July-August-September-October 2008
There are rumblings in the air about the frequency of Ndutu Newsletters, and I thought it good to mention, that with Paul’s departure last year, we have lost our “master” news provider. We feel that quarterly Newsletters can keep our Ndutu lobby quite well informed of the happenings around here so from this year onwards, a newsletter is sent four times per year!
I remember mentioning the dry conditions in May, which after all normally “ends” the wet season months! One often wonders how our earth copes with extraordinary conditions, and the past four months have certainly tested the flora and fauna around Ndutu! I recorded the hottest day ever in Ndutu since we started records 23 years ago: 33.9 in the shade!!
Although the dry season appears to have come to some sort of end, so far the few early rain and thunderstorms have not been particularly generous in showering us!
The north of the Serengeti has had good early rains but the lake seems to have become the rain-barrier, even around to the east and west the rain has bucketed down! It is VERY frustrating to watch those magnificent clouds build and build, till they tower over you almost, only to smell the rain, and to see a few dust puffs come up when drops hits the dry, hard soil.
Still, signs are hopeful: the fireball lily has appeared everywhere and the tortilis acacias are bursting into the brightest dark green foliage.
After finishing the bio-refuse cage, our friend DT has twice honoured us with a visit! He checked its ‘elephant worthiness’ and detected some minor faults in the system, but I am glad to report that those have been addressed forthwith! We await further tests in the future!
Apart from DT, only twice did a small female and calf herd pass by in front of the Lodge and THE highlight was the birth very recently of a little elephant calf, of course admired by the happy few tourist groups that were lucky enough to see this beautiful little creature! Most elephant sightings have been along the rivers leading to Naibardad and around our marshes and Makau road woodland. Presumably other herds have retreated into the surrounding woodlands of Makau and Simiyu…
Of late, cheetah sightings have been somewhat erratic. Eleanor and her six offspring were last seen in June and we hope she is OK. Loopy Lou and her four almost grown offspring are still in great form and often seen around the Ndutu lake area and near the Lodge. In fact, I saw them looking in fine form two mornings ago chasing a herd of 40-odd buffalo in the Long Gulley! On the male front, Howard and Buffet are now roaming around the Twin Hills area and the males that used to be seen there, Espresso, Latte and Mocha have displaced Hamisi and Marando, who used to be at the marshes but have not been seen there since March.
Despite the dry conditions the surrounding plains are still dotted with small groups of Thomson and Grant’s gazelles, and hares provide another good food supply for the cheetahs that have to make ends meet during these harsh times.
Since May, almost all lion sightings have been of the Masek pride. They have been ‘hanging’ around Lake Masek most of the time where they normally face stiff competition from the Maasai and their cattle, who move into this area in the dry season months! Yet interestingly, this year, they seem to have managed very well! There have been many tourist reports of the ‘Maseks’ lions with hippo kills, with warthog kills, with buffalo kills and with giraffe kills. We know of 8 confirmed giraffe kills done by them!
These are both adult and young giraffes, and I suspect they have somehow focussed on giraffe and perfected their hunting strategies! Good on them!
During dinner not long ago, we had an almost full lodge when we were alerted by a lot of lion growls and hyena whoops. Everybody left soup and starters to go outside and it turned out that lions had killed a young giraffe a few hundred metres in the front of the Lodge! Our torches actually caught the lions from the fireplace! What a treat! Everybody marvelled at the classic ‘sounds of the bush’ and retreated to the “diner chasseur” very happily and excited afterwards!
The five cubs that were born in January-February until recently were still alive and they all look in reasonably good form, and guests mentioned seeing 5 younger additions also looking healthy, so we wish them well and safe till the rains come, hopefully soon!
Of the Marsh pride – two males and three females at the moment-, we hope to gather some more information on individuals and on goings in the near future!
On another evening occasion, our night watchmen alerted us to a serval cat resting and watching the dining room quietly, and even when the guests came out, it did not move and we had a grandstand view of this often elusive cat!
We also had a chance to see a very noisy mating leopard couple at Masek one late afternoon, the male very relaxed about cars, and that was such a rare treat as well!
With the ‘bulk’ of tourism concentrated at Seronera and Lobo at this time of the year the guests staying with us had some wonderful opportunities to watch the cats just by themselves quietly and we were happy to get so many enthusiastic reactions. One Dutch family went out before breakfast and found Lion, Leopard and Cheetah all in one morning not far from the Lodge! With all six species of cats resident in this area, and a mix of luck, perseverance and early risings, one can have a great time during dry season. The peace and quiet, the landscape and the birds are also part of this package appreciated by a lot of tourist groups.
