Journey to Ikoma
Although I had been to the Serengeti on my first trip to Tanzania, I’ve never been into the western corridor and never as far north as Ikoma, so the next few days would all be new territory to me.
The Serengeti is an enigma of sorts. On that previous visit, we spent our time in the south of the ecosystem, surrounded by more than a million mammals at the wonderful lodge at Ndutu. Seeing the endless fields of wildebeest as they prepared to give birth was truly awe-inspiring and probably began my love-affair with the dark continent. Seeing five different cat species in the week was also the birthdate of legends. The day we spent driving up to Seronera was certainly a part of this, but it was very different when the herds were absent. We still saw lions and my first ever leopard, but it was truly quiet compared to Ndutu.
What I’m getting to, here, is that I pretty much knew what to expect from a trip through the national park at this time of the year and I wasn’t disappointed or surprised. Once through the gate at Ndabaka, there is a single road for many miles that follows the Grumeti River eastwards towards Seronera. The sightings are few and far between. An isolated wildebeest or a small herd of impalas are pretty much all you can expect.
The road is reasonable, but in places it is very corrugated and the progress is slow. We see plenty of birds along the way and this slows us down even more. Deciding that our destination just to the north of the park at Ikoma is still a long way, we opt to skip past Seronera and continue north. Here, the sightings improve. First, we see topi and kongoni (Coke’s Hartebeest) and then the first of several groups of giraffes.
Finally, we see some elephants and, although they are a couple of hundred metres away from the road, they give good value and we manage to capture photos of some interactions and a couple of scuffles. When it finally looks certain that they are not going to approach us more closely, we continue our journey out of the park at the Ikoma gate. Ikoma Tented Camp is just a few kilometres further north and we are soon escorted through the grounds to our spacious tents and can prepare for dinner.
The tents are well-appointed and the bed is truly enormous – I think I might need a map. The beer is cold and the food is excellent. Four courses for dinner are a bit much, but the portions are at least sensible. The camp is open on all sides and quite large, with 30 or so tents. You need a guard with you when moving around, particularly after dark when there might be buffalo in the grounds.
Staying outside the park is nominally cheaper, but there are conservancy fees to still be paid and they seem to be very funny about the things that you are allowed to do whilst in the conservancy areas. We very quickly have a run-in with the local guard, apparently for taking photographs without a permit. We are just a few metres from the camp at the time and he insists that we drive back and wait for him to accompany us. The others seem happy to comply, but I’m not playing. I head back to my tent and leave them to it, opting to catch up a little with this journal instead.
I’m not sure that it is politically correct to suggest that they are all on the make, but in much of Africa, officious little jobsworths make it seem so. Fred, Chris and Emmy have run into this particular little man before, although he insists that that was his identical twin brother. Yeah, and I’m straight! The whole idea of these community managed concessions, each with their own guards and collection methods is an absolute mess. Even the booking details from the lodge suggest that a fee may be payable, when it is an absolute certainty and at basically $30 per person per day it can be considerable.
When we got back together for dinner, Emmy had clearly had enough of the guy as well. “We might as well pay the proper fee and go back into the Serengeti for the day,” he suggested when we sat down to make a plan for the next day. “It’s not much more really and we have a better chance of some more animals.”
Let’s just say that we could all see the sense of this and anything to gain a point or two against our friend was more than appealing.
When we had good sightings the following morning of both giraffes and elephants within five kilometres of the gate, our calculations were repaid in full. Not many minutes later and we got some more really good elephants, very close to the road already and moving in our direction. I managed some really nice close-up photos of them as they approached and interacted with each other and the vehicles that were now gathering around them. We were now well on the side of profit from our decision.
Regardless, it is still the quiet season in the Serengeti and the vehicles outnumber the wildlife by a considerable proportion. Good sightings are few and far between, but Emmy keeps us busy until lunch-time with a good number of interesting birds. We decide to join the crowds at Seronera for our packed lunch, but we seem to be in the last wave as most of the forty or so other vehicles are packing up when we arrive.
This is my second ever picnic at Seronera and once again we have dwarf mongooses running around our feet looking for scraps. The residents this time seem a little shyer, but I can still get some really nice photos of them from very close range. Emmy uses the time to ask around a little, trying to find us a predator to make the day.
We set off to the south-east after lunch, in search of the possible lions and leopard that had been seen in the morning in that part of the park. For an hour or so, things are looking pretty quiet, but then we spot a vehicle turning around ahead of us and moving off at speed. Clearly, something has been called in. Within a couple of minutes, we are in the middle of a convoy of almost twenty safari vehicles and a couple of delivery trucks.
A pride of lions has crossed the road ahead and moved into the long grass to the west. Seeing them is easy enough, but getting a photo proves more difficult. One of the lionesses and her cubs have stayed on the road – or very close to it – a few more metres ahead. She has dropped to rest on the edge of the road, just in the shadow of the long grass with the cubs gathering behind her, all seeming to ignore the traffic jam around them.
When we finally take our couple of minutes up close to her, she decides to stand – close enough to our car that Emmy might have run over her tail otherwise. I grab a couple of photos with my phone – yes, she was that close. Less than two metres. I then switch to the main camera and the 150-450mm lens which is far too long for this sort of thing. It’s a struggle to get a head shot that doesn’t escape the frame, even at 150mm. They’re good. Very, very good indeed.
I’m well known for telling everyone that I prefer leopards to lions, but when they are active, they are really rather compelling. I’ve been this close to a lion before – probably less than 20km away in fact – and it is a thrilling experience. There’s a certain aloofness that all cats seem capable of and both lions and leopards have this in abundance. She manages to look around herself, assessing the situation, without actually looking at any of the vehicles directly. She then makes here move – away into the grassland where we cannot follow, the cubs close behind.
Fine. We’ll let the next vehicle have a try now and be on our way. Time is passing and we turn around for another pass of the pride, getting a few more distant photographs before making one more loop to the east. Once more we are distracted by a group of vehicles around a tree.
Sadly, not a leopard, but another lioness. She is trying to get some sleep high up on the branch of a huge acacia and seems pretty oblivious of the traffic below her. We are lucky enough to see her lift her head for a moment, but decide it is best to leave her to her sleep.
Our luck continues as we head back towards Ikoma. We are stopped on the road by a group of giraffes who wish to cross. There are several other cars and the giraffes have been pushed a little out of their preferred position and are very wary of the deep ditch on the far side of the road. Some of the traffic – in both directions – isn’t as patient as they perhaps should be and the main group are turned back three or four times before making it across. It makes for great images at very close range.
I’m so engrossed by the spectacle that I don’t even notice the huge bull elephant who is browsing in the long grass less than 20m to my left. Only when I hear Fred mention him do I notice his presence and switch my focus for some truly great close-up elephant shots. I really should have been able to hear the sound of him tearing up huge clumps of grass and munching away.
Even without the migrants being present, the Serengeti always manages to deliver. Good lions, great elephants and plenty more mammals with a good sprinkling of birds for good measure.
On the road back to the lodge we manage to see even more giraffes and another lone bull elephant as we near the lodge itself. I take great pleasure in photographing them all without a permit.
Once we have paid our bills – some of them reluctantly – we head out on the next leg of our journey. We are moving back towards the lake, eventually all the way back to Rwanda, but first we need to make a few more stops. Our route to the west now takes us through the Grumeti Game Reserve and on to the main north-south highway. Emmy seems to be having trouble with the vehicle, causing it to be a bit short of power, so we press on through to the main road and north to our next destination without stopping.