Northern Tanzania safari, Sept.-Oct. 2013

[Zubbie15]

Continuing along in the Crater...

 

In the stream we were following there was a slight widening, at which we quickly observed a hippo surfacing.

 

 

It then indulged us and got out of the water to roll around on the bank.

 

 

 

 

From where we were watching the hippo we could still see the female lion in the distance, and it appeared to us that she was interested in resuming the hunt. Therefore, we headed of in that direction to see what we could see.

 

 

This was one situation where I really thought our guide did a great job. Along with a large number of vehicles, we followed along as the lion slowly tracked the zebras. They were all slightly to the south of a road, heading west, and so all of the vehicles were also heading slowly west. At one point, we reached a road that headed off to the north, which seemed to go away from the action. However, our guide predicted that the zebras would turn fairly quickly, as the majority of the herd was now going along north, near this road. So we were the only (I think, there might have been one or two others) vehicle that turned north. Within a few minutes, the lagging zebras had turned in that direction, and shortly after the lioness did as well. It was amusing, although a bit of a zoo, watching all the other vehicles try to turn around to get onto our road.

 

In any case, it became apparent as time went on that one of the zebras had an injured front leg, and was falling behind the rest of the herd. The lioness slowly got closer to the zebra, and then just as she was about to pounce decided for some reason to flick her tail.

 

 

Up to then the zebra had not realized she was there, but at that point it got its second wind and raced off. The lion looked on, but quite clearly had decided to give up the chase (she seemed fairly young, and likely inexperienced as a more seasoned hunter probably would have realized the zebra was hurt and taken a more direct approach). We were somewhat disappointed at the anti-climactic ending, and this turned out to be the only active hunt we would experience during our safari.

 

Continuing along, we came across a variety of wildlife.

 

Malachite Kingfisher

 

 

Male ostrich

 

 

Tommy

 

 

Kori Bustard

 

 

There were a lot of zebra in the area, so we spent some time observing them.

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite enjoyable to see them with the Crater rim in the background.

 

 

One animal we saw frequently, but which I had a hard time getting acceptable photos of, were warthogs. However, this guy, with his unique look, was more accommodating.

 

 

The lions of the Crater were doing their best to produce the next generation, with us coming across a first “honeymooning” couple in the distance.

 

[michael-ibk]

The crater simply is a spectacular place. Especially love your landscape shots from the rim with the sunrays coming through, very beautiful.

[Zubbie15]

The crater simply is a spectacular place. Especially love your landscape shots from the rim with the sunrays coming through, very beautiful.

 

It is @@michael-ibk, especially when you get away from the crowds, which we were able to do 90% of the time.

[elefromoz]

The Crater gets a bit of a bad rap as being too busy at times, repetitive, but it is, as your photos show simply magnificent, and jam packed with wildlife. A smorgasbord of everything East Africa has to offer, all in a fairly confined area. First photo a lovely image of early morning and hard to believe how much activity is about to unfold around you.

[Zubbie15]

Crater part 3

 

One of the interesting features of the Crater is that it is one of the locations that older elephants, who are grinding down their last set of teeth, apparently go to as the vegetation is easier to eat. We came across this old bull.

 

 

 

We got close enough to see that he had holes in his ear flaps, looking almost like pierced ears.

 

 

It was humbling to think of the journeys he had taken, and the paths he had trodden, during his life.

 

 

He was slowly, and I mean slowly, making his way through the forest. At one point, he need to walk over a downed trunk, and would lift one leg over it, rest for a couple of minutes, and then proceed with the next leg.

 

 

As he wandered off into the forest, we felt fortunate to cross paths with him. We continued along, and came across for the first time on our safari some Black Crowned Cranes.

 

 

 

There was a lot of wildlife in this area, including Wildebeest and, in the distance, lots of Flamingoes.

 

 

We were happy we’d seen the Flamingoes in Arusha National Park, as these were little more than a blur of pink off in the distance.

From there, we headed toward the picnic area, where we got to truly see how many cars were in the Crater (it was quite something for a relatively small area). The picnic area suffers from a large number of Black Kites that have learned to steal food if you eat outside, so we were stuck eating our box lunches in the vehicle. One group had brought their own tablecloth and silverware and were determined to eat outside, until a Kite snatched the food out of a woman’s hand, at which point they also retreated.

 

 

 

The picnic area overlooked a decent size body of water, which contained a few Great White Pelicans.

