Arrival in Serengeti

On day 5 of my adventure, Alfred dropped me off at Lake Manyara Airstrip where I took a small plane to Kogatende airstrip in the northern Serengeti. There was a herd of impala running and stotting across the runway as the plane was landing. Quite a welcome that was.

I was met by my new guide, Kanael, who drove me to my next destination, Olakira Migration Camp. The drive was quick and relatively uneventful, if seeing a small herd of elephants, impala, and a giraffe can be said to be uneventful.

As it turned out, I was the only guest at the camp, and I was greeted by the staff with a song and dance.

After having lunch and settling into my deluxe tent, Kanael took me out for an unbelievable afternoon game drive. To start it off, we saw topi (a large antelope), impala, and a bataleur eagle.

We then came across an elephant carcass, with the tusks removed. No, not poachers… the elephant died apparently of natural causes and the park rangers removed the tusks, leaving an open area ripe for animals to feast upon, even those without the means to open the tough skin of an elephant, like lions. And the smell must’ve travelled because soon a lioness was scouting the area, and seemingly deciding whether to hunt the topi and/or impala herds which were nearby, or to dig into the elephant. In the video below, you can hear the impala warning each other about the presence of the lioness. And of course there were some hooded vultures waiting in the nearby tree.

On the way back to camp, we spotted a klipspringer and 3 rock hyraxes.

Over the next couple of days, we went back to the carcass to see what was happening. Stay tuned for updates.