During a safari, be prepared to expect the unexpected. We are amazed at JC’s acute foresight in anticipating happenings, for if it wasn’t for him, we would have missed a spectacular sight of impala males fighting to be the new leader of the pack. Imagine to have had encounter this within close range.
As soon as the fight ended, the winner goes directly to a bunch of females to declare his leadership. The loser ran away into the woods and not likely to re-join the group.
The Serengeti covers an area of 14,800square kilometers, most of which are grass plains. That’s more than 2x the size of Singapore at 692 square kilometers! Serengeti National Park gets its name from the Maasai word Siringitu meaning endless Plain. It literally is a sea of grass. These rich grass plains are actually a result of ash deposited by volcanic eruptions, and are home to 3 million animals.
Words and pictures don’t do enough justice to the place. I was mesmerized by what I saw and everything was so spectacular that I am beyond words. The natural settings seem surreal. Just…pure. Completely undisturbed. It is such a sight to see these animals thriving in their natural surroundings.
Pics of the animals we saw at the Serengeti will be akan datang. I mostly did images of landscapes and people as my digital camera is not equipped for photos of great distances. The animals are pretty hard to spot and we have to look real hard using a bino. The guide does play a big role in spotting the animals for us. We were really lucky to have such a wonderful guide who goes along with our wishful wimps, pointing stuff out and explaining things along the way. JC’s the man. we couldn’t ask for more.
This has got to be the most anticipated day by far as our Guide has been slowly building up the climax since Day 3
Before moving on to the Serengeti, however, we had a short stop at Olduvai Gorge, also known as the “cradle of mankind”. This was the place where they had first discovered and excavated some of the ancestors of homosapiens – Australopithecus boisei and Homo Habilis. I didn’t find anything significantly interesting about this place, really. What caught my attention was really the sight of Black-Faced Weavers eagerly waiting at our feet as we were eating out from our lunch boxes. There weren’t pesky at all…they were just patiently waiting for falling crumbs!
We were just glad to get out of the Gorge after the obligatory visit to their museum and listening to a lecture to finally make our way to the Serengeti. It was quite a drive from Olduvai and along the way, JC had to make a stop in the middle of nowhere to fix his 4WD. There was air in the fuel injector and very fortunately, JC used to be a full-time mechanic and the issue was solved in less than 15 minutes. Not that we minded the wait at all…in fact, JC has just given us more photo-opps to capture fabulous sightings on our way to the Serengeti!
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