Week 4 - African Odyssey

As I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling agitated and felt an urgent need to shake things up a bit. The original plan was for our driver SP to drive 200km in one day from Ngorongoro Crater, across the Serengeti to the Northwest Corridor where Simbavati Grumeti Lodge is located. This main road across the Serengeti is notoriously known as a hellish road that destroys vehicles because of the corrugations and traffic, and most importantly we’d be racing through the most famous reserve in the world in less than a day. 

So I told my good mate Marcus that I would need to skip the Simbavati Grumeti Lodge, and we were going to self-drive across the Serengeti over four days, from the south gate all the way to the northern border. What? Are you mad? There is almost no mobile reception! You’ll get lost; you’ll get eaten! Apparently, the team at South Africa 365 (our agents helping us and Marcus’s company) were taking bets on how long we would last before searching for help. This is not something folks do, and even more surprisingly, not in such short notice without advanced planning. Well, as I said, we are no ordinary family.

Much thanks must go to Marcus for arranging us a vehicle kitted with two roof tents, a fridge, a gas cooker, and some utensils. That’s all we needed. No satellite phone, no internet, no map, but we had an idea of where we would spend each night, and everything in between we would just figure out as we go. We did some basic provisioning at a small village for eggs, vegetables, fruit, bread, juices, pasta, tomato sauce and snacks. All ready to go! What could possibly go wrong???

Before we left civilization, we had one final night at the most incredible tented camp. Ironically, we wished we could stay here a few more nights because it was so amazing. It is situated on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater, looking west and enjoying the most incredible sunset views over the crater. They also seemed to have a huge resident bull elephant who made it tricky for us to get to our tent. If Ngorongoro Crater is a must-see for you, then this should be where you stay. It’s pretty damn cool.

Early, early before sunrise, as has been the case for the past month, we packed up one last time before embarking on our reckless journey across the crater and then the Serengeti. The crater itself is a truly unique ecosystem. Since 1977, no tribes have lived in the crater itself, and within the natural borders of the crater, the wildlife has been able to thrive with only the disturbance of safari cars rushing around and watching. And when I say rushing, we had a number of cars speeding past us and were wondering what the hell was going on until we spotted two black rhinos in the distance. Everyone was speeding to get their clients to see these beautiful and rare creatures and presumably earn their tip for being a guide who checked all the animals off the list. It is obvious to see how important this is to people, as even our kids found it exciting ticking off their sightings, but the true experience lies in watching and learning about each of them slowly—seeing their interactions and observing their behavior. For sure, not everyone gets this, and I didn’t expect Azania to understand at six years old, but I was starting to see Arabella and Alexandra’s interest in learning more about the various animals’ traits and behaviors.

The crater offered us a glimpse into what the wild world looks like without humans, but the area is not large enough, and being only 20 km across is a very confined space. There are still a LOT of vehicles and people, making it a little too busy for our liking. So off we went to the Serengeti.

The last thing our driver told us before leaving was that we should take the main road to the Serengeti main gate because we would definitely get lost on the other road as there’re many forks and no signs. But he also said that the other road was much more scenic. Sure enough, I offered the option to the kids, and they said, “Let’s take the scenic road.” I agreed 100%. What could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty, to be honest, but all of it was thrilling, exciting, pulsating, and eye-opening. This single decision gave us what we had been searching for during our one-month odyssey through Africa. As a family, it reminded us of life on the boat where we all needed to chip in and help, where we were not constantly waited on and pampered, and we got to explore at our own pace, in our own way, and adapt the experience for each of the kids and adults accordingly. I can safely say, without a doubt, the next four days resulted in the greatest happiness I have felt since crossing our first ocean as a family. I am so proud of my little team. It was not always easy, but we did it.

Yes, we got a little lost and we didn’t have mobile reception, but had downloaded some satellite images, and we knew roughly which direction we needed to head. Fortunately we saw another Land Cruiser driving towards us and the driver gave us some vague directions. We knew we needed to reach the Serengeti gate before 6 PM to check into the Serengeti park itself. At this point, we were still in the Ngorongoro park. Just so you know, there are no fences or anything; it is just an administrative thing. The lions, elephants, and buffalo are everywhere. After probably taking a few (maybe more) wrong turns, we made it to a gate before 6. It wasn’t exactly the right gate, but the ranger was nice enough to check us in. The next challenge was to find the “Special Campsite” that our agent has booked us in. Now having done my fair share of exploring many parts of Southern Africa, I know what a campsite looks like. Often there might be a water source, or sometimes a place to wash dishes, and if you’re lucky, maybe an ablution block. Well, we either never found the camp, or the camp was nothing but bush after all. Our estimation is we found an old abandoned mobile camp for some operator who had made a small area flat. We could see the semblance of an old fire pit. It was a stunning location, though—slightly up the Naabi hills with a kopje behind overlooking the plains of the Serengeti and the sunset. It was getting dark and so I said, “Let’s camp here.” There was no other people for miles and plenty of wildlife. Perfect! Our first camp set the tone for the rest of the Serengeti. At no point did we ever encounter another person camping or self driving. We were alone and somehow at home. The Serengeti was our private garden. The wild animals were our neighbors, and we respected each other.

