This week was very busy, as a lot of assignments were due before spending four days in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Regardless, it was still an amazing week!
Monday and Tuesday were spent working on assignments and our DR (Directed Research) proposals. My group's draft proposal grade was a little rough but it had a lot of helpful criticism from Dr. Kiffner. Tuesday I tried the soursob fruit that I found while doing the bike tour of Mto wa Mbu...it didn't taste the best (it was probably not ripe enough) but at some spots you could definitely taste the "sour apple candy" that it is often described as tasting like. At 12:46 on Tuesday the sun was at exactly 90 degrees overhead, meaning that we had no shadows!!! This was really cool to see and it made objects on the ground look like optical illusions. Then that night we watched a movie on the great wildebeest migration for Wildlife Ecology class.
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| No shadow! |
Expedition to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti!
Day 1:
Today we woke up bright and early to leave for Ngorongoro Crater. After around an hour we arrived at the top/rim of the crater with stunning views! The crater is the remains of a volcano and is technically a caldera. Wildlife thrive and are very prevalent inside, and while they can leave the crater, the walls are very steep and provide lots of protection for all of the species inside. Upon our descent into the crater we saw a caracal - a rare medium-sized cat! The temperature all morning was cool and really pleasant, and this added to the wonder of being inside this magical land! We saw lots of wildebeest, huge buffalo and eland (the eland were much bigger than I expected), a female lion right next to our car, and for the first time - hyenas!!! We also saw a herd of buffalo chase away ten lions (safety in numbers am I right?!?) before stopping for lunch at a hippo pool. We were able to walk up right to the water's edge and it was definitely scary and intimidating to be within 20ish yards of the hippos in the water. One thing that amazed me during the morning game drive was just the magnitude of animals: so many different species were intertwined and went on as far as the eye could see! Following lunch we continued our game drive in search of rhinos (which we are more likely to see in the crater than in the Serengeti) but didn't find any. It was frustrating to see a "rhino" far in the distance only to find out that it was a buffalo EVERY TIME. Two of our vehicles however were able to see a rhino very far into the distance - so far that it was barely noticeable while using binoculars. In the late afternoon we took the long, dusty drive to the Serengeti. We stopped at a gift shop/bathroom area where I bought some Maltesers and walked up to a great view of the open plains. Following this, we drove to our campsite towards the middle of the park. Along this drive some highlights included seeing topi and a lion sitting on a rock outcrop. Once at camp I set up my things in the "wavulana tent" (boys tent) - all 4 of us decided to sleep in one tent and put our things in another tent instead of being 2 and 2....because we're cool like that...lol. The cool thing about camp is that it is literally exposed to the national park on all sides: animals have been said to enter the camp frequently and we have to walk anywhere with an askari (guard) at night. Hearing hyenas "whoop" as I fell asleep was amazing and hard to believe was real!
Day 2:
This morning after a beautiful sunrise we started recording data for our only assignment of the expedition: we were collecting data on the amount of time tourist vehicles spent looking at different wildlife in order to estimate the "income" each species provides to the tourism industry. We also recorded all observations of carnivores in the park. I chose to be in the "crispy car" (the car with no roof that leads to all of its passengers being quite "crispy" from sunburn at the end of the day). In the morning we saw a herd of elephants playing in the sun, a goliath heron, crocodiles and a ton of hippos. Additionally, I was able to cross another species off of my list: a leopard! It was pretty far away in a tree but you could definitely tell it was a leopard. We ate lunch back at camp and then had a small lecture on the history of the Serengeti. Following this we drove to the visitor center where very cute hyraxes and mongoose were EVERYWHERE. In the late afternoon we had another fieldwork session where we spotted the same leopard in the same tree and enjoyed the pristine span and silence of the plains. Apparently the silence we experienced is not always present, as we are visiting the Serengeti during the slow season...during the busy months of July and August there can be 60 vehicles around a single lion! Right before heading back to camp for dinner my vehicle "stumbled" across a cheetah! A CHEETAH. We were talking about random things and not paying attention when the cheetah literally crossed the road right in front of us. It then laid down in the long grass and you could not even tell that it was there. Needless to say, all of the other students were very jealous of us as cheetahs are hard to come across and they didn't see any. Ironically, that evening we had a lecture from Dr. Theisinger on cheetah ecology (he has worked in cheetah conservation for several years now).
