2024 African Safari Plus: Getting to Tanzania (6/30/2024)

Sunday, June 30, 2024

At Basecamp Wilderness, we were given a box lunch and driven to the Mara Ol Seki Airstrip for the Safarilink flight to Migori, Kenya.

Looking down on the access road to the Mara Ol Seki
Airstrip and waiting safari vehicles (KSS)

Look for the shadow of the airplane (KSS)

A stop at the Serena Airstrip (KSS)

Kraals and crop fields (KSS)

Maize fields in varying states of growth (KSS)

We waited in a van until two more passengers arrived;
Migori had a paved runway and new facilties (2023) (KSS)

Ha! No pictures at the border crossing, leaving Kenya and entering Tanzania.

The van (which must cross the border multiple times per day)
dropped us off at Tarime Airstrip in Tanzania (KSS)

Taking off once again

Tanzania is supposed to have more agriculture than Kenya

Safari tent camp

Oh, no, Serengeti National Park also does control burning

Mara River is one of the sites for the Great Migration
river crossings, with crocodiles chomping at the herds
of wildebeest (and zebras), but we were too early (KSS)

Pilot and co-pilot, and only four passengers

Back to dirt runways at Kogatende Airstrip

We have arrived at Serengeti National Park,
and were given another box lunch! (KSS)

We had the afternoon game drive on the way to the
safari camp; almost immediately, Kent spotted this
Agama agama/Rainbow Agama/Rock Lizard (KSS)

Kopjes/outcrops of granite that appeared when soft volcanic
rock and ash eroded exposing the metamorphic rock,
with a Ficus burkei/Strangler Fig Tree on top

Aepyceros melampus/Impala

Smoke from controlled burning must
discourage visitors more than encourage
the Great Migration to come

Volcanic rocks at a seasonal stream we crossed

The drive to the Nasikia Mobile Migration Camp
took us through burned savanna

Our tent accommodation at Nasikia; the camp is
mobile in that it spends June-October of the migration
year in the northern part of Serengeti National Park,
and December-March in the southern part of the park

The Great Migration is the movement of millions of animals following where food is available, meaning seasonal grasslands for the wildebeest (about two million), zebras (about one million), and gazelles. With all this prey, the predators come out for a meal as well. When the calving grounds in southern Serengeti dry out, the animals follow a western corridor north to Maasai Mara in Kenya. The Mara River is the most reliable water source in the north. They seek to return to the calving grounds, usually through a more easterly "corridor." But there is no set timetable or route.

We even had a screened porch

Bed with mosquito netting

Being winter, there was little need for
mosquito netting on the bed, but it was
always lowered while we were at dinner

Bathroom with double sinks

Flush toilet and bucket shower

Buckets for each of the sinks,
and a larger tank for the shower

Our tent was Faru/Rhinoceros, and
you can see other tents down the lane

A view of the living room/bar and dining tents

Living room and bar

Bao la Kiswahili/mancala game board

Every evening there was the
menu board for dinner

Chapati and red bean soup

Local salad, beef skewer, roasted chicken, spicy brown
rice, steamed cauliflower and green beans

The controlled burning was so close to camp,
we could hear the flames crackling

Next: Naskia Game Drives A.