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A tale of two safaris - Tanzania 2016 (followed by Rwanda)


Zubbie15

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Excellent birthing sequence. A really special sight.

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Thanks @@amybatt, and @@Geoff - it just worked out that way. I usually write the posts while eating breakfast, it just seemed to be a good place to stop. I have to admit it's not anywhere near as good a cliffhanger 

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I had hinted at the start of this day's report that we were hoping to see a serval; well, it turned out there were 3 other vehicles that had targeted serval on that day, and all four guides had agreed to notify each other if they located one. That's what we were headed off to see, but it was almost on the other side of the crater floor, so we had some concern that it would still be around once we got there.



On our way, it got extremely dark on one side of the crater, to our right, while to our left it remained fairly bright with spots of sunlight. It definitely made for some dramatic skies...



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We had a fair distance to go, but when we arrived at the area we eventually were able to locate the serval. It was only really visible through binoculars, and would have been easy to miss.



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A more cropped picture...



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Funnily enough, on the other side of the road was a rhino, roughly the same distance away the one for the morning had been when most people saw it. But there were only 4 vehicles in the area, and all were focused on the serval.



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The skies kept getting darker, and at one point a thunderstorm struck part of the crater floor. We were worried we'd get drenched, but it skirted around us.



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Once the storm cleared out, the clouds began to dissipate, offering the promise of nice weather again.



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The serval had killed something, and was eating it down in the long grass. It would raise its head every once in a while to look around, which was when we'd be able to see it. We never figured out exactly what it killed, all we could see where white feathers in the area.



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As the clouds continued to clear, we were rewarded with a small rainbow in the sky.



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Eventually the serval must have finished its meal and lay down for a rest, as it stopped popping up. Two of the other vehicles left at this point, but one backed up and parked beside us. It turned out the people in the car had brought the ashes of a rescued serval from a friend of their's to Tanzania, and had hoped to see a serval and spread the ashes at the location of the sighting. This was actually their last day in the country, and they had been quite worried they wouldn't have any luck. In any case, they noticed we had better telephoto lenses than them, and asked if we could email them a couple of pictures to show to their friend. I thought it was a really nice thing for them to do for their friend, and happily obliged.



We had to leave at this point, as it was getting close to gate-closing time (6PM). We stopped on the way out by Lake Magadi, and were able to see a decent concentration of flamingos.



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We also stopped for a quick look at a mixed herd of zebra and wildebeest, which also had a few eland - the only ones we'd see on the trip.



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Finally, on the ascent road out, we stopped for a quick picture of the crater, with the late afternoon light and clearing sky providing us with a nice view.



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So in the end it was a really productive day in the Crater. I just always come away slightly underwhelmed due to the sheer volume of vehicles, but after two visits both times when I look back on the day it was good otherwise. Next stop, Ndutu.


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Serval success! Nobody has a serval tale like yours with the ashes. Your elands are in the most attractive setting I have seen for that species. The presence of rain all around you contributed to some gorgeous color in your photos. Ndutu in Feb can be crowded. Maybe someday there will be a daily limit on vehicles.

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The next morning we decided to sleep in a little, as we'd be spending the early parts of the day transitioning into the Ndutu area. When we got to the hotel restaurant for breakfast we were the only ones there, I guess most people had left for an early morning in the crater. It was a beautiful day, and we thought we'd take a quick stop to get a picture down into the Crater, but there were some low clouds in the Crater that partially obscured our view.



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We then descended from the highlands, and quite quickly found large herds of wildebeest out on the plains.



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From there we continued along, eventually entering the Ndutu forest to look for any activity. We quite quickly came across a pride of lions lounging in the trees. They had apparently recently finished with a kill, as most of them had some blood still around the faces and on their paws, but we didn't see any signs of the carcass. They were spread in and around several different trees, there were at least 10 of them in the area. Since we hadn't seen any of the "famous tree-climbing lions" in Manyara, we decided to dub these the tree climbing lions of Ndutu.



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The lion on the right below had definitely eaten too much...



