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Rains of Tanzania update


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Ho. Brian's Art For Animals here in central Serengeti. Just a quick alert to anyone doing the N Tanzania route. Most of Tarengire is closed. So expect many jeeps in the limited open areas. Ndutu is a jeep graveyard. Many stuck vehicles due to the mud. Again any sightings will have a lot ofjeeps. Central Serengeti is more dry but still stuck jeeps and muddy crowded roads. All makes for interesting safari for FEB. Cheers . Brian. I will have pics and videos when I return.

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Thanks for the notice - did you change your ST name? I liked Brian's Art for Animals as I know there'll be upcoming TR videos !

 

have a great trip for the rest of your holiday. 

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@artanimal

Any update on the rains and mud?  Also where the migration is?

We will be in central Serengeti and Ndutu in about 10 days. 

Edited by mapumbo
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Hi Mapumbo,

I just talked to George on Whatapp this morning.  He is in Ndutu now.  The rain has slowed a bit but still very muddy.  He said he can't get to Makao plains.  I said I hope it dries out before Mapumbo and Mama Ndege get there.  His response was yes.  I didn't check on the wildebeest location.  I will ask.

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Tanzania is really hit by hard rain. Bridge in Ruaha collapse, my friends car is stranded in Ruaha, can’t cross the river. Selous is flooded. And the long rains to come in March is yet to come.

 Very sad - either they have drought or the country is drowned in rain. 😢

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Brian's Art for Animals

Hello, i am back in Chicago now and able to look up my password for this site. That is why i had to create this quick profile. The situation isn't so bad i would cancel a safari for, but it is worth noting what to expect, so that is why i wanted to post quickly. The herds of zebras and wildebeest are in Ndutu and some right outside the Naabi Hill entrance to Serengeti. We did see a calf born in the crater but hopefully soon they all will start dropping. From what I saw in the parks:

Tarangire. I heard some of the hotels are closed forcing the open lodges to be crowded and also any animal sighting to also be crowded, 13 jeeps watching impala is always a strange sight :) Hopefully if it stays dry they will open up other sections of the park but the river to cross them was flowing very strong, so it might be some time. With the open areas animal viewing is ok, but for mt three times there it was the least amount of seeing things for sure. We did see some elephants and of course all the impala and gazelles and vervet monkeys one can ask for.

Ndutu: Some roads along the water are as mentioned jeep graveyards. The main road in also was blocked by various supply trucks not being able to make it and then you have 3-4 hours waiting to get by. It still was fun, but very hard to get around. The animal viewing was ok as we had lions, cheetah mom and her two cubs, and some hyena.

Central Serengeti: Again some roads (even after no rain for the past few days) are hard to use and or jeeps are just not trying them. Our driver (Nickson from Savannah Explorers) was excellent and was often showing the other drivers the way to do it and or helping them get unstuck. Rangers are also out with trucks/tractors helping pull you out, but one couple waited 5 hours for this. We did see some leopard (young female with her cub) and of course lions (saw the big three brothers who live near a ranger station), but overall sightings were less than before since i would think the amount of jeeps using the same roads, and all the very tall grass due to the rains  would have some affect.

Ngorongoro crater. some of the crater roads are closed. The way to the ascent road is very hard to get to. Our jeep was in water up to our hood and on a 50-60 degree angle over the rocks to be able to make it. We did see some jeeps stuck. We did see a rhino and the big 4 of the crater, but also it wasn't as good as before given the high grass and number of jeeps on the limited areas open.

So all in all, have fun but just expect higher amount of jeeps at some sightings and a very wet and bumpy ride!

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Brian's Art for Animals

i might add this quick story here as i thought it was funny... File under: A strange BUT true Safari story...
2003: I go to Kenya for my first African safari to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy Park . With a cheap film camera on one of my first drives, I snapped some pictures of a large male elephant coming out of the small lake. Our jeep had watched a small herd playing in the lake and we stayed to see this big guy come out. It is now a photo I print off sometimes and sell at my art shows.
2020: Tanzania. Our jeep stops, on the way to the Serengeti, at one of many touristy stores along the way. I go in to use the bathroom and hanging between two stalls is a drawing of my photo. STRANGE.. and i say strange. So i made a deal (always buy for a third of asking price) and i now own it

1 (1121x1280).jpg

b (1280x960).jpg

c (1082x1280).jpg

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On 2/11/2020 at 11:45 AM, kilopascal said:

Hi Mapumbo,

I just talked to George on Whatapp this morning.  He is in Ndutu now.  The rain has slowed a bit but still very muddy.  He said he can't get to Makao plains.  I said I hope it dries out before Mapumbo and Mama Ndege get there.  His response was yes.  I didn't check on the wildebeest location.  I will ask.

