Tanzania Big Game Safari Trip Report
Bluewater Photo Group Trip - October 2022
Words and pictures by Mark B. Hatter
On 9 October, 2022, 10 intrepid explorers began a 10-day Bluewater Travel adventure in Tanzania visiting five different safari big game camps and three national parks.
Watch some of the highlights from Bluewater Travel's 10-night Tanzania Big Game Safari October 2022
Our adventure began in Arusha where all of the guests overnighted at the beautiful Villa Maua hotel. With time to chill before departing for Safari on the next morning, some guests relaxed in the beautiful courtyard, read books, or just snoozed in their rooms to relieve the jet lag of 30 some odd hours of international travel. Two of the guests, keen on shooting big game animals with their new cameras, sat with me to review their equipment and recommended shooting techniques in prep for the days ahead.
The following morning, our two private guides, Happyfun and Emanwell (who would guide us the entire trip in their well appointed land rovers, replete with multiple outlets to charge batteries!), picked us up at the hotel for the drive to our first game drive at Tarangire National Park. After checking into the park, within five minutes, we were into elephantsbig time! A herd of at least 15 animals approached our two vehicles and crossed the game road literally at arms length! iPhones panned and shutters clicked away with our first big game encounter.
By late afternoon wed encountered many of the icons of the African plain, including many species of antelope, giraffe, zebra, warthog and even the stately secretary bird. That evening, excellent homestyle dining, hot showers and super comfortable beds at the Tarangire Game Lodge made for a perfect ending to a fabulous day. With lions chuffing, hyenas laughing and who-knows-what making all kinds of strange sounds through-out the night, we had much to talk about the following morning.
Lions, however, were the main topic of discussion with everyone wanting to see the big cats. Our guides delivered, finding a pride of females with cubs stashed in the brush and a single male under a shady tree late afternoon at the far end of the camp.
After another night of African sounds and lions literally on the patio to the main dining area before dawn, and a half day to finish seeing Tarangire National Park, we were on our way to the storied Ngorongoro Crater. Happyfun tells us that the name Ngorongoro comes from the sound that the Maasai Tribes cow bells made (a gonging sound) as the cattle once ranged the slopes of the crater. The Maasai no longer live in the crater, which is now preserved as a National Conservation.
Before entering the park on day three, we overnighted at a beautiful coffee plantation, Ngorongoro Farm House, in Karatu only 20 minutes from the craters rim. Once again great food, comfortable beds and quick turn around laundry service were appreciated by all.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Crater is a sight to behold. There is an observation lookout at the top of the climb where most guide vehicles pull over to allow guests to get out and take it all in. We of course, did exactly that!
With many of the same animals as found in Tarangire, Ngorongoros bowl-shaped feature enables a permanent alkaline lake in its center which provides refuge and a food source for two species of flamingo. But unique to the crater, which sets it apart from Tanzanias other game parks, the sloping walls change dramatically in vegetation the higher one drives up toward the rim. The higher slopes are covered in a dense, lush forest of shrubs framed by giant acacia trees. Here, elephant, black-faced monkeys and baboons seem more at home than on the open, dry crater floor.
At the end of the day we have a long drive to Lake Masek tented Camp at the edge of the Serengeti. The road is dusty and worn, and we have long left the comfort of asphalt behind in Arusha, but the arid, baron countryside as we approach Serengeti, is beautiful if not otherworldly.
At Lake Masek we settle in to great food and celebrate with spirits, another fantastic day. And in true African form, the night is filled with the sounds of different big game animals; hippos and leopards!
Indeed, the following morning, we leave camp early for the full days trek across the Serengeti only to discover a freshly killed cheetah by the road being scavenged by a pair of jackals. Happyfun believed that the kill was done by a leopard and that the approaching vehicle had frightened the leopard away. He was correct! Emanwell, in the vehicle behind, spotted the leopard amongst the trees. It wasnt even 8am and we now had the second of the big cats logged on our iPhones and memory cards.
The word Serengeti means endless plain in Maasai. And it does seem literally endless. That said, as one traverses the great plain, nuanced topography changes hidden at a distance, now abound. The great grassy plain is crisscrossed by swamps and riverbeds with just enough water, even in the dry season, to support a surprisingly large population of hippos. At one swampy depression along a creek bed we encountered at least fifty animals stacked like cord wood in the swampy green water!
But no trip to the Serengeti is complete without sighting the rarest of the big cats, the elusive cheetah. And once again our able guides delivered with not one, but two sightings of cheetah over the two days we spent on the Serengeti, including a pair of animals over a kill.
One of the most iconic events in nature is the Great Migration of wildebeest, which occurs twice a year in the Serengeti timed to rainfall on the plain. On our safari we were at the back end of the return of the wildebeest to the Serengetis open plain from the Mara Valley in the north.
And the Mara Valley, at the northern end of the Serengeti, on the boarder of Kenya and Tanzania, is where we would finish our trip. We spend almost four days exploring the north and south side of the Mara River in hopes of witnessing the staging, then crossing of hundreds (if not thousands) of wildebeests across the deep, treacherous river, famous for gigantic Nile crocodiles.
Our home base is Esirai Migration camp, about an hour and a half from the Mara River. As it has been with all of the previous camps, the Esirai is amazing in its great food, comfortable beds and wonderfully attentive staff. Need a shower at 4AM? No problem, the guys would be at your tent exactly on time to fill your bucket shower with piping hot water heated from a gas stove!
I have a friend who lived in Tanzania running a dive shop in Zanzibar for 10 years. In 26 weeks of safari, he told me, hed witnessed the Mara River crossing of the Great Migration only once.
Count us fortunate indeed, as we witnessed not one but two migrations on the same day! It was truly an emotional experience. When, finally, a lead wildebeest decides to cross, they all go instinctively, one after the other, stopping for nothing. Even the zebra joined in the crossing which can last from minutes to an hour or more depending on the number of animals in the herd.
Happyfun told us that the Nile crocs only need to eat once, maybe twice a year based on their ability go into near hibernation between meals. Accordingly, we were not optimistic that if we witnessed a crossing, wed also witness a croc attack. We were wrong! We witnessed three attacks during the two crossings, with two attacks successfully taking down an unfortunate wildebeest! A combination of emotions wash over you in such an event: shock, sadness, excitement and awe. But this is Africa and this is nature. This is exactly what we had hoped to witness and capture on video and with still images. And once again, our good juju prevailed on all accounts.
What could be a more perfect ending to a magnificent adventure than a 1.3 hour balloon ride along the length of the Mara River on our penultimate day? Soaring from treetop to 1000 feet, then back down again, the silent ride at the face of the wind was magical.Over the course of 10 days we witnessed nine separate leopards, three separate cheetahs and 25+ separate lion sightings. I could go on with more superlatives regarding our wonderful trip but whats the point; review the video link and still images here to feel the flavor and the mood of a true Tanzanian Safari adventure. If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video must be worth at least 10 times more!
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