That first night, we sat around the fire, which Azania and Alex were in charge of. They both were incredible at finding the necessary kindling to start the fire, and we charged around collecting firewood before the light had completely gone to ensure we had enough to hold the coals through to morning. Apple and Delphine got straight to making dinner, and Arabella and I set up the roof tents, etc. The kids loved the roof tent and thought it’s really cool. As the sounds of hyenas started hooting, we were all settled in. We didn’t waste much time getting into our respective tents on this first evening, all feeling slightly apprehensive, but the night was perfect. I was almost crying with happiness and excitement. This was the Africa I dreamed of. This was the Africa I wanted to bring my family to.

Early the next morning, just as the first rays were starting to peek over the horizon, I was making coffee and bringing the fire back to life. It’s quite chilly in the mornings. Full English breakfast was the order, and that’s what we enjoyed on this beautiful crisp morning to the symphony of chirping birds. What we didn’t know was what the day had in store for us.

We packed up early and headed north into the Park. We managed to get a Serengeti paper map at the gate and decided we would stick to the eastern side of Southern Serengeti. As luck would have it, we had chosen wonderfully, because by lunchtime we had found a large pride of lions, a huge memory of elephants—maybe 60 large—and another pride of lions. Pretty good start for our team with no guide. In fact, we saw more wildlife than at any point in the previous three weeks doing game drives almost every day: hyenas, giraffes, buffalo, eland, waterbuck, jackals… it was epic!

But as evening started creeping toward us, we were trying to find our next campsite known as “Sero 11 Special Camp.” We followed the map and the camp’s coordinates and drove round and round at least 5 times. We couldn’t find our camp but managed to find a public camp. We asked a young man if he knew where Sero 11 was. He kindly offered to jump in our vehicle and show us the way. Apparently, the maps of the Serengeti are not very accurate because he took us miles from the actual mapped point. Just before we arrived, we stumbled across two large beautiful male lions sleeping under the tree. We were all thrilled by the sighting but quietly concerned as to how far away our camp might be. We continued onwards for another 250-300m when our young guide said we had arrived. It was almost farcical because there was no sign of any human being ever being there before. It was just random piece of bush but hidden in the grass was a little sign that said “Sero 11 Special Camp.”

Yikes, those lions were close by. Anyway, our young guide told us we must take him back, and the sun was setting fast. We needed to race back past the two lions to drop him off, then race back past the two lions to set up camp. The two lions must be wondering what we were doing zooming left and right past them.  I was basically half keeping watch and not letting the kids get too far away while they searched for firewood and set up the tents, etc. We could hear the lions roar. It was our quickest setup, fire making, dinner eating, and into bedding ever. We all laid in our tents peeking out over the fire. At precisely 10 PM, as I was just drifting off to sleep when I was startled into full awake mode by what can only be described as feeling like a lion was in my bed. Delphine was also awakened and jumped up. The sound of a full-grown male lion roaring at night is so powerful and our tent was physically vibrating! I have read so many incredible bush books about how you don’t know fear until you hear a lion at close quarters. Well, at night in your tent, with two male lions telling another lion in the distance that this was their territory, was the full experience. At first, I couldn’t exactly make out where they were. I didn’t want to move around too much because it sounded like they were right below us. But after about ten minutes, I found one lying under a tree only about 25-30m away with the little torch we bought at the market. He’s much too close for comfort. But I couldn’t find the other one. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I actually thought we were being hunted. I know better than to think lions want anything to do with humans, but when your little kids are alongside you, strange thoughts go through your head.

Finally, I managed to find the second one as he walked slowly around the perimeter of our car. Seeing him gave me some peace because it was the not-seeing that I feared more. But the deep, deep throaty sound of their voices will always remain with me. Delphine was very grateful that we were sleeping on a roof tent and not a ground tent as I’ve originally requested. Slowly the lions started to move away but we couldn’t still hear them in a distance. Based on the sounds we heard, they had found dinner in the night. Thank goodness, because nothing is worse than a hungry lion. Poor Apple didn’t sleep a wink all night and didn’t talk much the whole next day. I think she may never forget that night. I will also never forget the feeling of incredible closeness to my wife and kids that night. I am their protector, and that night I felt very inadequate.

