On the first leg of our flight to Grumeti, we felt like royalty as we were the only passengers. On the next leg, we were able to look down onto thousands of wildebeests as they made one of their many river crossings. After we landed on the grassy landing strip, we were driven to the camp by our new driver, Moses, and taken to the Serengeti Grumeti Tented Camp which sits in the Serengeti National Park. The park, whose name comes from the Masai word for “endless plain,” covers 5,791 square miles of pristine wilderness on a plateau between the eastern arm of the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria in Tanzania. You might think that the area would be quite hot given its proximity to the equator but it’s not. Temperatures are kept moderate because of the high elevation which ranges from 3,900 to 5,900 feet above sea level. The habitats in the reserve are quite diverse including bushy hillsides, woodland, grassland, marshland and riverside forests. The lodge is situated alongside a tributary of the Grumeti River that is home to a pod of hippos.
The water and its inhabitants are clearly visible from our “tent.” In spite of what you may have seen on TV, hippos aren’t very exciting during the day as the spend the majority of it submerged in water resting and keeping cool. They do however, venture onto land each night to feed, following the same individual path back and forth each night. In fact at least one of the hippo’s paths crossed directly behind our tent as evidenced by an nice pile of dung we found one morning. While there isn’t much to see, there is plenty to hear. Hippos communicate via a combination of snorting and chortling. Not exactly the bedtime lullaby we were hoping for.
After we checked in, we rejoined Moses for the first of three game drives while in Grumeti. Since the great migration had already passed through the area, we didn’t see the vast number of animals but the park had plenty of variety to offer. We told Moses that we had seen four of the Big Five but had missed out on seeing a leopard. We also told him that we wanted to see a male lion and perhaps a cheetah. Well, Moses delivered on two of the three on the very first expedition. Part way into our drive, an urgent call came in over the radio exclaiming that a leopard had been spotted. We hurried over to the spot and found a solitary one hiding under a tree, being tormented by some baboons. We were able to shoot some great shots as he moved away. I could swear that I thought I heard the baboons say “come back and we will taunt you a second time.”
Next, we turned our search to finding a male lion which we were lucky enough to do. Alongside one of the streams we came across a three-year-old male sleeping in the high grass. He was nice enough to poke his head up a few times mugging for the camera. We left him to finish his nap and continued on as the sun began to set. As we came upon a tree in the middle of the savanna, Moses stopped quickly and pointed out three female lions and their ten cubs who were also asleep.
Since the day was ending and the temperature cooling it was almost time for the lionesses to begin the evening’s hunt. One by one, they would raise their heads, yawn and stretch. One of the cubs even came over and sat right in front of our land cruiser. It was cool to watch the pride shake off the cobwebs and get the night started.
There are strict rules for how long you can stay in the park so we had to head back as night fell. Our guide was having fun with us implying that he wasn’t sure which way to go. We were, of course, skeptical even though he was taking a slightly different route back to the lodge. As it turns out he was taking us over to where they were doing another special dinner.
They had a nice bonfire, a bar, and a long dinner table set up right in the middle of the bush. As was the case with all of our other meals so far, the food was delicious. After a great meal and good conversation with folks from New Zealand, Scotland and Florida, our day had come to and end. We rose at the crack of dawn for our morning drive.
Today we challenged Moses to find us a mature male lion so we could see the big mane and to find a cheetah. We didn’t find either but did find a number of animals including some new ones such as a Vervet monkey. We also came across that same pride of lions. They had been joined by that lone male we had seen and by another female. They had surrounded a tree full of baboons and were waiting for one to make a fatal mistake. Luckily for the baboons, none did and the cats eventually moved on their way. We returned for lunch and some relaxing before heading out on our afternoon drive. The day’s challenge remained — find us a cheetah and a mature male lion. At the very end of the day we did come across a male lion but, unfortunately, he was younger than the one we had spotted earlier. We did find some more new animals though including a small monitor lizard, a large fish eagle, a Verreaux’s eagle-owl (the largest owl in Africa), and a side-striped jackal that Moses said was very unusual to see. No cheetah but a very full day. We decided to sleep in instead of trying to squeeze in a quick game drive before our 9:30 A.M. flight. Unfortunately, the hippos decided to perform a symphony in snort-minor at 5:30am. After dragging ourselves up, packing and grabbing a relaxing breakfast, it was off to the airstrip for our flight to the next camp.
For more Grumeti photos, click here.