Tanzania, Day 7

February 29, 2012

Today we are attempting to drive to where the great migration is happening, which is a few hours drive from the lodge. Lobo lodge (the lodge we are staying at) is associated with another lodge along the way, where we will stop for lunch. 

The day started out great where on our drive we saw a black-backed jackel running along the road with us. It ran along side our jeeps for a quarter mile before it stopped and watched us drive by.

Oh, hi there!

One of the drivers, Lazerous, said he saw a leopard, but no one else did. We spent 20 minutes arguing over whether or not something was a log or a leopard. 

Our fortune turned sour when we stopped for a pit stop and one of the jeeps broke down! We stopped by a hippo pool, and took pictures while a rescue jeep went back to tow the other one.

Happily for me, I saw my very first Nile crocodile, just a small thing bathing on a rock in the midst of the hippo pool. It didn't seem too bothered by the large and smelly creatures that fought and splashed in the water around it. 

The water was highly polluted with hippo poop, and due to poor water flow the hippo pool is not very well oxygenated. Few species can survive living in such poor conditions as a hippo pool, but according to a sign posted there is a kind of cat fish that can live in these murky, smelly, oxygen poor waters. 

The jeep wasn't fixed yet, but we had to move on, so we crammed into the jeeps to drive to the lodge, where we had a splendid buffet lunch, and got to stretch our legs again. This lodge was much like Lobo lodge, in that the lodge was built to be a part of the boulders it was built on top of. The pools are etched into the rock, and the stairs from the dinning hall to upper floors is carved into the sloping boulders. 

After lunch we found that the last jeep had been fixed, and we didn't have to squeeze into one jeep. 

When we saw the migration, it was beyond what we had imagined. Saying that you could see animals for as far as you can see, and even seeing pictures still lacks the "oomf" of actually being there and seeing it for yourself. 

We saw zebra, wildebeests, buffalo, and a few elephants, and all this only a part of the whole moving picture of a vast and moving migration. 

A thunderstorm soon darkened the sky overhead, and as a heavy downpour began we had to rush back to the lodge, hoping to overcome the worst of the rain before it muddied up the dusty roads too badly, for we might get stuck in the mud. 

For a while we stayed ahead of the rain, and our jeep made a quick pit stop at a village for some parts for the jeep that had broken down earlier. I saw my first Marabou stork, and they are terribly ugly and nearly as tall as me. 

Back on the road again as night fell, the thunderstorm caught up and forced us to drive slow through the muddy roads. We watched 4 lionesses cross the road in front of us, and scrambled to get a picture but had no luck in the dark. 

Then the thunderstorm was right overhead, with such intensity and flashes of lightning so bright that lit up the whole landscape, so that for a brief, breathtaking moment it was day, and then just as suddenly it was night again. 

This was when i saw my first leopard. 

It was first seen crossing in front of our jeep, but being in the back seat I didn't see it until it was on my side of the jeep, and the lightning flashed behind it, illuminating its beautiful silhouette. For just a moment I could hardly breathe as I could see every spot and whisker on the allusive predator. 

As soon as it was there it was gone, with a last glimpse of reflective green eyes it melted back into the shadows of its Serengeti home. 

Tanzania, Day 6

February  28, 2012

Last night we fell asleep to the sweet sound of rain with the earthy smell of grass and mud wafting through the window. Frogs bellowed and bats chirped, while not far away someone else was kept rudely awake by the sound of rambunctious baboons running and fighting on the roof over their heads. 

Yesterday we had gone to bed feeling unwell, but today we woke up feeling refreshed. This was very fortunate as today was a great day, not only did we get to drive through the Serengeti and look for animals, but it was a great day for spotting predators!

Just a few minutes into our drive we came across some spotted hyenas. One was eating some prey, perhaps a young impala? The other carried a small cub away from the road, casting wary looks at these strange naked monkeys gawking at them from a metal box with wheels. 

Our guide, Stephen, told us that hyenas can hunt big game together, but they don't do very well because they don't use any strategy. 

