We've received some feedback from readers that we should add "index" pages for specific content. An index page is better than the Categories ("Navigation" on the right side of this page) because you don't have to scroll through blog entries you've already seen -- intead, just go to the entry you want.
So, here is a brief index of our blog entries about parks on the northern circuit in Tanzania (plus Mafia Island):
- Morning in the Park: baboon babies, walk across the plain, a small waterfall, and lots of giraffes
- Afternoon in the Park: canoeing on an alkaline lake, flamingos, and black & white colobus monkeys
Lake Manyara National Park (Day 3)
- Morning in the Park: more baboon babies, impala, dik dik, zebra, and lots of elephants
- Afternoon in the Park: vervet monkeys with babies, baboons, golden weaver, plus the Rhotia Valley
Ngorongoro Crater the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Day 4)
- Morning in the Crater: zebras, hyena, wildebeast, warthogs and babies, ostrich, black rhino, eland, bush buck, Thompson's gazelle, birds (ibis, stork, and kori bustard), elephants, and lounging lions!
- Afternoon in the Crater: yellow-billed kites, weavers and pelicans, elephant, water buffalo, ostriches in a mating dance, warthog babies, lions, and the Rhotia Valley Children's Home!
Serengeti National Park - Walking Safari (Day 5, Day 6, Day 7)
- Drive into Serengeti N.P.: saw lions mating (!), and an uncountable number of wildebeast in the herd
- Drive to the Walking Safari Camp: agama lizards, superb starlings, marabou stork, and our campsite on the banks of the Orangi River in the central Serengeti (with recent hippo tracks near our tent!)
Serengeti National Parl - Game Drives (Day 8, Day 9, Day 10)
- Drive from walking camp to the game-drive camp: leopard tortise, herd (or pod) of hippos, impala, giraffes, a silverbird and some weavers, a leopard (finally!), vultures, mongooses, water buffalo, and a lion near camp
- Info about our "special campsite": lodging options in Serengeti National Park, our tent camp in the shadows of one of the Moru Kopjes, baboons and giraffes at breakfast, light painting at night, and a landscape view with rainbows.
- Second Day (morning game drive): leopard in a tree, lion in a tree, many animals feeding (giraffe, vervet monkeys, warthog), many birds (secretary bird, pearl spotted owlet, gray hornbill, lilac breasted roller, lovebirds).
- Second Day (afternoon game drive): coming soon
Mafia Island (Chloe Island)
- First Day: coming soon
- Second Day: coming soon
- Third Day: coming soon
- Fourth Day: coming soon
- Fifth Day: coming soon
It was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure -- thanks to friends and family that gave wedding gifts to make it possible.
We've just posted photos from our first day of walking safari: the morning walk and afternoon walk. Before posting photos from the second day, it makes sense to explain more about the walking safari and camp.
Where was it located?
The campsite was located about here (see below) in Serengeti National Park, along the Orangi River:
Source: tanzaniawildlifesafaris.com
I think they change sites depending on time of year, e.g., a different place during the wildebeest migration.
How did you get to walk, rather than have to use jeeps?
Wayo Africa, our local guide company, describes the "wilderness zone" on this page, saying:
"Walking in the Serengeti is new to Tanzanian National Parks. Only a handful of companies have been granted permission to enter this park on foot. The regulations stipulate that an armed and qualified walking guide from the operating company must accompany all walks. An armed ranger from the National Park will also join every walk.
All walking activities in Tanzanian National Parks happen inside the demarcated "wilderness zones". The area we walk in is a massive and remote area and mainly consists of gentle rolling hills with small streams and springs in the valleys and small grassland plains surrounded by sparse acacia forests. Big granite outcrops called kopjes give the area a great feel and look and make for superb campsites.
"Wilderness zone" means an area with very limited human infrastructure or disturbances and access in to these zones generally only happens on foot or horse. Since a horse won't live long in the Serengeti we avoid these! The only roads that exist into these areas are access roads to the campsites. Since there are no permanent accommodation facilities in the walking zones a small, lightweight camp, we have to bring all our food and basic necessities into the camps.
