselves. It’s hard to imagine being part of a discovery that gives such insight into human evolution.
After visiting the museum we got back onto the road and after what felt like many hours we finally came to the entrance to Serengeti National Park. We bought a few trinkets from some Maasai who were stationed at the entrance, and then we drove across the broad plains watching all the gazelles and wildebeest.
We stopped for lunch in a shady area. This was a tough time for me. I was feeling very car sick and I had to lie down in the truck for a while. I had a hard time eating my lunch, so we fed some of it to the dog who was helping the Maasai herd goats along the road.
After lunch we passed down towards a lake where we saw lots of pelicans, then we drove up a hill where we saw lots of elephants. I felt a bit anxious because it was getting late, but our day did not seem to be winding down as the two drivers were having a frantic conversation on the radio. That’s when Godfrey turned the truck around and started racing down the road. Then he drove off the road and started racing through the tall grass. We had no idea where we were going.
Soon we came to the base of two Acacia trees and Kapanya was scanning the horizon. “That’s a perfect example of a typical Tanzanian tree,” he said. And I was thinking, they rushed us out here for a tree? That’s when we saw the cheetah in it. Cheetahs do not have retractable claws. That makes it very hard for them to climb trees. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of said cheetah before a swarm of bees chased us off.
As we were driving away our driver said, “There are very few people in the world who see that. You have special pictures.” In fact, none of our guides had ever seen a Cheetah in a tree. They had picked up news of the sighting on the radio, and made the decision to get out there as soon as possible instead of heading to the resort. Good decision? I was getting ready to wonder about that.
That’s when our rushing changed. Instead of rushing to see the cheetah, we were rushing to get to our hotel. We could see dark clouds on the horizon, and we asked Kapanya several times where we were going but it was hard to believe the hill he pointed to was reachable tonight at all, much less by nightfall.
And soon the road turned into a river, and we started hydroplaning all over, and then we finally got completely stuck in the mud. I mean the whole back of the truck was buried in the mud. I can’t even describe to you how we got that truck out, but we finally did. And we kept on driving and driving until the sun went down and then we kept driving some more.
By the time we got to our last hotel of the safari I was toast. We had a half-hearted dinner and passed out. It was the longest day of the trip and by far the hardest. I’d rather climb a mountain than sit in a truck.
But then again, I don’t think I’d change it. Because how many people have a picture of a Cheetah in a tree?
