AFRICA: THE GREAT SERENGETI
After arriving back in Arusha from Kilimanjaro, I took a quick 20-hour nap (literally sleeping the whole 20 hours) before choosing my next target: the great Serengeti. After several safaris in Kruger Park, South Africa, I had high expectations. It's safe to say every single one was exceeded. I scheduled the same outfitter I used for my Kilimanjaro trip and took my already well-used camping gear to the Ngorongoro Crater, right in the heart of the Serengeti.
I traveled with a group of French, Polish, and American travelers. As we made our way along the rim of the volcanic crater and down into the plains below, we encountered locals living in the Serengeti: the Maasai people. They are a nomadic tribe who construct huts from earthly materials and wood, which we saw as we passed various villages. Here, they live alongside herds of animals, and we often watched young “cowboys” managing the herds, sometimes as young as 4 or 5 years old. I stopped to visit a group of young female entrepreneurs and bought some raw honey harvested from wild bees. It was a great way to connect with the Serengeti, enjoying some of its golden nectar with my rising instant coffee.
Now, onto the animals. After entering the plains and having lunch, we had our first encounter. Within 5 minutes of leaving lunch, we were lucky enough to spot an expertly camouflaged leopard high up in a tree, resting from the midday sun. That checked off my last animal from the Big Five list, and we hadn't even made it to camp yet! But that wasn’t the only big cat for the day. Only an hour down the road, we saw a few other vehicles stopped and wondered what the commotion was. We went to investigate, and I was not prepared for what we would find. A huge male lion was not 5 meters from the vehicle! The lion looked me straight in the eyes, and in that moment, I felt like an inferior piece of meat. Eye contact with a lion awakens a deep primal fear within the body, surpassing all logic or thought, coursing directly through your central nervous system. It’s a spiritual experience, bringing you back to animalistic instincts and primal roots. I now see why lions are the kings of the animal kingdom. The overwhelming spirit of the mighty lion is palpable.
A few hours later, after many other animal sightings, we rolled into camp for the night. After setting up camp and having dinner, it was off to bed. Just after midnight, I left my tent and headed to the edge of the campground to water the plants. Under the gleaming stars, I quickly noticed a peculiar set of glowing eyes, maybe 30-40 meters away, directly in front of me. I watched closely, now fully awake and curious. As the eyes blinked, I decided my investigation was over and quickly made my way back to the tent. About 15 minutes later, as I was falling asleep, the roaring call of a lion echoed from the same spot where I had seen those eyes. They must have been at least a little intimidated by the flower pot, as they didn’t come any closer. I went to sleep with a smile on my face, full of gratitude for an experience like that.
The next two days were filled with all-day safaris and numerous animal sightings, including impala, zebras, kudu, waterbuck, water buffalo, wildebeests, wart hogs, eagles, great cranes, Egyptian geese, hippos, elephants, giraffes, lions, hyenas, and leopards, along with many other animals I didn’t know how to identify. We saw herds of zebras and water buffalo, thousands strong—no exaggeration. I am still trying to comprehend the vast numbers of animals in the Serengeti. I’ve never experienced anything like it. At the edge of a large zebra herd of about 2000, we heard a commotion from the zebras. As we got closer, a lion’s tail hung down from a tree, and several more lion heads popped up from the tall grass beneath it. A large pride of lions with many cubs was devouring a zebra. We watched for over an hour as lion by lion filled their bloated bellies, then went to sleep in the tree and beneath it. One lion cub strayed from the pride and came right up to the vehicle, walking under it and crossing the road. Other notable encounters include a massive herd of water buffalo grazing along the savannah and a long line of wildebeests over a kilometer long, traveling the plains. A few zebras even tagged along.
On the final day and night of this adventure, we ventured up over and deep into the center of the crater. This provided a unique ecosystem in itself, with a beautiful lake at the center of what used to be a volcano. Thousands of birds of all shapes and sizes resided on the shoreline, with many more animals coming in to drink. As we made our way around the lake, we found huge bull elephants roaming among a mixture of four-legged friends. Then, off in the distance, our guide spotted something through his binoculars: the animal we had all been looking for, but so far had no luck in spotting—the rare black rhino, with only 30-50 left in the entire Serengeti! Our luck had finally checked in. We watched this giant slowly graze from higher ground, gradually making its way into the valley. What a chance to witness one of the few rhinos left in its home environment. With that, we had checked off all the animals we wanted to encounter, and we made our way back up the crater to our final camping spot. Finally, there was the first hot shower in four days!
Early the next day, we packed up camp for the last time and made our way back out of the crater and the Serengeti. The drive back to Arusha offered great reflection on experiencing some of the great creatures Mother Nature has made a home for in Africa. These four days further instilled in me the deep need for conservation and the importance of continuing to protect the rugged wilderness of Mother Earth. Nature all over the world is a fundamental centerpiece of the human experience, and it's our responsibility to continue developing ways we can live in harmony with this blue, life-giving planet. Truly an experience I will never forget!
My next blog will be the final installment of this African journey, where I travel to the westernmost point in Africa, then head north to cross the Gibraltar Strait by ferry into Europe. Stay in the loop, and as always, much love!
RISE TO UNITE!!!!
