Serengeti Western Corridor
Friday, 11 July 2008
We will spend the day in the Western Corridor of Serengeti National Park. Other tourists are few and far between. The challenge of taking good looking photographs has not yet been mastered.
I was getting better to adjusting with the always–changing conditions for taking photographs. Sometimes there would be too much light, or the subject would be in shade on a bright day, or there would not be enough light, because the sun just rose, or the subject moved faster than I thought and I ended up with a blurry photo. About the only thing that had worked fine was keeping the lens clear of dust.
I did not take a photograph of a tse tse fly, but they were out in quantity. We laughed before we left home to read that some visitors before us suggested bringing a fly swatter to deal with them. Don’t laugh—if you come here, bring a fly swatter. The flies are slow enough to swat once inside the car.
Our guide did not like to call them tse tse flies. He referred to them as “blood sucking flies.” And they got to his neck and hands several times. He was diligent, however, and caught a lot of them on the fly. He had a method of dealing with them, whereby he would hold them up to eye level, pull their wings off, and then drop them to the floor of the car. He said he hoped they sent a message to their cousins to not challenge the car.
What was very clear is that these blood sucking flies like blue and black. So now you know why all of the pictures of “safari” travelers show them wearing khaki and green.
Here is an early morning photograph of the most dangerous mammal in the park.
This beast, a Cape Buffalo, kills more people in Africa than any other creature, except for man, of course. The great thing about this trip is that when I get to a tree, large bush or big rock and reach a point where I can see around it, I sometimes find a surprise. Five elephants, two lions or a dozen zebra could move into my field of vision. Or a herd of Cape Buffalo, perhaps forty or more. This one is all by itself, half hidden in the tall grass.
Here is another picture of a Cape Buffalo. It weighs about 1,700 pounds and was paying close attention to the photographer.
Baboons had a neat trick when the camera was raised—they turned their backs to me. Here is a nice baboon who let me take its picture.
Here is an example of the challenge of taking photographs. This monkey, a black and white Colubus, lives in trees and seldom comes down to the sunny ground.
This is a family of baboons. One is in the tree on the right, perhaps as a look out for leopards. The rest, generally, are sitting in the shade. Smart.
This view gives a good idea of why wildebeests are always on the move, looking for greener pasture.
It is still amazing to see that there are no fences, no telephone poles, no nothing but plain old nature and a few dirt roads. We have seen very few cars, except for yesterday in the center of the park.
Next—we leave Serengeti National Park and drive for most of the day to Ngorongoro Crater, a conservation area where there is some grazing allowed.