 

 

 

There were also some Hippos there, which put on a pretty interesting sound show but didn’t really perform for the camera. We also were afforded nice views of this Common Bulbul.

 

[Marks]

This is a really nice trip into the crater. I'm so used to hearing about the crowds that it's easy to forget there is a fantastic wildlife experience to be had. Your time spent with the old ele bull is my favorite part so far.

 

I was first inclined to chuckle about the kites stealing food, but upon reflection that seems like it could be pretty hazardous, actually.

[Zubbie15]

From there, we drove around, see all of the usual suspects. We eventually made our way to an area where, looking far off in the distance, we were just able to make out a Black Rhino.

 

 

This was to be our best view of the Rhinos in the Crater, so we were happy to check them off our list but felt disappointed not to have seen them closer. While we were watching those lumps, a Black-backed Jackal came along the road, passing immediately beside our vehicle.

 

 

 

We also saw a female Ostrich, demonstrating how well she is camouflaged during the dry season.

 

 

And a female Warthog.

 

 

We had our best views of some animals, up to that point, in short succession following that.

 

Dagga boy

 

 

Spotted Hyena

 

 

 

Grant’s Gazelle

 

 

While we’d seen a lot of wildlife during the day, there didn’t seem to be a lot of activity (our guide remarked that it was a quiet day in the Crater). We went to a different Hippo pool, hoping something might be going on, but were left with only a partially submerged Hippo.

 

 

While we were waiting at the pool, we were scanning the horizon to decide where to go next. On the other side of the stream, a large male Lion with a great mane stood up from where he was dozing in the grass, looked around for 2 seconds, and then flopped down on his other side. It would’ve been a great picture, if he’d remained for a few seconds longer!

 

From there, we started slowly making our way to the ascent road. Most of the wildlife in the Crater is extremely habituated to vehicles, more than we saw anywhere else, which makes for some interesting issues. The herd we’d seen be stalked in the morning was now all along the road we wanted to take back, and were so relaxed that they would not move out of the road for us.

 

 

 

 

Had we wanted to, we easily could have reached out a window and touched multiple zebra. We were able to identify what we assumed was the injured zebra from the morning, as it was limping along – we could see that it was hurt sufficiently that it had a broken bone piercing its skin, so I imagine it didn’t last long however.

 

Once we cleared the zebra traffic jam, we came shortly upon another “honeymooning” pair of lions.

 

 

These were closer to the road, affording better views, but were shy and so kept facing away from us.

 

 

From here, we left the Crater – on the way up, our guide and one person sitting in front saw a Caracal go running across the road, but we weren’t able to find it in the bushes so I didn’t see or photograph it.

[Zubbie15]

@@Marks, it definitely could end up quite an issue with the Kites, they were swooping down very quickly to get at the food. We were surprised that the guide for that group even tried to eat outside, it seemed most people knew not to attempt it.

[Zubbie15]

Ngorongoro Sopa

 

The Sopa definitely has some positives, predominantly related to its location, but it also has some less than ideal characteristics. The big positive lies in the location, due to its good view for sunsets and the proximity to the lodge. In particular, the view over the Crater rim is very nice.

 

 

A lot of people congregate on the balcony here to watch the sunset.

 

 

 

There is some wildlife on the grounds – we were warned to stay on the walled path after dark to avoid buffalo, and there were Blue Monkeys in the area. The monkeys were trying to steal people’s food during sundowners, so everyone had to be careful.

Like most lodges we experienced, there was a central lounge area available. This offered Wifi, so we spent a little time here contacting relatives back home and catching up on what had been going on in the world.

 

 

Off the lobby was the restaurant area, which was quite large.

 

 

You had an assigned table, and the same waiter, throughout your stay, which reminded me of one of the large cruise ships (the whole hotel was along those lines, to be honest).

 

The rooms went off this central part in both directions, and were arrayed in two levels.

 

 

 

The inside of the rooms were somewhat dark, and the furnishings weren’t particularly updated, but it was sufficient for what we needed.

 

 

The beds however were rock hard, and by far the most uncomfortable I had during the trip.

 

 

It can get quite cold at night at the elevation you are at (it’s noticeable you are higher up, as just walking to our room left us more winded than you’d expect), so they provide hot water bottles in the beds.

 

 

In all, the location was great, but the large lodge was not really what I was hoping for on safari. We’d make up for that, though, as the remainder of our nights were in the Serengeti, under canvas.