I didn't realize it at the time, but this actually isn't true. What I learned about Hyenas while in Tanzania is that they are very taboo, most folks won't make or sell anything that has to do with hyenas, as they are considered thieves and scavengers. But this isn't at all true. I brought along a book with me to read should I have any spare time called A Primate's Memoir, by Robert Sapolsky. The book is about a young scientist who is studying stress related health problems and the behavioral structure of baboons in Kenya, but he mentions a good friend of his in the book who studies the misunderstood hyena.

Turns out, hyenas DO have strategy, and in fact they are more proficient at killing prey than even the mighty lion. The reason why people don't know this is because hyenas hunt at night, and scavenge in the day. We didn't see this night time hunting behavior until night vision cameras started being used for research..

so all those times we saw a bunch of hyena fighting with lions over some prey in the early morning, it wasn't the lions who killed that prey, it was the hyenas. The LIONS are the thieves! 

With tourists taking more of an intrest in hyenas, some locals might every now and then sell a hyena related item, but more often then not hyenas are seen as evil and lazy creatures.

They're pretty strange looking. Also worth noting, they are not in the dog family, but are more related to cats. Their closest relative is Herpestidae, the Mongoose family

We saw two lions today, one was far away and sunning himself on a rock, and the other was also far away and barely seen over the grass. 

Here are some lion tracks!

Here is the lion sunning himself on a rock

We saw a lot of vultures, and we even saw an eagle owl that was sulking in the shade of a tree. He was calling back and forth with another owl that was far away.

We came back for lunch, and then went out for another drive, seeing many more different kinds of wildlife.

Here, a baboon looks through the grass, perhaps for food

A baby is following its mother

A scenic view of the Serengeti

We made a stop to stretch our legs, and this because a photo opportunity! 

This baby zebra was laying all the way down when we first drove by, and we worried it was dead. We watched as all of the other zebras started moving into the forest, with only the "mom" and "dad" presumably, staying with the sleeping zebra. It woke up before it could get left behind though, but the situation left us asking whenever we saw a still animal: "Is it sleeping, or dead?"

This is an impala brothel! It has one dominant male protecting the females, while the other males live together in a separate Bachelor herd, which can often be found not far from the females. 

This, is a hyrax. They can climb trees, rocks, perhaps even buildings. They're roughly the size of a groundhog, except in my opinion, evil looking. 

A black faced vervet monkey was hanging around the lodge.

Our guide told us a story while we were out on our drive. It explains how the zebra got their stripes.

The story begins with donkeys wishing that they were pretty. Their coats are brown and boring. So they talked to the hare, who asked his friend the tortoise to paint the donkeys, because the hare is lazy.

So, the tortoise painted half of the donkeys, but got tired, so he told the other half he needed to go to town and get more paint. 

...But the tortoise never came back. The unpainted donkeys waited and waited...

Meanwhile, the donkeys who had been painted said "hey, we look great, let's go show off!" So they lived in the Serengeti and became zebras. While the unpainted donkeys grew angry, and swore death upon the tortoise. 

The hare, hearing this, told the tortoise that the donkeys planned to kill him, so the tortoise merely shrugged and said "then I shall just carry my house around with me for protection"

So that is the fable of why the tortoise has a shall and how zebras got their stripes. 

Tanzania, Day 5

February 27, 2012

Today is our six hour drive to the Serengeti, where we are diving to the furthest point away on our trip and then working back up again, so that this will be the only long drive that we have to take.

On the drive out we saw a gray heron strutting his stuff, and pied crows flew overhead. We drove into the village and stopped for gas and supplies. Sellers came determinedly to our windows, and we again had the experience of dealing with very friendly, but very pushy businessmen.

I ended up selling one my UMaine college bracelet that I got for free, for a bracelet. Then, determined to save my money, I tried telling the rest I was out of money. They told me they were broke too. It became a broke off, trying to determine who was poorer that day. I told them all I had was 500 shillings, and I showed them to make a point.