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Of course, some of the lionesses decided it made more sense to stay on the ground in the shade of a tree. They did their best to stay cool.



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It was the middle of the day, so we drove off a little ways and had our lunch with the lions before heading further along.


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Serval success! Nobody has a serval tale like yours with the ashes. Your elands are in the most attractive setting I have seen for that species. The presence of rain all around you contributed to some gorgeous color in your photos. Ndutu in Feb can be crowded. Maybe someday there will be a daily limit on vehicles.

 

Hmm, somehow I missed this post - thanks @@Atravelynn. The elands were definitely posing for us. We weren't sure what to make of the "serval people" when they first pulled up - we certainly say hi and ask how it's going to passengers of other vehicles, but when they stopped to ask if we had a minute we never would have guessed why! I wouldn't be surprised if they limited the vehicles someday down in the Crater, but it must be such a cash cow for the NCA I imagine they'd find it hard to get the will to do so.

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The sequence of lions in trees is just incredible. Nicely captured!!

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The sequence of lions in trees is just incredible. Nicely captured!!

+1

 

Those lions really are great and after the bbq I just had I feel exactly like that overstuffed lion in the tree!

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The Ndutu lions posed very prettily for you. How cool you got to see lions in a tree.

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I also love the lions on trees - how lucky to see that and your photos of them are great!

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@@Zubbie15, do the famous " tree climbing Lions of Manyara " even exist? It seems they are seen everywhere but Manyara. Ndutu for you, Tarangire and Serengeti for me and many others. Fun to see anyway, Lions can assume the most comical poses as your terrific photos show. Great you saw the Serval, the Crater must be one of the most reliable paces to spot one it seems.

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Oh how cool--I'm sure we saw those same lions in the same trees. They were on a route that was one of the main ways to our lodge (stayed three nights in Ndutu area) and we saw them several times. (As I mentioned a couple pages back, we had a similar trip just about the same time as you). I loved their paws hanging down, especially on the juveniles.

 

And more small world--we saw a serval in the Crater in similar circumstances--a bit far off, got up and then down several times, and then lay down not to be seen again. However, I didn't get a good photo straight on like you did.

 

This is fun. Can't wait to see what else on your trip was just like ours!

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Thanks @@amybatt, @@dlo, @@Atravelynn and @@SafariChick, it definitely was cool to see the lions in the trees.

@@elefromoz, I almost wonder if someone came up with that at some point as a marketing tool to increase visitors to the lesser known Lake Manyara? I know there are also "famous" tree climbing lions in QENP in Uganda as well, and a quick Google search just now found a African Geographic blog post regarding prides in Botswana and South Africa that also do it.

@@traveler318, it does sound like a similar trip, I wonder if we were at any sightings the same time? We saw the serval on February 12, and the lions the day after. It would be funny if we did overlap. Of course, I'm still waiting for you to start your own trip report... ;)

Upon finishing our lunch, we decided to continue along as the lions were still doing what lions do best, sleeping. We headed along the shores of the lake, where a few flamingos were feeding.

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We then continued through the forest, and exited out onto the plains. It had gotten really hot by this time, so we weren't convinced we'd see much, but we quickly came across a cheetah that was halfheartedly looking around for some food. We decided to continue along a little further, as there were two clusters of vehicles visible not too far away. The first group was stopped at a group of a few lionesses that had taken shelter in some bushes, but they weren't overly visible so we moved on further. The next group, maybe only 100 meters away, was with a fairly young female cheetah who had caught a wildebeest calf and was eating it in the cover of some bushes. She was hard to see while she ate, but the sound of her crunching away was quite something. Every once in a while she'd get up and scan the area, likely due to the close lions, which was the only time we'd get a good look at her.

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It was somewhat sad, the mother wildebeest was still in the area trying to find her calf. There were some vehicles that were hoping she'd wander over close enough to the lionesses that they'd rouse themselves and hunt her, but eventually she wandered off to rejoin the herd.