[Zubbie15]

Day 9. On the road to the Serengeti

 

While the Sopa is conveniently located for sunsets and descent into the Crater, it’s not the best if you want to continue on to the Serengeti, as you need to backtrack around a lot of the rim to get there. It therefore took us a while to get away, compounded by the fact that one of our tires had gotten a hole in it while we were in the Crater the day before, so we stopped at a convenient gas station to get it repaired. I have to say, coming down from the highlands toward the Serengeti plains was an amazing change in scenery, as everything turned extremely dry. As we descended, there were a few herbivores in view, as well as some Maasai bomas.

 

 

We arrived in the Serengeti proper around 10:30 AM, and eventually stopped at the ranger post for the entrance formalities. While waiting for our guide to complete the paperwork, we climb up a Kopje for a view over the plains.

 

 

 

We also enjoyed photographing the Agama Lizards on the rocks, in particular the contrast between the flashy males and the camouflaged females.

 

 

 

Having got our paperwork sorted out, we continued on our way. This main road through the park was quite busy, and having recently been graded cars were traveling quite fast, so our plan had been to get off to minor tracks as quickly as possible. Before reaching a good turn-off, we came across a couple of cars stopped on the side of the road under a tree. Our initial thought was to continue on, but we finally decided to quickly stop to see if there was something interesting to see. We were glad we stopped when we realized there were 2 lionesses in the shade, along with three fairly young cubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They didn’t stick around for more than 10 minutes, before crossing the road and disappearing into the brush. We continued along, turning off at one point, and then came across a fairly sizable group of vehicles aligned along the side the road looking at a lone tree. There was a leopard in the tree, but not anywhere that we could get a good view.

 

 

Seeing as it was the middle of the day, we guessed it wouldn’t move for a while, so we went along a few hundred meters and stopped for lunch in the shade of a Sausage Tree, where we could observe the vehicles in case the leopard decided to move.

 

While we ate, there was a troop of baboons chowing down on the fruit from the tree. We took advantage to get a few portraits, particularly of one specific youngster.

 

 

 

We finished eating and went back to doublecheck the leopard, but it still hadn’t moved so we decided to move on. We quickly came across a lone Spotted Hyena, trying to take a mud bath in a very small muddy area.

 

 

We then continued along, stopping to admire this Tawny Eagle

 

 

 

We eventually ended up at the kopjes known as Simba Rock, which didn’t disappoint as there was a fairly sizable pride of lions visible in the rocks.

 

 

The lions were awake and alert, because the first members of the “migration” were starting to appear in the area, and there was a line of zebra running past the rocks one by one.

 

 

We had minor hopes of seeing them hunt, but it was apparent that they were well-fed, and the day was very hot (the only day of the trip that I unzipped my zip-off pants due to heat), so the lions were content to watch the zebra from their perch.

 

In the area was also a Secretary Bird, looking but not finding anything to eat.

 

 

 

Continuing along, we came across a lone Saddle-billed Stork walking through the grass.

 

 

 

To be honest, our whole time in Seronera was relatively quiet, and this day being so hot further reduced our viewings. We did come across a group of Vervet Monkeys, including a mother and baby.

 

 

As the sun was making its way toward the horizon, we slowly headed toward our campsite. We took a quick detour by the leopard we’d seen earlier, to see if there’d been any change. In fact, it had changed position, but seemed to be still sound asleep so we left it on its own.

 

 

Arriving at Nasikia Central Camp for our stay the next two days, we saw our first Marabou Stork hanging around trying to steal food scraps.

 

 

There were also hyenas around camp, which were seen fairly closely that evening by one member of our party.

[michael-ibk]

Well, I wouldn´t exactly say quiet about Lions with cubs and Leopard.

 

Really like your Pictures of the view down from Naabi Hills!

[elefromoz]

A "quiet day"? A Cheetah would have given you the trifecta, but Lions and Leopard is pretty good! Great luck with the Cubs straight up too, love the photos of mothers seeming to snarl at them, maybe thats a Lion smile. We walked up Naabi Hill and came face to face with a herd of Elephants, our guide thought I was kidding when I told him why I was back so soon. Great detail in the photo of the Secretary Bird.

[Marks]

Love the secretary bird closeup.

What a change in landscape as you left the crater, too.

 

Sopa sure has a great sunset view!

[mvecht]

@@Zubbie15

Great report and stunning Pictures. I can hardly wait until my own trip in December.

I believe that the kites in #80 are Yellow Billed Kites rather than Black Kites.

A Black Kite would not have a yellow bill.

