On Safari in Tanzania: the Serengeti's Seronera

Posted by David Youldon on 10 April 2013

Having left Ndutu (read: On Safari in Tanzania: Ndutu) behind, we drove north on our Safari Drive-booked, self-drive vacation into the Serengeti to Seronera, a woodland oasis in a sea of endless grass.  We arrived at the information centre, where hyrax lay about in the sun or clambered in the trees. Unfortunately, information was not particularly forthcoming, and so we went to the park headquarters offices – which were deserted. So we pressed on until we found our campsite (the maps and the campsite numbers do not match), only to discover that a tour company had established a temporary lodge on the site.  They did not have a permit for the days that they were there, but they did have one that had them arriving midway during out booked stay. After some discussion, we made some calls using the numbers Safari Drive had given us – they had already warned us this was likely to happen. Luckily, the park ranger in charge of campsites was on his way to the info centre and we agreed to rendezvous there, now knowing that any hope of an afternoon game drive was lost. After quite a wait, followed by more discussion, we learned that rangers knew that the camp booking system causes endless problems, and is in need of a complete re-think. The plan was to follow the ranger around each camp site until, hopefully, we would find an empty one.

Hyrax scamper around the information centre

However, en route, we saw a few vehicles parked up and decided to investigate whilst the ranger continued on to find a camp site, returning to us to give us its number. The vehicles were watching a pride of four lionesses and their six cubs that we estimated were around two or three months old – certainly young enough that they were too short to see clearly in the grass. The pride was taking a break at a ditch in which some water had collected. One female looked very pregnant and kept her distance from the rest of the pride, eventually walking off alone. Maybe she was ready to leave the pride to give birth.  The ranger returned and told us camp site five was free, and as darkness began to descend we headed off to set up camp, spotting some bat-eared foxes on the way.

A pride of lionesses and their cubs play around a small water source

The lions of the Serengeti have to bear swarms of flies

The camp site was not far from the lions and we wondered whether we would have any nocturnal visitors, but we all slept soundly and heard nothing come past us.  The next morning we set out, passing the same place where we had seen lions the previously evening, only to discover a group of hyena in the same spot.  We decided to follow the Seronera River but were disappointed by the few animals that we saw.  During the heat of the day,we relaxed back at camp and set out again in the afternoon with the hope of better luck. We checked around the kopjes in the hope of finding klipspringer, or better still, leopard.  We found neither, in fact we did not find much of anything.  On the way back to camp there were vehicles again at the place where there had been lions and then hyena. We were told there were lions but they were far off and lying down so could not be seen.  A disappointing day. At camp a herd of waterbuck rested nearby our tent all night, trying to keep low and out of an increasing wind.

A family of mongoose scour the ground for tasty morsels

By morning the wind had really picked up and the tent gave way, buckling under the constant pressure.  Luckily, we were packing up anyway and moving into Ang’ata Serengeti Camp for our last night in the area.  In the afternoon we decided to check-out ‘hippo pool’ as marked on the map. Here we discovered maybe 100 hippo crammed into a small pool, merrily farting, burping, spraying dung and having the occasional fight.  The sounds emanating from the pool could not help but force a laugh from all that heard them.

Hippos gather together in large numbers in a small pool

Our final morning in Seronera, and again there was little to report. We met a very young hyena on our way out camp and, with almost no animals seen, we ended up back at the hippo pool for some more laughs. A crocodile entered the water which caused quite a stir amongst the larger inhabitants, and it quickly move out of their way.

A young hyena follows the older clan members

A large hippo eyes up his neighbour

We were just leaving Seronera when we saw a lot cars to our left. We drove over and discovered a herd of hassled elephants and a dead buffalo. After a bit of looking around we spotted a young male lion (or the top of his head anyway) in the grass. We left the other tourists to snap away in what must be the worst photos of a lion ever taken and drove south to our next destination at Moru Kopjes, desperately hoping for better sightings, and fewer flies.

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