It was to be an exciting day ahead, something we
had all been looking forward to since we started the trip. Kim said to me that
the one thing that had finally persuaded him to come on the trip was the idea
that he would be able to see places like the Serengeti... Something he had
always wanted to see since he was a boy, and here we are at last.
We wanted to get off to an early start and get
into the reserve itself but with this crowd that is not an easy thing to do, so
we eventually set off at about 9. The idea was that we would leave the Queen
behind, move some stuff out of the other two cars to make some space and set
off with Kim, Ernest, Andrea and I in Kim's car and then Ken, Rouvierre and
Steve in Ken’s car. That meant that we would be traveling without
our kitchen and you sure as hell can't buy anything inside the reserve to eat.
These places are not like our Kruger Park where you can buy anything you need
and eat at a fairly decent restaurant and have a cup of.... You guessed it … Coffee!
We packed up a picnic basket plus a flask of
coffee and off we went. We arrived at the side gate which is literally 10
minutes down the road only to find - sorry for you - they no longer issued
permits at this gate. They had obviously had trouble with sticky fingers (stealing),
bad admin or something but he was no longer able to take money so we had to go
in somewhere else. Anyway, we left Ernest to change his mind and he eventually said
“okay” we
could go in, but we needed to either go to Seronella, the main headquarters of
the reserve which was a two hour drive from where we were or to the other gate
which was an hour away and pay there, then bring back the permit to him and he
would then let us out at six when we returned from our day in the park. So we
figured we were going on a game drive anyway so let's go for Seronella. That
way the guys would get in a good game drive, see quite a bit of the terrain and
at the same time maybe there was a place at Seronella where we could sit and
have a cup of tea (we only had tea and the coffee drinkers would miss out)
From the minute we entered the reserve we
started to see big herds of game, mostly Tsessebe, impala, wildebeest, zebra
and buffalo. When I say herds, I mean HERDS. At home we see maybe twenty or
thirty together but here you sometimes see a herd of 100 Tsessebe at a time.
Even though most of the game, or should I say the zebra and wildebeest, have
moved up to the Mara in the great migration and only return after the rains
have fallen in the Serengeti. There are still a lot of other animals around. We
do see very big herds of buffalo in the Manyeleti but here because of the open
space and the great distances that you travel - it appears that you see much
more than at home. Also those open plains give such a vista of space, you can
see for miles around and is something so synonymous of this area... So
beautiful!
After going for about two hours we thought that
we must be close to Seronella and Ernest kept announcing over the radio to the
other guys....Only about 10 minutes more. Well the ten minutes turned out to be
another two hours and we realized we might be in a spot of bother as it was one
o’clock in the afternoon,
we hadn't had our picnic lunch stop and we hadn't found where to pay or get our
cup of tea or even find the info centre where we could at least get a map.
Eventually we managed to find the info centre
after getting lost in a maze of roads that are going in all directions and only
half have signposts on them. One said Restaurant so we thought hey maybe things
have improved. Well when we got to it we realized we were very much in Africa,
not the right place to eat anything! I remember visiting the info centre before
and it was quite an orderly place where there was information on the park, the
animals and the topography. Now there are game guides actually shouting for
business, a complete jam of people and the whole place has deteriorated into a
dirty chaotic mess. We counted over 50 game drive vehicles all jammed into this
small parking area designed for 20 cars. So we wondered around trying to find
somebody to pay and get a permit, we didn't think it was a good idea for us
just to make a run for it at the gate when we returned to get back to
Kijereste.
Ernest found a little shop and bought two fold
out maps of the park.... He paid $ 40 for these two pieces of paper, this time
I nearly choked. I then realized I forgot to bring the apples to put in the
tuna salad so asked the girl at the so called coffee shop if she had an apple I
could buy. She had an Avo so I said okay I will have that.... $5 she said...
now it was Ernest's turn to choke at my purchase.
Eventually we found someone who said we could
pay at the airport. Now… Where is the
airport? We managed, after many circles, to find the air
strip... Hardly an airport! We paid for two days in the park and off we went,
still without tea, coffee or having had a chance to have our picnic.
We “put foot” as the boys say and
made up a little time on the way back so we could just fit in our quick picnic
stop. You are not supposed to get out just anywhere, in fact it is almost
impossible to find a dedicated picnic site so we just found a little side road
and to hell with it! We stopped! We had
to fight off the Tsetse flies over lunch but we were all pretty hungry by this
time and the Tsetse’s were secondary to
the hunger. We are so full of bites now especially Ken, Rouvierre and myself. These
damn flies like us the best.
As I said before, the trip back is always faster
(except going up the mountain from Isanga bay) so we made the gate well on time
and were home by 5.30. I had a bit of spare time as our Satry Raj was cooking
our curry which turned out to be very delicious and a real Indian curry... I
watched them all fight to scrape out the scraps from the bottom of the dish.
Oh yes we did see Cheetah near Seronella but as
always in Serengeti there must have been 20 other cars all vying for the best
spot....oh, for the exclusivity of Safari Lodge…
Signing off!
No comments:
Post a Comment