Notes on a Tanzania Wet Season Safari
Two of this group had been to Tanzania with us before. Smitten, we poured over the map and pondered the next safari. This time we managed to talk some friends into coming as well. Having been before, they wanted to see the other side of the country, the green side! The wise ones go when no one else does, when it’s more affordable and when the landscape and the animals are at their best.
We started with some elephant plunge pool action at lunch in Tarangire. Lost count of the elephants by the time we reached Kuro. It’s easy to forget just how much a place like this hums with life in the rains. Broad billed rollers, paradise whydahs, secretary birds. Muddy warthogs, tails upright. The din of morning and evening, insects, frogs and birds. A cheetah took an impala right in front of us.
Next up Serengeti. Groups of wildebeest here and there as we flew in to Ndutu. Then as we got out into the endless plains on the way to Kusini (also an area of southern Serengeti), the real herds appeared. “That’s not a tree line.” The numbers are always staggering. A cheetah walks to the horizon, feigning interest. Serengeti Safari Camp is the classic mobile tented camp and it’s always a joy to be there. Nothing like twenty five lions bellowing straight through the canvas as you lay on your bed. We found them the next morning, atop a huge slab of rock in that only in Serengeti way. As the uncountable masses of wildebeest and zebra swelled past us, we saw some hooves. She was born half an hour later.
We were back by Lake Ndutu to watch a lioness almost take a young wildebeest as the flamingos looked on. A visit to Olduvai to brush up on our palaeontology. Makes the head spin to fathom the stretches of time between those skulls and the Maasai lady with her children collecting water. Giraffes and zebras everywhere.
Flying over miles of wilderness we came right over the top of Ikuka before banking past Kilimatonge. Just Simba and Idriss at the airstrip to greet us. Baobabs at their mighty broccoli best. Greater kudus delicately pinching off succulent leaves. The best bush breakfasts in the business. After one such we spotted some big ears in the shade. Wild dogs! Just about the only thing we hadn’t seen. We counted nineteen, just fed, playing, bathing and enjoying themselves even more than we were. Raced home to beat the rain, got soaked obviously.
We bumped our way out of Ruaha to visit Mkuyu Guide School. They made us very welcome, walking in the adjacent fields and putting on presentations in the classroom. A wonderful opportunity for the students to meet with our guests from all over the world, and our guests to see just how much talent is out there in Tanzania. A last, hypnotic, sundowner with the elephants down on the Mwagusi.
Somehow our last stop, Nyerere National Park, had barely had any rain. Dry as a bone and hot to match. This meant the lakes around Sand Rivers were teaming with life. Baby crocodiles, buffalos and carmine bee-eaters. Breakfast under the cool palms overlooking the water. Cruising on past the hippos of the Rufiji River we rounded a corner to spot lions up ahead on the bank. They eyed us inquisitively as we bobbed right up to them, a totally unique perspective on a magnificent creature. Talk of tigers turned into an extended fishing session as the last sundowners were sipped. The hippos honked, the monkeys shrieked and the sun slipped from view.
Special mentions:
- Battle of the dormouse
- Caracal on the way to Kusini
- Dumb and dumber
- Mo knows
- Rainy season is also mango season!