"This is only good for a coke" one told me. (Meaning that the money was only enough to buy a soda, it wasn't much). He again tried to sell me some necklaces for 5000 shillings, and I insisted I didn't have the money. Realizing he wasn't getting anything from me, he reached in the vehicle, took the 500 shilling from my lap and said "I will use this to buy a coke."

I was so flabbergasted I didn't even know what to say, and decided that though he had won the "broke off,"  he's a jerk.

I have to admit, it seems that in Tanzania they have to work a lot harder for a lot less, so maybe he earned that stupid coke.

It was this guy with the colorful hat. > :(

Leaving the village behind in our dust, we drove for quite a ways and ended up at the gates to Serengeti National Park.

There were many money issues (a constant problem on this trip..from the beginning this trip almost didn't happen due to our original tour guide company trying to give us random false charges, and causing several other headaches, so we went with Soko Tours, which was GREAT and I recommend them!) the park wanted us all to pay in cash, not only that but it had to be in American currency, and just to make things EVEN MORE difficult, minted after 1975.

No bank would help us, so our professor's  friends came to our rescue and loaned us the money. The University sent them a check and everything was solved, but that seemed like an unnecessary difficulty, and I wonder why the park didn't let us know about this bit of information AHEAD of time.

While we waited to go through the gate, a family of baboons entertained us, hopping on the jeeps and racing around the parking lot. When several people left one jeep to go inside for a bathroom break, a baboon started to climb in one of the jeep windows. The lone girl still inside was so surprised she instinctively punched the thing back out of the jeep!

The gate to the park

This just might be the baboon that got punched, right before it tried climbing in the window..

Money issues finally aside, we then SPED through the Serengeti, as we had to get to our lodge before a certain time, and the whole money thing really screwed things up! 

Our professor told us "We won't be stopping for anything short of a cheetah riding a rhinoceros"

So, with a five hour drive ahead of us, and needing to get to the lodge before sunset, we sped through the Serengeti like it was a bad neighborhood. Happily, we made it to the lodge in time, but sadly, we missed some things. 

One jeep was lucky enough to see a leopard! (I was not on that jeep = ( )

We passed the Ngorongoro Crater, what a view!!

We saw some wildlife on the way!

We stopped for a bathroom break, and there was a great view from here. 

The lodge we are staying at is beautiful! We stayed at Lobo Wildlife lodge, and it was like a castle compared to the places we'd been staying (though the tented lodge is still my favorite) The main part of the lodge is wide and open, and the rooms all have views overlooking the Serengeti, and there are bats nesting in the rafters!!

We were also warned not to leave anything near the windows, as baboons might reach in and take it. 

This place is amazing. While walking to dinner, Annie and I spotted a hyrax (silly looking creatures, pictures of them will follow in another post) and much to our surprise this overgrown rodent jumped of the second floor balcony into a tree! (They look like groundhogs..except kind of evil..)

Dinner was a buffet where a talented musician played piano and the guitar for us, singing a popular song called "Jambo" (Jambo means hello) and he also sang "In the Jungle" (I bet a lot of tourists LOVE that) 

This is the view from our room. Not the greatest picture, but I LOVE that we could see so much and for so far! It was hard to go to sleep when I just wanted to keep looking for more things to see!

The main entrance to the lobby

The pool! It's cut out of the rock the lodge is built around...truly beautiful!

What a view! 

Tanzania, day 4

February 26, 2012

Today we went on our second safari into Tarangire National Park, arriving at 8am in hopes of seeing some predator animals. It had begun raining last night, and continued on and off in the morning, leaving the air smelling sweet and cool. 

Today I noticed another cultural difference, or to be more specific, our effect on the local culture here. The children will sprint to your car, a few just to wave, but most of them to beg. When we stopped today to look at a bird, two small kids (one about the 6, the other maybe 10) ran up to the window. 

The older one reached in the window and tapped on my arm, then pointed to me pen. "Pen?" he asked. I wasn't sure if he was showing off his knowledge of english or asking for it, so I asked "You want my pen?" to which he promptly said "yes" and without hesitation, grabbed the pen from my hand. He then asked for my journal (which I sadly needed) and for a dollar, and I had to tell him no. 