The next morning, we were all up and ready to leave before sunrise. We wanted to find some early morning action, and I guess we also wanted to find the lions with their prey. We could hear them, but sadly we couldn’t find them. The morning drive was pretty uneventful, and we saw all the usual but nothing worthy of writing about other than the sky filled with hot air balloons. The kids were in awe, and so were we. It looked amazing to be floating over the Serengeti.

Later that afternoon, we were back trying to find our next camp in Lobo - our regular evening experience. This time Delphine guided me to a road with some branches blocking the way but a clear track where people had gone around the branches. I should have known better, as those branches were obviously trying to tell us something. Over the next few miles, we were climbing the foothills of Lobo Hills in low range, testing both the full capability of the Land Cruiser and my driving skills. The road had been washed away probably a few years before, and it was basically mountain climbing. We guessed the lodge that we saw high on the hills was probably abandoned, as no vehicle could easily make it up here. It was fun and exciting, and we didn’t break the car, which was the main goal. When we finally reached the higher reaches, we stared out over another epic view of the Serengeti. I can honestly say that it never gets old. It is beyond beautiful. The area also allowed us to start seeing some new animals. We found klipspringers at every turn and rock hyrax, more eagles, bateleurs, and snake eagles, and also lots of buffaloes, which was surprising so high up. We also found out the lodge was not abandoned and they use a different access road. Luckily for us, they said the camp we were looking for wasn’t far away. Haha. As you guessed, that was not so true, and we definitely didn’t find any proof of a camp. But by now, we were used to making our own camp.

This day also gave me a chance for all my girls to have driving lessons. I figured it was unlikely a giraffe would give us a traffic ticket. Alex drove first. She did remarkably well for her first attempt at driving a manual car and managed a few kilometers, getting all the way to fourth gear. She was very good with her clutch control. Azania drove the steering wheel for many kilometers, but because she couldn’t reach the pedals, she sat on my lap, and Arabella was tasked with bringing our car into the camp and parking us in the exact spot required for our camp. We changed a few times because the girls didn’t like the proximity of the buffaloes. Fair reasoning; I agreed.

Tonight would be our last night alone, and the following evening we would be arriving at the Simbavati Migration Camp by the Mara River. So we were going to make the most of it. Delphine and I stayed up a little later alongside the fire, enjoying the cool evenings of the Serengeti. We enjoyed simple ramen noodles for dinner. The kids were pretty exhausted, with everyone starting to feel incredibly dusty and dirty. We boiled water and bathed from the small basin with the one single hand towel we had. That night, the wind blew, which I didn’t expect or forecast, and my chosen camp was exposed and not particularly protected, which resulted in a few sleepy heads in the morning. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Our final day brought more incredible sightings and a lot more challenging navigation. Lobo is in the central eastern reaches of the Serengeti, and we needed to get northwest to the Mara. We were able to plug in the coordinates of the Simbavati mobile camp. Though we knew where we needed to go, google map doesn’t show any roads leading towards it. So we called Marcus and the camp manager, Norman. Marcus sent me a video of the bridge I should try to find. And Norman said, on the very broken line, that I should pass the Kogentnga airstrip, which was still ahead of me. So I realized that the way to this spot involved driving from a different side. We followed our noses, and by some miracle, we found a tiny sign saying “Simbavati.” A few miles further, we found the bridge Marcus had sent us. Delphine and I couldn’t help but laugh at the luck we had in finding this place, and that it must have been some divine intervention. After crossing the bridge, we found the tented camp pretty swiftly and were greeted by the singing and dancing of the local team. We all felt that a shower was the most important as we were all pretty filthy. Even after a very long shower, washing everywhere multiple times, the white towels went black when I tried to dry myself.

The past four days and three nights were without a doubt the absolute highlight of the trip. We truly were in Africa, and those memories will remain with my kids forever. For my wife and me, it was a reminder of the epic honeymoon when we slept on top of a Land Rover and self-drove through Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa all of 17 years ago.

It's not over yet. Four more nights left, and the team was looking a little tired, but I wasn’t letting up yet. On our first day, we woke up at 4:30 a.m. I had a few more surprises up my sleeve. On this perfect Serengeti morning, before sunrise, we boarded our first hot air balloon. Our pilot, Jones Themba, took off softly, like a feather brushing against your skin, and we rose into the sky. We were the first balloon in the air and had the privilege of having the open Mara River in front of us—hundreds of hippos, dozens of fat crocodiles, hundreds of zebras, and thousands of wildebeest. I had dreamed of this experience my whole life. I had imagined floating across the Serengeti, seeing this epic painting in real life, but what I experienced was so much more. I never wanted it to end. It was magical. We floated high for a huge panoramic view, then swept down close to the river, then past a bunch of running hyenas and even more wildebeest. The kids were glowing, and my darling wife made sure not a moment wasn’t captured. Even Apple was lost in this experience. When we finally bumped down to a sideways landing, everyone was in a transient state. My addictive personality immediately wanted to do it again and again and again. But my wise wife reminded me to absorb the feelings and never let the memory go. If you ever get a chance, please make sure you fly in a hot air balloon across the Serengeti.