It seemed like there was the chance for some interesting interaction given that the two separate cheetahs, and the lionesses, were all close enough to see each other, but we eventually had to leave to start heading toward the ranger headquarters to get our Serengeti park passes. We passed by the big swamp area, and there located a part of one of the prides, including a couple of the pride males. They obviously had a good territory, with the water drawing in the prey, but there wasn't a lot of shade and they were definitely feeling the heat and so were doing what lions do best, laying around.

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Again, due to time constraints we had to leave them, and headed toward the park headquarters. I mentioned that there were 4 species we were hoping to see; one of them was bat-eared foxes. On our way to the headquarters, we passed through an area which apparently (for the guides) has a well-known fox den, so we slowed down trying to find them. It looked like we weren't going to be lucky, until I saw a small dark shape off to the said and told Mussa to stop and check it out. It turned out to be a fox, and I got my first (and only over 2 safaris) "good eyes." Unfortunately we were running late to get to the ranger post before the 6PM deadline, so we decided to leave and then come back on our way to our camp - but by then they'd left and we couldn't find them. I was kind of bummed, as we hadn't even really taken any photos (notice I don't show any here). I was certainly a little bummed, and hoped we'd find them again sometime.


We drove along the lake to get to our camp, but things were quite quiet. Just as we got to camp, and the nice golden light was shining, we did find some white storks in a tree, which made for a nice final photo.

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The next morning, we were up bright and early, and stepped out of our tent just as the sky was starting to lighten up. For whatever reason, we never had great sunrises while in the Serengeti/Ndutu, definitely the very first light was better than the actually sunrises.



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It got actually quite cool a couple of the mornings we were in Ndutu, and this morning in particular. So when we left, there were patches of fog in areas, which would catch the early morning sun.



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Not far from camp, we came across a black-backed jackal, who seemed to be waking up for the day.



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When we set out this morning, we decided that we'd head back out onto the plains, and try to find some of the wildebeest herd. However, we decided to detour through some of the swamp area, to see what was going on. We quickly came across this solitary male cheetah, relaxing out in the open.



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We felt that he seemed somewhat hungry, and were somewhat hopeful that he'd try to hunt. However, on one side of him was a herd of Grant's gazelles and Topi, and they had definitely already seen him, so he wasn't going to have luck that way. There were some Tommy's in the other direction, and at first they didn't seen to realize he was there at first... but he didn't seriously start stalking them, and after a while they noticed him.



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He seemed to realize he wasn't going to have any luck, so he rolled around on the ground for a while and then retreated into some bushes.



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We debated whether to stick around, on the assumption that he'd probably try a hunt at some point, but ultimately decided to continue on for the wildebeest. However, as we were leaving the forest, we noticed a large group of vultures landing on the ground, so we detoured over in that direction. Once we located them, there was a group of vultures/marabou storks fighting over the remaining scraps of some animal.



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Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see at that point. We were about to head off again in search of the wildebeest, when the call came over the radio that another cheetah in the area was on the prowl. So we headed over that way...



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Good eyes on the bat eared fox! You made the best of the sunrise. I think I only did sunrise shots one morning as well. I like the lions with the brilliant scenery in the background.

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On the virtues of being patient (sorry for the delay, was travelling the past couple of days - our first trip to Acadia NP)



There's been some discussion, particularly with @@Atravelynn and @@ice having visiting Ndutu around the same time, about vehicles that would drive up to a sighting, take a couple of pictures, and continue along without any patience to see the animal do something interesting. When we arrived at this cheetah, there were four other vehicles present, all lined up off to the side between the cheetah and a small herd of impala (6-8 animals) about 100 metes away. The impala were wandering slowly away from the cheetah, but they hadn't seen her. While we waited, three other vehicles (8 in total at this point) all in a line, and well behaved (in general, I was impressed with the behavior of the guides in Ndutu, except for one minor issue later on this day). As the impala got further away, she decided it was time to make a move, and started slowly moving toward them, using the bushes as cover.