[Zubbie15]

@@michael-ibk and @@elefromoz, I guess it's true it wasn't quiet. Just quieter than some days... That definitely would have been exciting to see elephants on Naabi Hill.

 

@@mvecht, thanks for the kind words and the clarification. The Kites were the one bird whose ID I didn't (try to) confirm, as we were told they were Black Kites, but I see in Birds of East Africa that at least as of when it was published (2002) it was being considered a separate species, and Wikipedia confirms it. So I appreciate the correction.

[Zubbie15]

Day 10. On the hunt for Cheetahs...

 

Because this was our only full day in the Seronera area, and we had a bit of a different itinerary for the day, we were up bright and early (more about this later…). It had cooled down during the night, and so the landscape was quite foggy. As the sun rose, and before the fog burned off, it gave a pretty nice coloring to the area.

 

 

 

Leaving the area of the camp, we quite quickly came across a mammal we hadn’t seen before, Topi. There was a small size herd passing by, which allowed us nice views.

 

 

 

 

Because we had yet to have particularly good views of Cheetahs up to this point, and the Seronera area is known as a really good spot to find them, our goal for the morning was to try to locate one or several, preferably doing something interesting. Our guide had a particular spot where he’d been quite lucky before in mind, which was a bit of a drive from where we were staying. So we headed off, stopping occasionally on our way. We came across a fairly large herd of zebra, members of the group seen yesterday.

 

 

 

This area was along the river, so there were some larger trees due to the extra moisture. This, in turn, attracted some raptors to the available perches. We were able to watch a Black-shouldered Kite come flying along beside us.

 

 

 

It found a perch it liked, but that a nearby Lilac-breasted Roller wasn’t too impressed about, and it made its feelings known.

 

 

It recovered from the attack, but eventually moved on.

 

 

There was also an Eagle in a nearby tree, scanning for breakfast.

 

 

And an Elephant, coming from an early morning drink.

 

 

Our route took us past some Kopjes, so we detoured to see what we could find.

 

 

We were in luck, as a couple of fairly young lion cubs were in sight.

 

 

 

There weren’t any adults visible, and the cubs were intently focused in a particular direction, so I imagine the females were off hunting. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any sign of them, and so decided to continue on.

 

We spent the next hour or more cruising around what was supposed to be prime Cheetah country, and definitely looked the part, with wide open spaces. However, there weren’t any of the herbivores you would typically associate with Cheetahs in the area, nor did we see any of the cats. Eventually, we saw two vehicles in the distance that were stopped, and decided to go see if they had found any cats. To be continued...

[Zubbie15]

Continued...

 

They actually had found some cats, but not the ones we were looking for. Instead, there was a large pride of lions (we counted 15) located along the road. Shortly after we arrived, the two other vehicles left, and so we were alone with the pride. It was nice to enjoy their interactions, particularly when they started to change position and began to greet each other.

 

I won’t describe this further, I’ll just include a lot of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living in the Seronera area, these lions were obviously familiar with vehicles. They were also located in an area, as I think is apparent from the pictures, that was composed primarily of small bushes, and so lacked shade. Eventually, the juvenile males (5 in total) repositioned themselves to be in the shade of our truck.

 

 

 

We didn’t want to encourage this behavior, and as it was warming up we didn’t expect them to do too much activity during the day, so as another car arrived and after about 45 minutes, we decided to move on. Even though there wasn’t a lot of activity during the time, I felt like being alone and watching the social interactions of these lions was really special.

 

We continued on our hunt for Cheetah, not having much luck. In fact, the entire area was quite sparse, with only this Coke's Hartebeest to entertain us.

 

 

Eventually our guide heard over the radio that there were two Cheetah brothers hanging out on the road… back near where we’d started the morning! Ugh…

So we started off in that direction at a fairly fast clip, and reached the area to see…

 

 

The two brothers had decided to leave the road area and head off to a large rock that was quite a distance from the road (the picture above is at 960mm equivalent focal length – they were essentially not visible by the naked eye).

 

We were pretty disappointed, as we weren’t sure if we’d have many other chances to see Cheetah (my first post in this TR kind of gives away that this ultimately wasn’t a huge issue), but realized that it all came down to luck.

 

We were by now back in the area where we saw the Leopard the previous day, and so decided to check out that tree again. In fact, it (*I’m assuming it was the same animal) was back, and slightly more visible.

 

 

However, it didn’t want to turn around, so we went off to have lunch.

[TonyQ]

 

Thanks @@Tom Kellie, I really appreciate your kind words. I have to admit, there's something in the third picture you chose that really speaks to me, but no one else has ever seemed to feel the same way. I'm glad you do.

