AAC Senior Journey Specialist Tracy recently returned from visiting Tanzania to explore the country’s ‘Northern Circuit,’ a large area comprised of Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks, along with the Ngorongoro Crater. She shares her safari stories on the blog today, taking us on an armchair adventure.
Tanzania’s iconic parks and wildlife get top billing on most people’s safari wish lists – including mine. My last trip to the country was to the incredible Mahale Mountains National Park for chimp trekking so in October, I returned to the northern circuit: Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.
Few places can rival the scenic grandeur and nonstop parade of animals in Tanzania: warthog piglets with their antenna-like tails trot behind their tusked parents, herds of majestic elephants pad slowly across the savanna, the calves still figuring out how to control their trunks and leopards lounge in trees, tails twitching to music only they can hear. My goal on this trip was to revisit favorite safari camps and evaluate some new lodges, but I got much more than I bargained for. From authentic interactions with the Maasai, Hadzabe and Datoga tribes to breathtaking wildlife encounters with elephants and big cats, it’s no wonder why the Serengeti is AAC’s most requested destination.
A quick peek at this vast national park by the numbers: the Serengeti comprises nearly 6,000 square miles of pristine grasslands (12,000 if you count the reserves on its perimeter), is home to more than 4,000 lions; 7,000 elephants thanks to anti-poaching efforts; 1,000 leopards; 75,000 grumpy African buffalos; 4,000 towering giraffes and innumerable other animals from athletic cheetahs to elusive caracals. Impressive as those counts may be, the biggest show here is the two million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra that make their perpetual clockwise migration through the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem from Tanzania to Kenya and back again.
After my first week zigzagging across the northern Serengeti, watching tens of thousands of wildebeest recover from the perilous crossing from Kenya’s Masai Mara, I flew to the western edge of the park. From the air, the scope of the migration is jaw-dropping: I saw a million animals spread out in columns marching south in search of the nutritious grasses that sprout after the first rain and thunder clouds were on the horizon. As safari experts, we can confidently predict where the majority of the herds will be in any given month, but once in a while, nature throws us a glorious curveball. Rain had come early to the western reaches of the Serengeti and the late summer landscape was cloaked in swathes of verdant green shoots. Led by pathfinding zebras and ancient instincts, tens of thousands of wildebeest were massing in the western Serengeti to enjoy this bounty – a splinter migration!
When I speak with clients, I explain that wildebeest are not nature’s smartest animals. We often see them running in one direction, their hooves churning up clouds of dust, only to find them retracing their path an hour later. Usually, they don’t make it to the western Serengeti until June on their annual journey but here they were, within a few miles of the lazy bloats of hippos lounging in the Grumeti River. My guide explained that this is the second October in a row that he’s seen herds in the western Serengeti while Mara River crossings are still going on in the northern part of the park.
I was fortunate to spend a couple of days in this idyllic corner of the park, which has a low density of excellent safari camps and lodges, so every game drive felt like the Serengeti was mine alone without another vehicle in sight. The resident wildlife here is superb, even without the migration. The highlight was a late afternoon game drive spent in the company of three lionesses and their 10 mischievous cubs ranging in age from a few months to a year old. They romped and batted each other with oversized paws, clambered on each other and used an old log as a jungle gym. The bigger ones stalked their indulgent mothers, their stealth attacks ending with a clumsy flying leap onto mom’s back, tumbling to the ground and looking very pleased with themselves. It was a magical evening bathed in golden light. Speechless and grateful, my guide and I shared a hug – sometimes, nature really outdoes herself.
The next morning, a hot air balloon gave me a bird’s-eye view of the savanna waking with the sun. As exciting as the action is on the ground, seeing it from the air provides perspective on how abundant the Serengeti really is. Elephant herds make their way along trails to life-sustaining waterholes, a cheetah and her lanky cubs stand atop a termite mound waiting for the right Thomson’s gazelle to chase and, if you’re lucky (I was), you might see a majestic Bateleur eagle bring a mongoose back to the nest where hungry beaks await.
Back on the ground, something caught my guide’s eye as we made our way to the airstrip. A leopard and her nearly full-grown daughter broke cover and slowly headed for the wildebeest, a moveable feast and ideal training ground. They approached the herd, silent and elegant, their tails ending with the same curl. I caught a quick video before we reluctantly continued to the plane. According to my guide’s texts after I got home, the hunting lessons are going well. The young leopard will be out on her own soon, staking her claim and raising the next generation in the abundant Serengeti.
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Photos courtesy AAC Senior Journey Specialist Tracy Stevens