Going wild on a safari in exotic Africa

Lia Lenggogeni, Contributor/Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

----------------------- INTRO: Pack your bags, people, it's time to leave that dismal cubicle and for the great yonder that is the wilderness of Africa. -----------------------------

If you want to see the classic images of Africa up close, from endless plains of waving golden grasses to a pride of lions lazing around half asleep, chances are you will find them in the national parks of East Africa.

Head straight to Arusha, in northern Tanzania, the center of Tanzania's safari industry.

It is a good 10-hour journey by bus from Dar Es Salaam, but only half an hour from Kilimanjaro International Airport (and around four hours from Nairobi). The good time to see the animals is during the dry season.

The best time is during the migration from or to Masai Mara, Kenya. Migration depends on the arrival of the wet season, but with seasons around the world gone awry due to global warming, it's best to check with the safari operators. The short rains are supposed to come in November, but I was lucky they came as early as October this year.

The Big Five (so called by old-time big game hunters, because they were most sought after as trophies) are lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants and black rhinos.

I chose a 5 day/4 night itinerary that included Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, purportedly the best parks in the northern circuit. To increase your chances of seeing the predators on a hunt, however, you might have to take a longer itinerary and be awfully patient (it's not the speeded-up Animal Planet version).

Tarangire National Park

Tarangire National Park is about three hours away from Arusha, accessible by a well-maintained tarmac road. It is the fourth largest national park in Tanzania and was named after the Tarangire River that runs through its center.

The park is open acacia woodland, very dry with specks of green from the short rain. It is known for its huge herds of elephants, the massive, odd-looking baobab tree and excellent bird-watching. I saw some giraffes, wildebeest, vultures, baboons, guinea fowls, warthogs, waterbucks and antelope.

Although the park has its share of predators, don't be disappointed if you miss them. You will have a better chance of seeing them at Serengeti or Ngorongoro. However, I managed to see the elusive leopard sleeping on a tree branch and a pride of lionesses lounging under a tree.

You will be compensated by the view of elephants, though. They are everywhere you look. Drinking from the Tarangire River, walking, rubbing against trees, big and small. The huge beasts drink 300 liters of water and eat 200 kg of food every day. In fact, they spend about 16 hours a day eating, as opposed to lions who spend the same amount of time sleeping.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Crater Rim

Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic caldera, the collapsed upper cone of an ancient volcano. This is the place to spot endangered black rhinos. Because of the presence of water all year long, the animals don't have to migrate to the neighboring game reserves and they are used to the cars and human smell. Unlike the animals at the other parks, they are not shy when hordes of safari cars approach.

At the conservation area, you will notice several Maasai tribesmen with their cattle or just standing by the road. Do not take pictures without asking their permission first. My guide told me they are known to smash windshields with their spears. They expect to be paid, and you had better agree on the fee before you go trigger happy.

Or you can ask your guide to stop at one of the Maasai settlements at the conservation area, pay US$50 (which may or may not be included in your safari price). Serengeti National Park

The most famous park in the world. It is about five hours drive from Lake Manyara, passing through Ngorongoro Conservation Area (which was VERY cold and foggy the morning we were there).

The roads in Ngorongoro are not paved, so when your driver stops to pay his park entrance fee, do use the clean toilets provided and spare your bladder the hardships that will follow.

It also involves an optional stop to Olduvai (or Oldupai) Gorge, the site of the 1959 discovery of fossil fragments of possible ancestors of homo sapiens by Mary Leakey. There is a small museum at the gorge, with various skulls and bones of extinct and existing animals and a cast of the famous footprints. But the $3 entrance fee seems too much for a very small museum, so if you're not an archaeology buff, you won't miss anything.

Serengeti Park lies in Northern Tanzania, west of the Great Rift Valley. The Serengeti is contiguous with the following protected areas: Ngorongoro Conservation Area (8,288 km2), Maswa Game Reserve (2,200 km2) and the Masai Mara Game Reserve (1,672 km2) in Kenya. The Serengeti National Park covers a land area of 14,763 km2.

However, the Serengeti ecosystem covers an area of 27,000 km2 (almost the size of the Netherlands!). The physical boundaries of the ecosystem are formed by the right rift valley and Ngorongoro Crater highlands in the east, Lake Victoria in the west and the Isuria escarpment in the north. The southeastern part is flat with open grassland plains interspersed with rocky outcrops called kopjes (rocky outcrop), the south and western part is comprised of rolling hills and hill ranges.

The north and northwest is more undulating, with more rainfall and dense tall grasslands and woodland vegetation, whereas the north is fringed by hills with even denser vegetation.

The extent of the Serengeti ecosystem is defined by the movements of the migratory ungulates, primarily wildebeest, zebra, Grant & Thomson's gazelle. Recent population estimates are over a million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 440,000 gazelles.

The population of African elephants in the Serengeti is estimated at about 1,500. Unfortunately, the population of black rhino has been almost wiped out by poaching.

Large predators are difficult to census accurately using the resources and manpower available to researchers in the Serengeti, but the most numerous large predators are undoubtedly the hyena. The African hunting dog is now considered to be rare and endangered, with less than 50 adult dogs in the ecosystem.

In the western corridor of the park, predator numbers are generally depressed. This is thought to be the result of poisoning and heavy poaching with snares, which occurs especially when the wildebeest migration passes through this area.

More than 520 species of birds have been recorded in the park. During the northern hemisphere winter, large numbers of pale arctic migrants can be seen here and the area is undoubtedly of great importance for many of these migrant species. More birds are recorded in the Serengeti than in North America.

The Seronera valley is an important transition zone between the southern plains and the northern woodlands. It provides a rich mosaic of habitats crisscrossed by rivers, the most prominent of which is Seronera River.

Sunsets at Serengeti are glorious. The sky turned several shades of orange before it became dark blue and finally, pitch black. Nothing is comparable to the vast African sky with literally millions of bright stars and the sound of roaring animals. Experience it for yourself and you will agree.

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