The Big Five

The Big Five is a term used on safari and refers to the most sought-after animals.  The Tanzanian big five are lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo.

Day 16

The track down in to the crater took its toll on the vehicles. We had one puncture, and the wheel was quickly replaced by Ellias and Edwin.

 Then, via the vehicle radios, we were alerted to a pride of lions on the move. We soon came across a large lion and lioness were enjoying a very public second honeymoon.

Closer to the lake … hippos …. and then black rhinos.  The concentration of animals was extraordinary.

The whole day was filled in with relaxed game viewing. We headed back up the steep paved road to our hotel on the crater rim in time for happy hour, and to watch the sun set.

 Day 17

A misty morning added to the dramatic scenes as we drove around the crater road towards Serengeti National Park. Acacia trees with browsing giraffes.  Grant’s gazelle and elephants. Masai people wrapped in red shukkas sitting on rocks on the roadside. So dusty, dry and barren.

We passed the track to Olduvai Gorge where Mary and Louis Leakey found the remains of "homo habilis", about 1.9 million years old, probably the first early human species. Later we crossed the Olduvai River bed. Olduvai is the Masai word for the large sisal plants which lined the riverbanks. 

The drivers called in to a Masai village where we had a cultural dance, fire-making demonstration, and a look around.  The houses are small round mud and stick structures, barely able to fit a six-foot westerner.  A Masai can have several wives and several huts to house them all. The villages are surrounded by spiky African thorn fences which keep the cows, goats and sheep in, and the wild animals out.  Hyenas, jackals, leopards and lions are common in this area and are all looking for an easy meal. The Masai diet consists of only meat, blood, milk and maize.

These guys pride themselves on how high they can jump.

Mike demonstrating our inability to jump.

Fire -making demo.

Success!

Manzani Flat-headed Rock (Spiderman ) Agama Lizard

 After a stop at the entrance to the National Park we drove at speed down an extremely rough corrugated straight road.  It was very hard on the vehicles, and our bodies.  They call it the “Tanzanian Massage”. 

Serengeti means “end-less plain”.  There were grasslands in all directions to the horizon, with small hills in the distance.

Grazing animals were abundant.  On top of a mound, a cheetah.  Further on, in the distance, a black rhino.

As we progressed further into the park, lone trees appeared and mounds of smooth weathered volcanic rock dotted the grasslands.

We lunched in the shade of a sausage tree.  So-named because of the large sausage-like fruit dangling from it's branches. The trunk bore leopard scratch marks from where they drag their kill up high. The hoofed remains of an antelope carcass hung from a prominent branch.

Every so often, the drivers would get a message on their CB radios alerting to big cat activity.  We saw a large pride of lions sleeping in the sun. Then three lionesses and about eight cubs feasting on two freshly killed zebras. We viewed these from about 10 meters away; cubs playing together and jumping around their dinner like playful kittens.

On the final leg of the day’s safari, we spotted a leopard sitting on top a large smooth rock.

Worn out from the day of bone-shattering jiggling, we enjoyed beers on the deck of the hotel. The setting sun was a bright red orb as it dipped below the distant hazy African hills. We had seen the big five in one day.