Northern Tanzania safari, Sept.-Oct. 2013

[Zubbie15]

Day 13, afternoon – last shot at the elusive Leopard!

 

This was our last real chance, unless we were to get really lucky on the drive to the airport tomorrow, to find a Leopard. We headed out to a specific region of kopjes, which I later understood was known to have a female that liked to stay there. After a bit of searching, we came across this:

 

 

 

She was very relaxed, not moving for 10 minutes or so, and since it was about 90 minutes before sunset we took the risk that she wouldn’t move for a while and did a short loop in the area. As mentioned, she was known to frequent the area, and apparently she’d recently lost her litter of cubs, so there was a slight hope that a male might be in the area hoping to mate with her. So we decided to check out a couple of other kopjes to see if one was around.

Instead, we found these dung beetles, our first of the trip:

 

 

Our loop didn’t provide much else of interest, so we returned to the Leopard, to find that she had gotten down from her tree, and was in the process of grooming herself on top of a large rock.

 

 

The backlighting presented a challenge for photography, but it was a pleasure to watch her spend almost half an hour relaxed on top of the rock.

 

 

 

 

One of the nice things about this sighting was that, compared with the Seronera Valley where a Leopard sleeping in a tree 100 meters off the road could get 10+ cars, there were only 2 or 3 other vehicles with us. One of them decided to go around to the other side of the kopje, hoping/expecting she might head off in that direction. We stayed where we were for a while, until she went down the back of the rock, away from where we could see her. We waited a couple of minutes in case she decided to come out near us, then decided to check the other side.

We were in luck, she’d decided to stop on another rock for a rest.

 

 

 

The light was rather flat, but she was remarkably close. After a few minutes, she decided to head off to hunt for the night.

 

 

 

 

It was getting late, and the sky was quite overcast and looking like rain, so we let her leave while we headed back to camp.

 

 

It was a great way to end our safari…or was it the end?

[Zubbie15]

Continued…

As we headed toward camp, we began to see some large greyish forms in the distance we were headed. They moved almost like oversize warthogs, but it turned out to be three Black Rhinos.

 

 

This isn’t a great picture, as it was so dark that in order to get a decent shutter speed I needed to open up to maximum aperture, but it shows all three. There was a mother and her medium size calf, as well as another adult.

 

Single adult

 

 

 

 

Mother and calf

 

 

 

 

As you might notice, the calf, interestingly, lacked its external ear structures. I don’t know that it would necessarily lead to a survival issue (and I’ve seen photos of it in the past few months, so it’s apparently doing well) but as someone who works regularly with genetics it’s interesting to hypothesize that this is a recessive defect that’s appearing due to the small population size in the area.

 

The mother rhino was actually chasing the other rhino (I believe we determined it was also a female) away. Our guide felt that the other adult might have been the mother’s previous child, and it was trying to meet up with its mother, but we never got confirmation of that.

 

Eventually, they headed off into a thicket where we couldn’t see them, but it was nice to have this experience to ourselves. On our way back to camp, we came across this large male Eland, who was surprisingly relaxed near our vehicle.

 

 

 

We were sufficiently close to hear his knees “click” as he stepped, which was interesting.

 

Finally, just before reaching camp, the sun broke through the clouds and we came across a small tower of giraffes. This youngster in particular was quite photogenic in the golden light.

 

[elefromoz]

What a fantastic Safari, the Serengeti certainly went all out for you, hard to match that. Even the Black Rhino on your last day. Very interesting with the little guy with no ears, I wonder if that will have long term impact with infections, bugs getting in, hearing deficit, let's hope not. Thank for this excellent report....I still dream of the Serengeti with its prolific game.

[michael-ibk]

Glad you got your "good Leopard" sighting after all, and that was a a fantastic one! Really like the Rhino pics, too.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks both, I'm not quite done but that's about it for the "good" stuff.

[Marks]

Very interesting about the little rhino. I suppose it would almost have to be a defect, as it's hard to imagine an injury or attack causing it to lose both ears.

 

That last giraffe has a great haircut.

[Zubbie15]

Olakira Camp.

 

We stayed at Olakira for our last three nights. It was definitely a nice camp, which we enjoyed quite a bit. The location, apart from the smell, was first class, and the service excellent.

 

The camp was quite small, and had a single table where everyone ate together.

 

 

 

It was definitely intimate, with less than 20 guests each night.

 

The tents on the other hand were extremely large.

 

 

 

We actually got lucky, and were given the family tent, so we had an extra room to store our bags. We also were extremely lucky that the previous occupant needed power all night for a CPAP machine, and they hadn’t removed the outlets yet, so we were able to charge our electronics during the night in our tent.

 

The tent had a great view, out over the Mara River.

 

 

This included a day bed and a couple of chairs, which we used during our afternoon breaks. The bathrooms (photo above) were also very large, although on windy days the blind covering the window near the toilet would blow open, so privacy was a bit of an issue.

 

We thought the staff were very friendly and helpful, and really enjoyed the food.

 

 

Overall, I really liked the camp, the location was excellent (apart from the smell) and it was certainly comfortable.

[Zubbie15]

Day 14. Game viewing on our way to the airport...

 

We were up early today, hoping to squeeze in an hour of game drive on our way to the airport. We were jealous, upon leaving our tent, to see people in a hot air balloon, knowing they had longer to stay in the Serengeti.

 

 

Leaving camp, we drove around slowly through various kopjes, seeing what we could find. There were a lot of herbivores in the area that morning, including Impala, Zebra, Topi and Hartebeest.