Some other off and on ‘highlight’ sightings are those of striped hyena. On late afternoons, these beautiful and prominently striped mostly solitary animals are often encountered in the bushy, scrubby Masek area.
On one morning drive with staff, Hamisi found an aardwolf on the Makau plains, which is very special treat in this area! During all these years in Ndutu I have only once seen one near Three-Two Trees!
Titia, a great dutch friend of mine and a professional guide, who takes groups from Holland to all over East and South Africa, came to stay for 5 days and this time conducted a short ‘refresher’ guide course here at Ndutu. We are continuing to train several of our drivers both to guiding and also driving and hope Titia will be able to do a more intensive course next year!
Privileged to live here amongst the resident animals and birds in particular, some of the latter have become very habituated and friendly; the black-lored Babbler group we christened “the Bandits” have been frequenting my porch now for more than 4 years.
Special bird cookies are prepared in our kitchen (without sugar or salt!!) and when working at my desk, I am regularly reminded of my duties toward these rather demanding residents!! A light pecking on the window normally does the trick when these very social and interesting birds need more sustenance! Also included in the colourful melee are of course the white-crowned shrikes, two very tame grey-headed sparrows and a host of starlings and weavers!
At the Lodge, twice for about one week at a time the black-headed oriole suddenly filled the air with its melodious song, only to disappear again… and always heard before seen, flocks of European bee eaters pass by with their cheerful beautiful chirpy calls!
And suddenly two totally new feathered friends announced themselves…. One early morning, there were off and on loud bangs on the front window of my house. It turned out that a von der Decken’s hornbill decided that the image ‘counterpart’ was too much of a kind! For several days “Ludovic”, as I christened him, having discovered the window acting as a complete mirror, decided that he could not stand his other half!
Accompanied by a very handsome lady bird called Leonie, numerous attacks, all planned and executed and then initiated from the Grewia bush in front of the window made it impossible for me to concentrate on work.
So, a nice African kitenge cloth was administered with safety pins on the outside of the window and I hoped that the flapping in the wind would do the trick.
Perplexed, Ludovic sat for several hours watching on the first morning and just when I thought we were winning, a loud bang proved the contrary!
On the top of the cloth there remained space for another hornbill’s picture and that was intolerable!
Since though, the situation has calmed down somewhat. The pair enjoys our cookies and now nearly eat out of hand. They are also past masters at catching cookie bits in mid air or pick up and then throw everything in the back of that formidable beak! A delightful couple they now visit at least three times a day. Afterwards, Ludovic sits in the bush, faces the window and watches his other half half-heartedly…and only occasionally a bombing session disturbs the air.
In our quieter time of the year, with our Hamisi back from long leave, we managed to organise an old tradition which through the busy last years we failed to plan. We invite the wives of our staff – three at a time – and collect them from Karatu to bring them here for a two night visit. They stay in the guest rooms and go for a full game drive the next day to Seronera, with lunchboxes and drinks. This helps the family to understand how far away their husbands live and where and under what circumstances they work. Very often it is their first experience in a park and to see animals in the wild.
Half of our staff have now brought out their wives to Ndutu and all of these visits have been delightful and a great success!
The spotted hyenas have been numerous around the Lodge and nothing is safe left outside during the dry season in particular! Colin was reminded of this and had a great experience with one after midnight some weeks ago.
Friends were staying with us and we decided on a small BBQ at one of the private houses on their last night at the Lodge. We do this from time to time and thoroughly enjoy a tiny little fire and an evening “off”. As always, when we go to bed we take everything inside from the veranda, however, on this night Colin took a nearly empty cool bag to his house and left it near his door. Woken up by some noise around two o’clock, he got out of bed and looking out of his window saw a hyena inside his veranda just about to abscond with the cool bag!
Our intrepid Manager didn’t think twice and scantily clad, rushed to the door, opened it and went straight for the bag. The hyena had one of the bag handles in his mouth and somehow Colin managed to grab the other ….. a fierce tug of war followed and eventually the hyena lost faith and released it’s prized spoil to the rightful owner!
Jumping over the veranda wall he left a somewhat bemused, courageous and definitively very alert manager behind! No doubt, it took Colin awhile to get back to sleep that night! Remember the last Newsletter? I have a hunch of suspicion that this was the same clever, cunning hyena that took the milk jug off our coffee table in April!!!
Aadje,
October 2008