We are in the Mara.  It has rained a little both days we have been here but we are getting around everywhere.  They had a stretch of dry weather before we arrived that helped the roads.  Hopefully the same will happen before we get to Tanzania although the forecast is not too promising.

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Sitting in Addis waiting for my flight back to Europe. Ruaha and Selous are very wet indeed. Apparently the bridges into Ruaha have been fixed a couple of days ago, so possible to reach the park by car again. Grass is of course very high, but everything looks very pretty, green and lush. Selous is land under - more water than anything else when flying over it. We had to leave our lodge early because it started to be in the lake rather than at the lake. Got stuck a couple of times, the drivers really have a tough job right now. But despite all, had a very enjoyable safari. 

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7 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

Sitting in Addis waiting for my flight back to Europe. Ruaha and Selous are very wet indeed. Apparently the bridges into Ruaha have been fixed a couple of days ago, so possible to reach the park by car again. Grass is of course very high, but everything looks very pretty, green and lush. Selous is land under - more water than anything else when flying over it. We had to leave our lodge early because it started to be in the lake rather than at the lake. Got stuck a couple of times, the drivers really have a tough job right now. But despite all, had a very enjoyable safari. 

 

Looking forward to your report @michael-ibk I think I saw somewhere earlier on here you were staying in the same camps I visited about 2 years ago

Glad to see you had a good time.

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@michael-ibk so glad and relieved that the floods didn't spoil your trip. Look forward to reading your TR!

 

@Brian's Art for Animals so bizarre that your photograph ended up in the tourist store. they may have still a few in stock!

 

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@Brian's Art for Animals 

 

What a great story about your finding the drawing of your old photograph of the elephant. What are the chances of that? That’s a large-sized drawing, too. Good for you for making a deal to buy it. And I see you’ve now made it your avatar here. Very appropriate. 

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We were in Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya last week and the roads have dried up. 

We are now in the central Serengeti and the roads are dry.  The grass is almost as tall as the Mara in the central part but we went to the east side and it is shorter and has wildlife.  We spotted 11 different cheetah this morning.  One mother with 5 cubs on a kill.  There should be no travel issues in the Serengeti.

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6 more new cheetah in the Gol Kopjes today, plus seeing 8 cheetah we saw from the day before on the Busanga Plains.  The mother with the 5 cubs is doing a great job.

Cheetah extravaganza! 

Off to Ndutu tomorrow.

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Brian's Art for Animals

it was odd indeed to see my photo as a drawing. I am glad to have come across it and buy it for a good price :) Glad the rains are drying up so people can continue having a great time of Safari.

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Very cool story about the painting @Brian's Art for Animals   Really nice photo - you can feel the movement.

 

I hope you won't mind my saying I actually like the crop and the white balance on the artist's version. Good decision to make the water a bit muddier too I think.   :D

 

 

Edited by pault
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Brian's Art for Animals

whoever the artist was, they did a great job.

 

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A friend of mine just came back from two weeks in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire. She said the rains stopped the day before she arrived. No rains since then. Green, lush grass but game drives were possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've spent the past two weeks in Ndutu, Central & Eastern Serengeti and Ngorongoro. There are still rains from time to time, but not constantly throughout the day. Ndutu is partly muddy, but game drives are still possible and there are just a few areas one can't go at the moment. The Central and Eastern Serengeti was not as bad, but some side roads were very muddy and small streams turned into larger streams, on one occasion we had water slightly above the bonnet crossing one.

 

Also, at one camp in Selous, some guest tents have been affected by the floods following the rains. In the camps at higher altitudes, there seem to be no problems with the rain as it drains downwards.

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