Safari Part 5a

September 2, 2009 (Serengeti Day 2)

We awake excited to explore the Serengeti for an entire day. Mike is making it a personal goal to see duma (cheetah) today. We have a quick breakfast, pile into the Land Rover, and immediately pop the roof. Safari has turned us all into puppies in the car. We always want the roof up so we can stand with our heads in the breeze, hair flying, pointing out any moving animal of interest. If I had a tail it would be wagging, and I may have even had my tongue lolling out on occasion.

Immediately upon heading out we find our second chui (leopard). Of course it’s up a tree. This one is totally uninterested in us, and just wants to chill.

We move on and immediately run into a hippo, but this one is out of the water. He’s hanging out near a river, looking rather forlorn. Mike explains that he’s a male that’s been driven off by the alpha male. Between the hippo and the water there are now a family of elephants, so he seems lost and unsure and rather sad.

The elephants that surround him seem to be doing the maximum amount of damage possible to the surrounding trees. They’ve knocked down a fair number, stripping them partially before moving on to the next tree. It’s a fairly large herd and the swath of destruction is pretty wide.

We stop by a hippo pool and catch site of our first Nile crocodile, the largest in the world. They can be up to 18 feet long and are able to take full wildebeest down easily. Mike’s scariest moment as a guide relates directly to this primeval beast. He had taken a couple of F-16 pilots on safari and they’d stopped by a small pool to check out some crocodiles and had the lucky timing of watching one kill a gazelle. One of the pilots got really excited, jumped out of the Land Rover and ran over to get a better picture. He ran right to the edge of the pool.

Mike freaked out and was yelling for him to come back. He did not, however, follow. He wasn’t so worried about the crocodile currently munching a gazelle, but it had been a dry year and he knew that this particular pool often had many crocs and it was surrounded by tall grass.

Nothing happened, but he did say it was his scariest moment to date as a guide.

Shortly after we left the hippo pool, we had our scariest moment on safari. We turned a corner in the road and found a mother elephant with a very small baby maybe twenty yards away. She immediately freaked. Her ears flew out to the side and she unhesitatingly charged the Land Rover. Mike hit the gas.

We all immediately say ‘Go Back! Go Back!’

Mike looks at us like we’re crazy.

‘Go back! That was a false charge! We have to go back, the baby is so tiny and cute.’

I’d read in my obsessive Africa reading frenzy that in a false charge an elephant’s ears are out, making them look bigger and scarier. These charges are just warnings to back off and get out of the way. When it’s a real charge and they’re going for blood the ears are back against the side of their head, making them more aerodynamic.

Mike agrees with this. But it still takes begging to get him to go into reverse and return. He assures us he’s seen an elephant attack and damage a Land Rover and clearly isn’t as excited as we are by the elephant charge.

We finally make our way back and pull up alongside the mama and her baby. She turns and immediately charges again—ears out still. Mike again hits the gas. And we again make him return. By now, mama and baby have left the road, but the rest of the herd is nearby watching. We start taking a few pictures.

Mike says ‘Look, I think there’s another small baby on the ground.’

Sure enough, next to another large female, a small bundle of grey is curled on the ground. Mama has a watchful eye on us and is clearly agitated. She suddenly throws up her trunk, trumpets, and charges. Mike pulls ahead and the rest of the herd heads off.

We have just been charged three times in under 10 minutes. Awesome. Awe. Some.

To be Continued...

Photos: Male Hippo. Nile Crocodile. First charge by the Elephant. Second charging Mama Elephant. Baby hiding behind Mama.