Being an area of varied eco-zones and vegetation types it is home to all of Africa's mammals and a huge variety of birds, reptiles and insects. A fair amount of wildlife is resident in the area year round due to permanent springs but June - August is fantastic due to the annual migration moving through the area.
Since visibility is generally good walking is safe and wildlife watching good. "Walking wildlife watching," means looking at animals from a distance. Animals are nervous with people on foot and close up viewing is not possible and not advisable on a walk."
For reference, the "main" roads throughout Serengeti National Park looked like this...
... but the drive to the camp in the wilderness area had, at best, tire tracks like this:
What was the landscape like?
The Orangi River is the defining natural element in this specific area, but with eco-diversity. The riverbed:
...often with pools of standing water and recent animal tracks:
...riverbed again, but here rocky instead of sandy:
...miles of grassland with sparse acacia forest:
...long, sloping grassy hills (acacia forest in the background):
...scattered kopjes (we're on one here, plus we see one in the background):
...the top of a kopje:
...and just mixed, here with kopje in the background, grass & brush, very rocky, with scattered acacia:
How was the walking safari led? Who were the guides?
Also mentioned previously, we had our Wayo guide and a Serengeti National Park ranger. In addition, we had a new-hire guide to Wayo, in training, plus two Wayo staff members that ran the camp (food, hot water, etc).
From left to right: Prim (Wayo guide), Frau A, Mark (Wayo guide in training), and Daniel (park ranger):
One of the Wayo guides (usually Prim) would lead, followed by Frau A and myself, with Daniel (the park ranger) in the rear. Mark would sometimes lead, and any of them would narrate to show/explain something on the way.
They did a fantastic job. Friendly, knowledgeable, and were the best animal spotters! THANKS GUYS!!!
What was the camping experience like?
The camp itself goes by different descriptions - "light", "mobile", "tented", "green"... but the main concept is that it is NOT a permanent camping area like the formal Serengeti National Park sites. The equipment fits on a small trailer so it can be brought in behind a Land Cruiser. It is set up, used, and then taken down after just a few days. The idea is that when people leave, they did not leave any trace.
Our sleeping tent and bathroom tent layout looked like this, under a tree near a tiny kopje:
The bathroom's just meters away... but interesting in the dark, when you'd earlier heard leopards roaring:
Wayo describes the sleeping tent on this page, saying:
"Tents are 3-man dome style tents that are easy to set-up with plenty of floor space for two people. You are not going to do the Macarena in it but it is great for a good nights rest in a really remote area. Sleeping is on comfy 4-inch mattresses on the ground and the bedding is cotton covered duvets and cotton sheets."
Here is our sleeping tent -- and, actually, it was quite comfortable (we slept very well each night):
You can see the staff setting up a tent in one of their videos:
Wayo describs the bathroom facilities on this page, saying:
"The old traditional lightweight camp toilets meant you had to be an acrobat of sorts just to use the bathroom. We have decided to move away from the old style zip up, claustrophobic non-aired toiled cubicle to a non-closed enclosure approach, using nice wooden toilet seats etc. Sure, if it rains in this arid region of Africa, you might have a wet toilet seat for a bit or a shower in the rain but hey, there are worse things in the world.
Toilets are shallow pit latrines; a hole about 12m deep is dug and once all is in the hole you just sprinkle soil over top. With the open toilet tent these toilets never smell and the soil acts as both an absorber and a visual barrier.
Showers are the same type spiral tents. The water is always hot and you will have plenty for a nice shower to get cleaned and refeshed after a day's safari. These showers and toilets have proven to work a whole lot better than anything we've used in the past."
Our open bathroom looked like this:
The main drawback -- toilet paper got soaked during rains. We brought it inside our tent instead.