 

post-49296-0-56559800-1432607040.jpg

I also think this image is superb - I always appreciate a different perspective on such a familiar animal. It is a photo I would never have thought of taking - and I always like seeing those!

Edited June 18, 2015 by TonyQ

[TonyQ]

Beautiful photos throughout - I enjoy the mixture of close-ups and wider views of animals in the environment.

[Zubbie15]

Brief aside about planning:

 

Today was a day that was different, in terms of planning, compared to most people’s safaris. When I originally was soliciting quotes for this trip, I had told the TOs that I was not interested in heading to the Northern Serengeti area, as it seemed a long way to go. We didn’t really want to leave the park to take the sealed road up, and taking a whole day to drive up seemed like it would be tough on the back (especially for our older travelers). However, as I narrowed down the plans, it seemed a shame to go all the way to Africa and not try to see that part of the Serengeti, along with the chance to see a river crossing. I felt that I didn’t know when I’d be back – little did I know I’d catch this “Africa-itis” bug and want to go back before I’d even left – and felt we should maximize our experience. In any case, once I’d chosen a TO, we discussed this, and it turned out there was a creative solution. One of their other guides was scheduled to return from the Northern Serengeti this same day, so this afternoon we were going to meet up with him at the Ikoma gate, and transfer into his car for the remainder of the day. Our guide would then drive north, and we would fly to Kogatende the next morning and meet him there. That got us where we wanted to be, without too much driving. I’m not sure it was the best option, as flying the next day it was really interesting to see the changing landscape, but once we got to Kogatende I was glad we made it fast as that day was very eventful (so stay tuned!).

[Zubbie15]

Back to Day 10 safari, afternoon.

 

After we ate our lunch, we headed toward Ikoma in order to switch cars. At one point, we noticed tire tracks going off-road, and after a few minutes identified a tree with 2 (at least) Cheetahs under it. We weren’t sure whether it was rangers or researchers (or someone breaking the rules), but they were far off and quite relaxed so we didn’t spend long. In order to get there in time for our guide to be able to make it up to Kogatende, we didn’t really stop for much except to take a portrait of a Spotted Hyena.

 

 

This whole area was very different from where we’d been before, being quite lush and with very tall palm trees. There was also a healthy number of Elephants and Giraffes in the area. I thought the change of scenery was nice, and hopefully when we’re back next year we’ll spend more time around here.

Near the Ikoma Gate, we were excited and surprised to come across a large herd of Wildebeest, all milling about.

 

 

One concern we had was that if they were in this area, would we see many up in the North? But of course, being nature there’s no control over that, so we enjoyed watching and listening to the mill about.

 

 

We then decided to head to the Hippo pool, hoping to see them doing something interesting. However, just as we got there and were able to take a couple of pictures, it started to pour.

 

 

While we saw a lot of storms in the distance during our trip, particularly in the evenings (which greatly affected our attempts at sunset shots), this was to be the only real rain we’d see during our trip. We quickly closed up the vehicle, and waited. And waited some more. Eventually, the rain started to let up, and we headed back on the road we came in. Quite quickly, we came across this guy:

 

 

He seemed to have avoided the rain, as his mane was still nice and fluffy. He appeared quite comfortable where he was, so we continued along.

As mentioned before, this area of the Serengeti had at that time more Elephants than we’d seen elsewhere. While we had seen a lot in Tarangire, we hadn’t come across a very young one, so we had to stop for a herd with one that was only a few weeks old.

 

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was remarkably quiet, and we ended up back in camp just before sunset. As we arrived, we observed this bird on one of the chairs.

 

 

Its eyes were definitely a unique color. I have absolutely no idea what species it was, and don’t see an obvious match in Stevenson and Fanshawe – any thoughts/suggestions? We then settled in for our second, and last, night in this camp.

[michael-ibk]

Looks like some kind of Babbler? Black-lored Babbler? Eye colour is weird, but maybe that's the light or your white?

[Zubbie15]

I think you're right @@michael-ibk, Stevenson says it has white eyes, and pale fringes on the feathers of the throat, which seems to fit. Thanks for your help.

[Marks]

Loving your photos. Even the distant cheetahs make a nice composition since you get the whole environment that they are surveying from their vantage point.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Marks - I realized when I returned that I got caught up in using the telephoto toward the end of the trip and didn't take as many animal in the environment pictures toward the end. I'm hoping to avoid that when I return next year.