What a dramatic season it’s been and such a season of contrasts with such a wet December contrasting sharply from the very dry April we are having at the moment.
The last week of February saw record numbers of wildebeest and zebra in the Masek woodlands. Tens of thousands of animals came down to drink at the lake Masek. It made some super photographic opportunities as the herds moved away from the Lake in the evening and, by good positioning, it was possible to get some wonderful backlit pictures of wildebeest and zebra with plumes of dust and a golden sunset. I spent a very amusing half hour watching a zebra foal chasing guinea fowl around the woodland. Well, actually chasing one particular guinea fowl around and around a small bush. It was a great sight as he tried to nip a feather from the unfortunate bird, although he never really stood much of a chance as this comical spotted bird could always have taken to the air if it thought if was really in any danger.
There seems to be a baby boom with our small population of hippos in Lake Masek. The three tiny babies born this season make their numbers up to ten and the group can be seen at the Eastern end of the lake.
Exciting news on the lion front this month. There has been a take over by three new handsome blond mane lions of the Masek pride. We should have guessed something was amiss when there was so many mating lions to be seen at Masek just after Christmas. Also the lack of any cubs this year points to a take over, as new incoming lions will kill any other unrelated male’s cubs. The lionesses soon come into estrus again and after a gestation period of around 3 months they will give birth to the new males cubs. It will take about two years for the cubs to reach adult hood. In the meantime the males will have to guard and maintain their territory and keep other males out while constantly patrolling and marking their boundaries, it’s a very hard life and most male lions die young. Three months has now past, so we should be seeing lots of young lion cubs gamboling around sometime soon and that’s when the hard work really begins. It’s easy to find food now, when there’s so much game around. By the end of the dry season they have to eke out a living trying to catch fleet footed impala or the dangerous Cape buffalo, even porcupines and hares feature in their diet. It’s not surprising, that few make it to adulthood.
Other interesting sightings this past month include: striped hyenas catching a wildebeest calf, good views of side striped jackals, large groups of eland in the woodlands, and three species of whydahs in the lodge bird bath, all in breeding plumage, including straw tailed, pin tailed and the striking steel blue. Great leopard sightings include a mother with two small cubs that have been seen a number of times. Large numbers of giraffe can be seen in and around the lodge at the moment with groups of over forty moving through the acacia woodlands.
After a very successful season we will be carrying on with our refurbishments. Four more of the older style rooms will be changed for the new stone cottages. Ndutu has been voted the best place in Africa to see cheetah by Brian Jackman in a recent article in the Telegraph. The BBC’s Owen Newman and Amanda Barrett have returned to Ndutu to make another wildlife film after the success of their last film Cats under Serengeti Stars and have again chosen Ndutu Safari Lodge as their base this year.
April is also a time when we start our maintenance program. The wind carries the thatch away, the sun dulls the paintwork, the soda water fades the fabrics, the termites eat all the external woodwork and elephants stand on the plumbing pipes, so there’s always much to do. Our carpenters are busy making new beds; the masons are tiling the staff bathrooms and Safari, our in-house tailor will soon start making new staff uniforms. Everyone helps out with all this work so his first job will be to make new sets of overalls and patch up old ones. Mirando, who is our headroom steward, and another staff member also called Safari, who is one of our cooks, does the roof thatching. The outside roofs are thatched with palm fronds and for the internal thatch in the bar and dining room, we use banana leaves.
People often ask if we ever get bored living in the middle of nowhere, but there’s no chance. There’s always something to do and today, I hear a honey badger broke into the staff quarters last night, so there’s another bit of carpentry to be done.
I’ve been getting regular updates about the whereabouts of the wildebeest migration from guests. The huge numbers of animals at Two Trees and the Makao plains have amazed people this week. I went out to have a look for myself yesterday and I was completely stunned by what I saw. It was as thick with wildebeest as I’ve ever seen it in the past five years. They stretched out like ants on the plain in every direction as far as the eye could see. There must have been well over half a million animals there that day. So many animals can never stay still for long and constantly move and sometimes they can be spread out over huge distances. But sometimes, like yesterday, they gather to make one of those sights you will never forget, no matter how many times you’ve been to Africa, Serengeti, or even how many times you’ve seen wildebeest.
Ndutu Safari Lodge.
April 2003.