In this next view, looking out from the bathroom, you can see the shower, the two Land Cruisers, and the guides' tents (background, left side). The guides were close enough for safety, far enough away for privacy.
Everything was very well put together, comfortable, and even during hard evening rains we stayed dry.
Looks pretty normal so far. But don't forget this was truly the Serengeti wilderness. How close did animals come? This small wildebeest herd was just across the river on evening (!):
At night, we clearly heard leopards roar, hyenas barking, and occasionally a small something walking by!
The dining tent was set on the edge of the river, a ways (30m?) away from our sleeping and bathroom tents:
The overall camp basically formed a triangle, between our tents, the dinign tent, and the guides' tents:
Here's our video panning briefly across the field, so you get a sense for the how everything comes together:
It was nice that the dining/mess tent was set apart a bit - meals and relaxing time felt more secluded.
There was a dining table in the tent, plus a second smaller table for setting water, dishes, etc:
The evening fire was lit near the dining tent. A perfect way to relax with a beer as the sun set:
The view from the dining tent was nice too, seeing the Orangi River (even though it is low in December):
Finally, a "light painting" photo of the dining tent, just before we went to sleep one evening. Lovely:
Would you recommend it? Would you do it again?
Understanding that this is NOT the best way to see big animals up close... absolutely YES.
The wilderness camping and walking safari experience were just what we had hoped: not completely "roughing it", but definitely an intimate way to see the Serengeti, with minimal environmental impact.
We were really pleased with our tour companies, so we'll mention them here:
- Natural High Safaris coordinated the whole trip (except flights from & to Munich).
- Wayo Africa is the local company that provides on-the-ground services, with whom Natural High works
As you can see by the photos and blog posts, we loved our trip and want to do it again.
In the previous blog post from our Tanzanian safari holiday, we had spent the day driving through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and into Serengeti National Park. Our destination was a campsite in the designated "wilderness area" -- very off-road, and select spots where approved guides (together with a Park ranger) can take you on guided walks in the Serengeti. Much different than the typical game drives in a jeep.
The campsite was along the Orangi river, center-east in the Park (see map below):
Source: tanzaniawildlifesafaris.com
The Orangi river winds its way west, joining others and eventually landing in Lake Victoria. At the point of our campsite the river actually ran north-to-south for a few hundred meters. The camp layout looked roughly like the picture below. We would have two days of guided walks, with a morning & afternoon hike each day (not to scale!):
The walks came together something like a clover -- each one exploring a different area away from camp, and lasting about 4-5 hours (including brief rests). Our guides "warned" us about a few things before we got started:
First, the guides stressed that animal viewing would be much less intimate than in a Land Cruiser. The animals see you as part of a harmless jeep on the road, but on foot we are human and are avoided as much as possible (and they can smell and hear us much before we could see them). We would get to see the trees, plants/flowers, and insects first hand, but we should not expect big game too close.
Second, there are some pitfalls to be prepared for. Insects sting or bite, some plants cause skin problems, and in rare cases an animal will get aggressive rather than running away. We jokingly asked "When was the last time you had to use your gun because of a charging water buffalo?". Our guide Prim answered straight-faced: "last week". He wasn't joking. He explained that a shot in the air usually sends animals the other way. Their group came around a large rock and surprised it, so it charged. Interesting...
We started the morning walk on Day 1 around 08:00 (after breakfast at 07:30). Because it was the first one, I asked the others to pose for a photo. From left to right we have:
- Prim, our main guide from Wayo Africa - Frau A, with her Nikon DSLR ready to fire - Mark, a recent graduate from a wildlife university and guide-in-training at Wayo, and - Daniel, a park ranger in Serengeti National Park
We started the walk in the Orangi riverbed, reading what Prim calls the "morning newspaper". December is the short wet season in Tanzania. Evenings often bring a short rain and get some water flowing (the river was mostly still pools at this time) which makes recent animal tracks easy to see.
It was interesting to see how many animals came to drink the prior evening - 30 meters from where we slept!