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Unfortunately for her, her stalking was rather slow, and the impala made their way over a small hill. At that point, she appeared to give up, and sat back down. Three of the vehicles that were waiting there decided at that point to leave, meaning five remained. But she fairly quickly regrouped, and decided to scan the area for other possible prey. She made her way toward a tree with a large, dead trunk, and we were quietly cheering her to get up on it. After a bit of hesitation, she obliged, and gave us one of those typical cheetah poses.



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After several minutes of scanning the area, she obviously didn't see much, and so she slowly got down. At this point, three more vehicles left, leaving just two of us. She took cover under a bush, so both vehicles moved closer to get a nice portrait photo of her. At this point, the other vehicle left us alone with her - we had of course wanted to see a cheetah hunt, and so decided that we were sticking with her all day if needed.



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It only took about 5 minutes before she got up again, and found a new perch to scan the area for prey.



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She actively scanned for a while, then seemed to relax, so we did too, and got prepared to follow her wherever she went.



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All of a sudden, she bounded off to her left, taking 3 large steps (away from us) before pouncing on something. We made our way over there (behind the dark green bush behind her in the photo 3 pictures up), to find her finishing off a reedbuck.



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After taking a few bites, she then dragged the carcass into that same bush, and sat down to relax.



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We were still the only vehicle there (having been alone with her about 30 minutes), and we decided to have our lunch while she at hers in the bush, in case she decided to do something else interesting. We had decided not to radio in the kill to the other guides, to let her enjoy her food in peace, but a couple of trucks did show up while we were eating. One remained for a while, but she was far enough into the bush they couldn't really see anything; the other tourists didn't want to see any blood, so they left pretty quickly. Once we finished our lunch, and the other vehicle had left, we took one last look at her, decided she was sleeping, and headed off to see what else we could find. We were glad we showed the patience, and in fact didn't have to wait around long.


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Nicely done! Ndutu was good to you! Great shots, your patience was rewarded!

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Thanks @@amybatt definitely our patience was rewarded. I think this day and the next day (to come) were both great to us.

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I just love your photos of the cheetahs. Do any of us ever tire of seeing them? No,we don't.

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On 9/14/2016 at 12:02 PM, optig said:

I just love your photos of the cheetahs. Do any of us ever tire of seeing them? No,we don't.

 

I certainly never get tired of cheetahs @@optig, luckily there are more to come!

 

 

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Continuing along, it was going to be hard for the afternoon to top our "private" hunt. We came across a small group of lions, one large male and four females, but it was the middle of the day and they were taking shade in some small trees. We decided to leave them, and since they were on our way back to camp come by again later in the day.



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The next couple of hours were pretty quiet, as it was pretty hot. There were small herds of wildebeest making their way toward the lake.



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We did come across a pair of cheetah brothers, but they were quite relaxed in the bushes.



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Eventually we made our way back to the lions, and there was some sign of life from them. The male in particular had decided to sit up and see what was going on. He was sneezing quite a bit - these turned out to be the most "action" we'd get from a lion on this trip.



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He eventually recovered, and decided to look regal showing off the latest in lion hairdos.



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After a while, he decided it was still too hot, and settled into a more comfortable position.



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We spent a couple of hours with the lions, as there was a constant stream of wildebeest passing alongside them, at a distance that Mussa said was sufficiently close that if the lions were feeling hungry would be amenable to a hunt.



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Unfortunately, the lionesses had started to watch the wildebeest passing by, when a vehicle decided to park directly between the lions and the herd. The guides (there were 4 vehicles that had been sitting with the lions for at least an hour hoping for a hunt) got on the vehicle with them and told them to move, but by then the lionesses had gone back to sleep. It was frustrating, although the next morning we passed by the same area and didn't see any lions or carcass, so maybe they wouldn't have hunted in any case.


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Great photo of the lion sneezing with him spattering everywhere. Nicely captured. I like the "almost" sneeze photos too, with the sort of snarl to his lip.

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Great photo of the lion sneezing with him spattering everywhere. Nicely captured. I like the "almost" sneeze photos too, with the sort of snarl to his lip.

 

I agree @@amybatt - if you only saw the almost pictures, you'd think he was showing some attitude. Much more menacing!

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