It seems like a part of this trip is the realization that we simply have so much more than other nations, especially in places like Tanzania, where much to my surprise the children ask first for pens before money or sweets. (These are the three things they usually ask for, usually in that order). 

Ecotourism is an important part of this continent's source of income, and with savannas and grasslands declining, it takes help from both sides to save the plains. 

While ecotourism brings money into these countries, it also can encourage begging in local villages. Is this begging really such a bad thing though? It seems like some folks who have it rough are merely taking advantage of the possibility that those who have money to spend might give some of it to them. Is that a bad thing? In different shoes would we be any different?

Today on safari was another elephant day. We sat in the middle of a large herd for about an hour, watching them eat, play, and watch us. There must have been forty or so, just ignoring us and grazing. 

We watched three little ones playing, with the smallest pushing the other two around. We started calling him "diesel".  At one point, one of the little elephants got knocked over in a tussle, and an adult came marching over to help it back up. Even the little ones tried to help, pushing the fallen little elephant with their heads. 

We eventually noticed an even smaller elephant, its head barely seen over the tall grass. We watched it suckle its mother, and when the mother wandered away, it tried to jump into the fray with the "big kids." Mom came back in a hurry to break it up, and took the little one away. 

After lunch we saw friends of our professors. Charles and his wife Lara. Charles is British and Lara is American, and they have spent years studying elephants in Tarangire National Park. They have a rather convenient tented home on the edge of the park, and we even saw elephants wandering in their back yard. 

They are also raising their two young girls here, but only for part of the year, because there are lots ad lots of things that eat children in Tanzania. 

Because it was after lunch, and getting warm, and we still hadn't quite gotten over jetlag (there's an 8 hour difference, so 8am in Tanzania is 12am back home) we started getting heavy lidded, and I know I especially struggled valiantly to keep awake while Charles told us about his work. Across the circle from me, some fellow students had to suppress giggles as they saw my head occasionally bob as I fought sleep. 

I did catch some points of Charles very interesting talk, despite my occasional battle with a want to nap, and he told us that Tanzania was one of the first countries to encourage the complete ban of ivory, and after that happened poaching greatly decreased because it wasn't worth anyone's time anymore. Elephants began to make a comeback. 

However, nowadays with the economy being sucky, poaching is again on the increase. 

It's a never ending battle to save the elephants, and the problem is we want to keep everything the way it is. We want to save everything, but we simply can't. Things are always changing, even without human influence, animals are always moving, and humans are forever taking more and more land and space for themselves. 

How things stand is that right now we still have space, and maybe even time, and maybe we even still feel like we can save everything, but there WILL come a day when we have to pick and choose what we save and what we let go extinct. 

How do we choose between lions and elephants? Or between rhinos and cheetahs? How can we let ourselves fall into a state where the only option is to pick the few that we can save?

I am afraid that this is already the road that we are racing down, and with the growth of technology, though amazing and great, there might be a decline in the love f nature and the outdoors. 

What if one day even zoos fail?

If everyone with their flying cars and microchip computers are too busy playing minecraft in 3d and virtual solitaire to want to see the world that our ancestors came from? 

If elephants disappear and the entire human race just shrugs and goes back to watching movies on their ipad 3000. 

That is my greatest fear. Not that animals will go extinct, that is inevitable. But that we simply won't care.

Rant aside, we had an exceptionally great day. Lara gave us seems from a baobab tree, which tasted tart but good. 

 Afterwards we drive back to camp, and on the way we spent about an hour trying to watch a lioness and a few young lions laying mostly concealed in some tall grass.

I think this is a lioness picture...I couldn't get a clear shot

Some idiots stood on top of their jeep to get a better look, and this scares lions. The lions didn't move until the idiots drove off, and we all did a silent cheer. 

We got back to the ledge and has some free time, so Annie and I went swimming in the pool, and on our walk back discovered a Giant Millipede! (COOL!)

We walked around showing to everyone, though I didn't hold it since I'd just sprayed myself with 100% DEET before we found it.