The migration camp on the Mara River is all about the famous crossing of the wildebeest, and that was why we were here—no accident. The goal was to witness the crossing, but remember, this is not a zoo; you can’t just push play and hope to witness it. There are ten official crossing points over a distance of 40 km. Some of these crossing points have multiple different areas within the general vicinity. And then there are the 50-100 other vehicles also trying to see the crossing, and there are the wildebeest, whose behavior no human can ever fully understand. Their general intention is to follow the fresh green grass as they move in a big clockwise circle. From July to September, they are typically moving north and east from the Western Corridor across the Mara into Kenya. From October to March, they move south to the southern Serengeti where they mate, and then from March to July, they return to the Western Corridor near the Grumeti River to give birth. But nobody gave them the full memo, because one day a huge herd of wildebeest would cross the Mara heading north, and a few would die at the jaws of crocodiles in the process. The next day, the same group would move back south, running the crazy gauntlet of crocs because they decided they preferred the south. Perhaps this is why the collective noun for wildebeest is a "confusion" of wildebeest. Clearly, they aren’t the brightest antelope out there.

Now, seeing an actual crossing is not easy. You need patience while watching these poor animals trying to think collectively. One minute they are all moving swiftly toward the river, and you think, "Here we go," and then, as quickly as they were coming, they start to leave. Then they come again, and one vehicle in the long line of safari vehicles filled with eagerly awaiting guests, like vultures at a kill, moves too early and scares the herd. The idea is to wait a safe distance from the river, and as the herd starts to cross with urgency, the cars can move in to a good position to watch. But this is a very loose rule, and every guide is incentivised to get their guests the best spot, creating an absolute free-for-all. Chaos best describes this behaviour. If you think the collective behaviour of the wildebeest is weird, then watching the collective behaviour of humans is equally troubling. In some ways, this was an interesting experience in itself—just observing each of the guides trying to outthink the others and then trying to think like the wildebeest. Quite fascinating and definitely a brilliant opportunity for a psychologist to study the corresponding behaviour.

Fortunately for us, our guide Ronald was himself a very interesting case study. Having come from the hunting industry, he seemed to have a strong aura of power about him and brought a determination I have rarely seen in humans. He wanted to give my kids the best experience possible. I watched him thinking and plotting the entire time we moved and waited, then moved and waited again. Everyday we spent 8-9 hours on game drives starting at 5:30am. We were incredibly lucky to see two crossings. The first was amazing, with very few other cars around, because we arrived earlier in the morning than the others. Our family was up long before dawn almost every single day for the entire month, and we never missed the opportunity to enjoy the first rays of sun. On this beautiful day, we watched the herd cross. Sadly, one of the wildebeest got caught, most likely by a crocodile, and broke his leg. He managed to swim back across the river, crawling, stumbling, and dragging himself out of the crocodile-infested water. His right back leg was snapped just below the knee, but he never gave up. As the girls cheered him on, he kept trying to reach safety. He was a fighter. We named him Bob, and when we finally left the Mara River, he had made his way up the bank and was lying in the grass, still alive, a full three nights since that fateful day. There are so many dead wildebeest around that the hyenas, crocodiles, and lions are fat and full, so until one of these gets hungry and passes by Bob, I guess he will survive. But the circle of life will certainly catch up to him soon enough.

Now I still had one more surprise for the kids. They had seen the "Special 5" (Reticulated Giraffe, Oryx, Gerenuk, Somali Ostrich, and the Grey Zebra), they had seen the "Ugly 5" (Warthog, Wildebeest, Marabou Stork, Vulture, and Spotted Hyena), but they had only seen four of the "Big 5" (Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino). They had not seen a leopard, and on the second-to-last day, that was my plan. I got everyone up especially early. I was testing their stamina, but how lucky we got! Later that day, we came across a pair of leopards, obviously together to mate because leopards almost exclusively remain solitary. We got to see the incredible difference in size and colors between the two. It was the absolute highlight of our game viewing—a once-in-a-lifetime moment, which I must say our incredible guide was instrumental in making happen. I couldn’t have topped this incredible journey off in a better way.

I am typing this back on our boat and heading to Madagascar. More adventure to come, but maybe in a shorter version. I can safely say that I had always hoped this adventure would live up to the word "Odyssey," and I can safely say that this was all the odyssey I dreamed of and more.

Thank you, Marcus and your team. Thank you, Kenya. Thank you, Tanzania. Thank you, Africa. I love you.