Saturday, August 6th:

After breakfast we left with our new guide Joseph for the long drive to the Serengeti. We drove through the barren landscape of Lake Natron passing a few Maasai bomas, herds of their cows and goats, and wild zebras. Then we passed through unpopulated areas of badlands and desert.  We continued on to grassy hill country with acacia trees.  We passed a final Maasai market town.  Mills were going grinding the maize for ugali. The Maasai women were splendid in their white beaded jewelry.

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We reached a little used entrance to the Serengeti and watched the incredibly colorful Mwanza lizards while Joseph did the paperwork.  We then had two hours of game driving to our camp. We saw several types of antelope we’d never seen before including the steenbok and klipspringer.

We ate dinner with a mother and daughter pair, Judy and Ruth.  Ruth had just summitted Kilimanjaro.

Sunday, August 7th:

After a leisurely morning we had a day long game drive with Joseph.  We saw at least eight lions, a cheetah, two leopards and a 40+ herd of elephants!  In the morning we saw a dead gazelle being eaten by a jackal with a vulture and three steepe eagles awaiting their turn.  Not long after we came across another dead gazelle with a handful of vultures fighting over it.  Two marabou storks arrived dwarfing the vultures and stealing food from their mouths.  Then a lion we’d spotted previously came to the scene running. The birds scattered and the lion took the gazelle for herself.

Later we joined 30 other land cruisers in getting a good look at a cheetah that was lounging by the road.  After that we spotted a sleeping leopard in a tree and then watched another leopard unsuccessfully stalk gazelles in the tall grass.  We saw elephants here and there including a large herd of mamas and young.  In the evening we staked out a sleeping pair of mating lions hoping to see some action, but the couple slept on and we gave up.

Back at camp we dined with a Dutch family of four.

Monday, August 8th:

We packed up and drove rapidly across the Serengeti to the north.  We stopped to help another car with a flat tire.  We reached the northern Mara and turned off the main road.  We saw larger and larger herds of wildebeest. We stopped for a coffee break watching the animals in the valley and listening to music.  For lunch we found a marshy green spot and enjoyed Joseph’s music.  In the afternoon we headed toward the Maru river seeing ever bigger herds of wildebeest.

When we reached the Maru river there were wildebeest on the other side and crocodiles on the bank, but the wildebeest showed no sign of crossing.  We drove farther along the river to a spot with lots of hippo pulled out on an island in the river.  There was a leopard in the shadows of the roots of an overturned tree near the hippos.  An enormous crocodile pulled out on a sandbank. Two grey headed kingfishers put on a beautiful show of their colorful blue wings.

Eventually we moved on to another spot on the river. Joseph went into top speed when he spotted the telltale dust cloud of a large herd of wildebeest on the move.  We found a herd of wildebeest running to the water’s edge and then bounding across the waters and piling up on an island in the middle of the river.  More and more wildebeest crossed to the island and we expected eventually they would overflow and cross the other half of the river.  Instead, the animals began running back again so that some were coming while others were going.  

We’d watched the spectacle for a while and were about to go when Joseph spotted a wildebeest a bit downstream from the crossing. Upon a closer look the ridge of a large crocodile surfaced next to the struggling wildebeest.  The croc had it firmly by the hind leg.  For more than twenty minutes the wildebeest struggled as the croc patiently held it in the river.  

The wildebeest almost got away, freeing it’s mangled hind leg, but the croc got it by the front leg and pulled it to deeper water. Finally a second smaller crocodile arrived and biting the wildebeest’s head pulled it under water. The threesome disappeared below the water’s surface.

Satisfied with our amazing sighting we headed for our new camp 40 minutes drive from the Maru river.  From our tent we had a view across rolling hills with wildebeest, zebra and topi grazing close by and on all the hillsides.

The Dutch family: Annamika, Ranier, Youp and Flores joined us again for dinner.

Tuesday, August 9th:

In the night we heard so many hyena and in the early morning we could hear a herd of wildebeest, zebra and topi arrive close by.  We joined Joseph for a game drive along the river lined with huge flocks of vultures, griffin and marabou storks,  Corpses of wildebeest floated down the river and carcases dotted the plains.  The stench of death filled the air.  The vultures and hyenas were sated and didn’t even bother to eat some of the fallen wildebeest that may have died from a spine or neck injury dealt by their own kind in the melee of crossing the river.