 

 

But there were no predators in view, and much sooner than we wanted the time was up. As we got to the airport, a small herd of elephants was in the area.

 

 

They eventually decided that they wanted to be on the runway.

 

 

Eventually, when they showed no sign of leaving, the rangers got in a truck and chased them to the other side.

 

We said our good-byes to our guide, and then got on the plane. I was very tempted to try to stay behind...

 

I had hoped to get some interesting pictures during the flight.

 

 

However, it was amazingly windy, and the little plane was being tossed around like a cork in the ocean, so pretty quickly I needed to put the camera down and focus on not losing my breakfast. It was a shame too, as we flew directly over the length of the Serengeti and then over the Ngorongoro Crater, so there probably would have been some good shots to be had. We arrived in Arusha after a stop at the Manyara airport, had lunch, and then relaxed in our day room, before boarding the evening KLM flight back to reality.

[Zubbie15]

Final thoughts

 

I can still remember, almost three years later, sending out the email to family asking who wanted to join us on a “trip of a lifetime” to Africa. At the time, I’d never been outside North America or Europe, and the continent seemed exotic and mysterious. Little did I know that during the trip I'd develop "Africa-itis", and want to return before I even left. With experience now, there are certainly a few things I will do differently, and there were a couple of minor hiccups, but it was certainly a fun and rewarding trip. I think the thing that really surprised me was how fascinating the little things (two herds of elephants greeting each other, or a pride of lions interacting) could be.

 

I want to thank everyone that's commented and read the report, it was definitely enjoyable to relive our trip and recollect some of the events that had maybe faded over time. Maybe I'll start one for our trip to Australia sometime soon...

 

I'm now 211 days from our next trip to Tanzania - on one hand it seems like a long way off, on the other it will certainly come faster than I think.

[Marks]

Great report, I've enjoyed every post. I may have missed or forgotten this detail, but do you have an itinerary for next time already?

[michael-ibk]

Really liked your report, next one better come soon. Africa-itis is incurable, don´t even try!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks both, I appreciate you sticking with it.

 

@@Marks, I had posted our itinerary in the 2016 planning thread, but it is as follows for next February:

 

1 night Arusha, KIA Lodge

3 nights Tarangire, Tarangire Safari Lodge

1 night Lake Manyara, Kirurumu Manyara Lodge

2 nights Ngorongoro Crater, Rhino Lodge

4 nights Ndutu, Kati Kati Camp Ndutu

2 nights Serengeti, Kati Kati Camp Seronera

Then fly from Mwanza to Kigali, 1 night Kigali, Hotel Le Garni du Centre

3 nights Ruhengeri, Mountain Gorilla View Lodge - with 2 separate gorilla treks and on our last day the Golden Monkey Trek

 

I'm looking forward to seeing Tanzania in a different (hopefully greener) season, and the gorilla trekking should be lots of fun.

[Marks]

Looks like it will be a good one! I'll surely read your TR with pleasure.

[CaroleE]

@@Zubbie15

 

What an amazing first visit to Africa! Also a realy excellent trip report with some very good photos. So good to read that you had a great first visit, even though you now have the same addiction to the continent as the rest of us.

I loved the first set of cheetah cubs, then cane along a second set. The old elephant was rather poignant to see. And then even more big cats: lions and yes, eventually, you got your good leopard sighting. Fantastic! The river crossings were great to see as where the rhino, surprised to see them in the Northen Serengeti!

Thank you for putting together this trip report. It was a real pleasure to follow your adventures. Here's to your next visit!

[Atravelynn]

Your scenery shots are standouts. Thanks for the Lake Eyasi and Hadabe encounter. Great closeups of the crater creatures, such as the approaching Tommy and frisky zebras.

 

So much for dining on the tablecloth with those pesky and potentially dangerous kites around.

 

That waiter at Sopa shot should get you a free night there if you make the offer.

 

Wilde crossing was fantastic. About how many vehicles shared your sighting?

 

You had tremendous luck with baby cheetahs and rhino! Good thing you did not overlook the dung beetle in your excitement about the leopard. This was a fabulous trip!

 

Appears you will be back for more!

Edited August 1, 2015 by Atravelynn

[optig]

I would love to visit Tarangire National Park because I feel that it is an underrated park which gets very good reviews from visitors. Hopefully, in combination with Mahale, Katavi and Serengeti for the second time.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@CaroleE for the kind comments.

 

Same to you @@Atravelynn. I don't see any pictures that I took that included the vehicles at the crossings, but by memory I'd say the first had 8-10, and the second 5 or 6. It was a lot, but not unreasonable and in general everyone was well-behaved and respectful. This was the only real time around Kogatende that there was any traffic - we had 2 of the 3 rhino sightings to ourselves (the other was with one other car); every lion sighting we had was ours alone; and even the cheetah sightings were with only a few other cars. It was definitely a contrast to the Crater or Seronera area, and I imagine what it is like in less visited areas of Africa. While we had to work harder for the sightings, what we had were very rewarding.

 

@@optig, I really loved Tarangire, despite being less well-known it really was a gem. I'm excited to see it greener next February, even if the wildlife will be more dispersed.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Zubbie15

[Atravelynn]

8-10 is great. Obviously they were not in your way.

[Zubbie15]

I agree @@Atravelynn, it was not bad at all. Everyone was well behaved, we all lined up along the bank so while each vehicle would have a different angle, no one had any obstructed views.

[Super LEEDS]

@@Zubbie15 thanks for sharing. Great read and awesome pictures!