We continued to follow the riverbed...
...then headed off into the brush a bit (but often came back to the riverside throughout the walk):
At a point further along the river was another large still pool to investigate:
This time Mark showed us some of the recent visitors here:
The most interesting were pawprints from a large hyena - you can see the imprints below:
Further along in the brush we came across a buffalo skull...
...Mark picked it up and we got Frau A to pose with it!
The next section along the river was not as flat -- it had kopjes (rock formations) going up to the right:
A bit ahead, we spotted a large water buffalo -- see him in the trees?
This was nice, but actually presented a bit of a problem. The water buffalo seemed to be following the river... just like we were. Prim was trying to keep track of it. But we ran into a higher kopje, and the water buffalo was probably on the other side, out of view.
In the video below, here's what happened: we are walking quietly, to listen for the buffalo. At the 20 second point, you hear Prim voice "psst" -- a signal that we need to follow him. We crept up the kopje, and then Prim went forward alone (gun somewhat ready) to see where the buffalo was.
What you don't see in the video (it happened after I stopped recording) is that Prim *did* flush the buffalo out, and it thundered away about 20m from us, ground shaking. It didn't charge or present a danger, but things might have gotten interesting had we surprised it up close. But that was Prim's job.
After that exciting moment, we continued along the riverbed:
This time, Mark offered to take the group photo (left to right: Daniel, Frau A, Herr J, and Prim):
The next brief stop was at a good-sized termite mound (they can get a lot larger, in proportion to the amount of water in the earth below, as our guides informed us):
It was almost as tall as Frau A:
In a nearby tree, we spotted a dragonfly posing for a photo:
Around 11:30, the sun was getting punishingly fierce. We found a tree for shade and took a break for lunch. We were situated on a kopje with a decent view of the surrounding plain and its acacia trees:
The video below is just a quick pan, left to right, to show the view from our perch above the Serengeti:
When we got underway again, it was back down to the riverbed.
As we saw in the sand near our campsite, there were hippo tracks in the damp soil here:
From here, we cut across the plain, starting to circle back towards camp:
We would consistently pause in the shade for some water. Daniel agreed to a photo here:
We got Mark in action, when he took the lead. The would rotate positions between them on the hike.
We came across an abandoned termite mound that another animal had made its home. The guides guessed that it was a warthog family, but they get dangerous if cornered so we didn't investigate further:
The weather was great, but hot!
Unfortunately, the acacia trees are a favorite home of tse-tse flies, but they didn't bite too much:
We did see another "large" animal - a lone impala in the trees. This photo was taken with a 580mm (35mm equivalent) focal length, so it gives you an idea of how far away the animals were that we could spot:
As soon as it saw us, it took off and was out of sight:
We saw a number of dung beetles, working tirelessly to roll their find to the right location to bury it:
We eventually made it back to camp, and were rewarded with some Serengeti beer and a light lunch:
It was nice to view the river from the mess tent, now that we had explored it a bit:
There were some other things that don't have an accompanying photo, but made the experience more real - for example, I felt a "rock" underfoot and looked down to see that I was stepping on a zebra skull! It was a very different experience than the game drives was had previously in Arusha / Manyara / Ngorongoro... just what we wanted!
And finally... this was our honeymoon. For the wedding, instead of registering for physical gifts (e.g., china, silverware, etc.), we registered different parts of this Tanzanian safari. For this blog post, we wish to heartfully thank: - Edie C, for the guided walk. Just the unique experience we were looking for. THANK YOU! - Amie and Kevin H, for the guided walk. Frau A was smiling ear-to-ear the whole time. THANK YOU! - Judy and Ron H, for the camping overnight. It was so cool to hear the lions roar at night. THANK YOU! - Ronnie and Jan M, for the camping overnight. The view from the tent was extraordinary. THANK YOU!
We hope our friends and family enjoy the pictures and story as much as we did living it.
Thursday, May 1, 2014 at 0:19 