We crossed the river and drove through enormous herds of wildebeest that went on and on.  The scale of the herd was massive.

We were back at camp by mid afternoon enjoying some down time.

Wednesday, August 10th:

We had a game drive in the morning along the river where cars were lined up waiting for a wildebeest crossing.  Then we drove around an area of rocky outcroppings with rock figs growing out of the rocks.

From there we continued to a spot with five female lions sleeping along a stand of acacia trees.  The youngest woke, got up and took a shit right in front of our car.

We joined another Wayo car with New Yorkers Travis and Billy. Then we left the road attempting a shortcut to the Wayo walking camp.  The walking camp is located in a wilderness rhino zone.  There are no roads and no game driving allowed. We lurched around across meadows and over brush covered hills.  We crossed several washes and creeks. Then we came upon a creek where there was no safe way to cross and we had to turn back to the road.  We took the road around a line of hills and then left it again driving across the bush, lurching down then up steep washes. Herds of zebra, eland and wildebeest fled from our path.  We finally reached camp around 2 PM.

We had a late lunch with the Wayo owner Jean, Sarah and another guest Sydney Stewart a Conde Nast travel writer. We had some down time around camp in the afternoon. The girls played in the nearby portion of the riverbed.

In the early evening we had a short walk with Travis and Billy, their guide Zeph and Joseph who carried a rifle.  We bushwhacked along the riverbed examining hyena tracks.  Then we crossed some meadows and brushy hillsides.  We found some relatively fresh rhino poop!

We enjoyed Tanzanian food night with our hosts and the other guests.  We continued with wine drinking and travel stories after the girls had gone to bed.

Thursday, August 11th:

We had a six hour long bushwhacking hike with Travis, Billy, Joseph, and George the ranger. The terrain was gentle hills with acacia forest and meadows and occasionally alongside or across a stream with larger trees and palms.  On our hike we saw wildebeest, zebra, reedbuck, eland, topi and a lion skull with one fang. The last portion of the hike was very hot and our pace was slow.

When we reached our new camp at the bottom of a hill we relaxed in the shade with our hosts Jean and Sarah. Once we had recovered from our morning hike we took the short walk to the nearby spring.  We walked around the hill, through a valley that was full of wildebeest and zebra.  We even saw some elephants.  

The spring was pretty murky but the girls and Jean were game. Jean waded in and dramatically submerged himself.  Soon Ruby and Jane had stripped down to their tshirts and panties and were in.  A splash fight and then a mud fight ensued.  Eventually everyone was out of the spring, but unfortunately Jean lost his hat in the waters.

The rest of the afternoon we spent writing or doing artwork or just gazing out watching ostrich and warthogs pass. When the fire was started it got away and started burning the grass and spreading with the wind. Soon all hands were on deck to put the fire out, beating the flames with acacia branches.

We enjoyed dinner and wine around the fire until going to bed in small backpacking tents.

Friday, August 12th:

We ate a light breakfast around the fire. Carrie had an infected toe and decided to drive back to camp rather than hike. We said goodbye to to Jean and Sarah and to Travis and Billy who were headed off to Ngorongoro and then on to Zanzibar.

We hiked a couple hours back to the riverside camp with Joseph and George.  We climbed the hills and followed the ridge with great views.  Again we saw herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, topi and hartebeest.  We saw a lone hyena lope across the plain and we scared a hare from it’s den.  We were back in our original camp by mid morning.

We spent the late morning and after lunch on our tent front porches watching the steady stream of wildlife coming and going from the river bed. There were herds of zebra and wildebeest interspersed with antelope. We organized our stuff, read and wrote and did artwork.

We joined a German couple for an evening walk with Joseph and George. We headed up river and then uphill. We were surrounded by a huge herd of zebra. The sky was dramatic and threatened rain but produced a rainbow instead. As we descended the herd, now including wildebeest stampeded away and around us.

Dinner was set up in a new location at camp and slow in coming.  While we waited I again encountered a vicious ant attack.  Soon all of us were running around slapping ourselves trying to get the ants out of our pants. The ants were everywhere on the table.  Our cries brought the staff running and the whole table was moved away.  The German family’s tents had also been infected by ants and they had to set up new tents and move.