Day 3:
Today we recorded more tourist and carnivore data. We saw a pride of lions with cubs laying in the shade as well as the same leopard in the same tree again! We then stopped by a hippo pool where there were tons of baby hippos, a baby crocodile, and a huge monitor lizard on the coast. Here I learned that Kiffner's vehicle saw a serval cat which hopefully I will see at some point... After this, the vehicles raced each other to the lodge that we were spending the afternoon at. I swam in an infinity pool with a glass of pineapple juice in hand and had a nice relaxing time! Afterwards, we went on another game drive where we saw the same leopard AGAIN. I had fun just standing in the car with the wind in my face enjoying the beautiful landscape of the Serengeti...That evening during REKAP we had a hyena walk up within half a football field of our group circle (very cool!), and then I had to do dishes for cook crew before sitting by the fire with some other students. It was at this fire that Evan and I threw some rocks in the brush to scare everyone into thinking there was a hyena right there - it worked better than we thought and people actually ran to get a staff member!
Day 4:
This morning we woke up early to take down our tents and pack the lori (truck). We then drove through the park to get to the gate and leave. During this drive, one vehicle saw a spitting cobra, and all of us witnessed approximately 20,000 wildebeest cross the road right in front of us! It's interesting that the wildebeest cross the road in a mostly single file line...the same way they cross other obstacles like a river. Later on we also spotted a cheetah with two cubs on a dirt mound in the distance. They were hard to see but it made me feel better that all of us were finally able to see a cheetah. Right near these cheetahs was a baby wildebeest all alone (this was very sad but is a part of nature). Other highlights included seeing more hyenas and a huge male lion right next to the road. After leaving the national park we went to the Olduvia Gorge and museum where we had a intriguing lecture on human evolution and looked at some ancient remains. It is believed that humans originated from this area of the globe which is really cool! On the drive back to camp we spotted some camels (camels?!?) that some Maasai people used as livestock. As a last stop, we went to another viewpoint of Ngorongoro Crater where we got a group picture and sawwwwwwww RHINOS down in the crater! They were hard to see but you could definitely tell that they were rhinos (I love rhinos so this was a very special moment). Once back at campus it was nice to take a cold shower and get all of the layers of dirt off of my skin. Overall, this expedition was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and will be something I never forget!
Sunday was a free day! I spent the morning doing laundry and typing my one paper which was due at midnight. For lunch I went with six other students to Gibb's Farm, where we were treated to an INSANE buffet filled with so much food that I haven't had in months: chicken marsala, fried broccoli, meats and cheeses (it's been so long since I've had decent cheese!), fresh veggies, frittatas, and for desert: raspberry mousse, cake, cinnamon fritters, rice pudding, fresh fruit, pineapple tarts and a sauce that was the king of all sauces (basically brown sugar and melted butter but it tasted like heaven).....mmm I miss it so much already!!! What's great is that almost all of the food in the buffet was grown on-site and while I ate two huge plates of food, I didn't feel disgusting since the food was for the most part fresh and healthy! While at Gibb's Farm I also had to check out the fancy bathrooms (super fancy), and then our group hung out with some goats before we left. Here we had some issues... First the car wouldn't start so we had to get out and push it. Then, we got "pulled over" by some man claiming that Amelia (our driver/student affairs manager) was driving recklessly even though she wasn't. He literally forced us off of the road and explained that as a "government official" (he never showed ID) he was able to go much over the speed limit, and his speed combined with our turning onto the tarmac meant we were reckless.....Amelia explained that things like this happen all the time sadly because she is a white woman driving in Tanzania and men like to take power over this...
Back at camp I finished my paper, ate little dinner - I was still full from Gibb's Farm - packed for Kenya and called my parents before you guessed it: NASCAR.
Oh wait, did that word slip...am I possibly LEAVING FOR KENYA TOMORROW MORNING??? Well the answer is yes, and I will be there for two weeks!!! I will still try to blog while there but can't make any promises. Here's to our ten hour drive tomorrow....
Have a great week!
Matt
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