Serengeti Safari
Nick Walton explores two very different sides of Tanzania with visits at two contrasting takes on the luxury safari camp
Familiarise yourself with the sights and sounds of the Serengeti in style with Nick Walton
After a rustle of leaves and a creek of bowed wood that’s quickly lost in the breeze, two eyes, one frosty blue, the other honey hued, emerge from the shadows. We have disturbed the leopard’s slumber and he has moved to where he can spy our game vehicle from the depths of an ancient acacia tree. For a moment there is absolute silence as humans and cat size each other up, but the tension is broken as the felicitous feline yawns, a great pink tongue sweeping across its lips, its razor-sharp teeth brilliant in the late afternoon sunshine, before sinking back into the shadows to finish his nap. This is the beauty of a safari in the Serengeti – it’s nature at its most sublime.
It’s a great start to our first game drive at Kimondo Camp, one of two mobile camps operated by safari gurus Asilia Africa. It’s my wife Maggie’s first time in Africa so I wanted the trip to be as kaleidoscopic as possible, with a contrast of landscapes and camps that summed up safari experiences past and present. A tented camp was a must: there’s nothing like falling asleep to the sounds of animals passing through the darkness beyond; the cascading rumble of evening thunderstorms over the savannah, fat raindrops hitting taunt canvas; al fresco dinners under starry skies; and mood-soaring sunrises as you prepare to set out on game drives.
VINTAGE SAFARI VIBE
Kimondo is a classic safari camp in the most blissful of senses; there’s a tent for communal dining and another that serves as an elegant lounge, complete with a trunk-style cocktail bar and deep-set leather sofas. From the main tents, a chain of nine handcrafted East African and Moroccan-influenced canvas and wood suites winds through tall grass. Each guest space boasts a mosquito-wreathed kingsize bed, spacious ensuite with indoor and outdoor bucket showers, and views across undulating hills of golden grass where families of elephants stroll each afternoon. The longer I stay at Kimondo, the more amazed I am that this entire camp is rolled up and transported seasonally, to offer guests the best proximity to the Great Migration, as its millionstrong herd of wildebeest and zebras travel from the Lamai Wedge (where the camp is during our visit) in winter to the southern Serengeti in summer.
Much of the Serengeti that surrounds Kimondo is flat savannah that runs towards low purple mountains across the border in Kenya, where the Serengeti
changes its name to the Masai Mara. However, closer to the Mara River, which is flooded during our visit thanks to late seasonal rains, the trees close in, making for great resting spots for troops of baboons, African fish eagles, and of course, leopards. The river’s waters are tumultuous but soaking hippos, submerged up to their eyes and nostrils, don’t seem perturbed. Beyond, three adolescent giraffes graze among the acacia trees and black-headed herons race across the rapids bound for boulder-strewn islets.
As we emerge from the thicker foliage of the riverbanks, flocks of Guinea fowl in blue polka dot plumage scurry in every direction; a family of five stout warthogs pauses to watch us before trotting off, their tails erect like car aerials; and a pair of shy black-backed jackals watch us from dew-heavy grass.
ROAMING GREAT CATS
The Northern Serengeti is one of the most vibrant parts of the national park. Between July and November great herds of wildebeest and zebra arrive searching for grass, and are greeted by year-round residents like giraffe, hippo, impalas, oribi and topi antelopes, and, of course, prides of lions. Our guide, Good Luck, whose razor-sharp eyes spotted the leopard, trace the horizon. He smiles and takes our game vehicle up a gentle rise. There’s movement in the golden grass ahead and slowly a family of lions takes shape, a lioness leading her five fairly large cubs home from a night’s hunt. The great cats are sated and somnolent and saunter past only feet from the vehicle, a few of the sizable cubs giving us an inquisitive side glance as they make for their den in a
thicket of trees. Beyond, topis in their brown and blueshaded coats, watch carefully – after all, you never quite know with lions.
There’s talk on the radio of a trio of young cheetahs – a coalition – making for the broad valleys of the Masai Mara and we rumble off across the wide savannah in search of the elusive cats. There are very few other game vehicles out this morning; the shoulder periods offer safari goers (and the animals) more privacy and intimacy than the peak season, when vehicles from both safari camps and day-trip operators crowd the Mara River to witness the dramatic crossings of wildebeest and zebra. Despite our efforts, the cheetahs remain undiscovered and instead we pause at the border for breakfast as the sun climbs high and the air grows warm.
Camps like Kimondo typically offer two game drives per day, one at dawn and the other in the late afternoon. Many guests like to have a nap in between – you’re on holiday after all – although we found Kimondo’s tents to be too hot during the day so opted to relax in the open-faced lounge instead. Evening drives typically conclude with sundowners, and at the end of our first evening game drive, after spying striped jackals, inquisitive spotted hyena and a family of infinitely-elegant elephants, we arrive at the swirling waters of the Mara, where the camp’s team has set up a campfire (what the camp manager calls a “bush TV”) and a wet bar. We take up camp chairs and listen to hippos groaning in the roaring river beyond as Lappetfaced vultures circle in the dying light.
The magic of the bush continues the second night when, after a long afternoon among the zebras and wildebeest, the first Great Migration arrivals, we make straight for camp, where guests are clustered around a roaring fire pit and camp staff are serving libations from a vintage drinks trolley. It’s Maggie’s birthday and the whole camp celebrates with us; Chef Julius, who has been with Asilia for six years, serves a spectacular dinner under the stars before the entire staff sing Happy Birthday, first in English and then in a Swahili version that goes on for 15 minutes and involves a great deal of hooting and yelping. I don’t think I’ll ever be content hearing the original again.
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
From Kimondo we take a short flight to Lake Manyara, at the southern tip of the Serengeti, where our guide Adam drives us up to the lip of the acclaimed Ngorongoro Crater. The landscape couldn’t be more different from the northern Serengeti; gone are the vast yellow grasslands, replaced by thick jungle and vibrant red rock, a testament to Olmoti, the brooding volcano on the flanks of which The Highlands by Asilia camp is situated.
Leaving the main road, we climb a back-jarring, stomachchurning mountain track; in some places we’re clinging to the door handles of the 4x4 as it sways violently,
the engine groaning (or was that me?) as we climb out of deep ruts caused by recent heavy rain. There are signs that the local authorities are finally developing this goat track into a real road but until they do it’s a hard, long journey up to the camp – consider yourself warned.
Eventually, after a couple of hours of this torment, we arrive at what feels like the top of the world; up here at more than 1,980m above sea level the tight jungle of the volcano’s slopes gives way to soaring, distant peaks and broad alpine valleys populated by lowlying shrubs and Maasai villages of simple round huts. Tall, slender boys wrapped in red and blue shawls against the late afternoon chill watch our progress as they tend to herds of white and brown goats. The sun breaks through the low canopy of cloud, casting the scene in a checkerboard of golden light, and suddenly the hardship of the road is (almost) forgotten.
The Highlands also couldn’t be more different from Kimondo. Set high in the mountains, the camp is made up of canvas and Perspex domeshaped buildings, like a moon colony out of a 1950s comic book. At the top of the camp is a main dining room, a breathtaking lounge, and a separate cocktail bar with wrap around terraces that offer sensational views across valley below.
Winding down a steep dirt path are eight tented suites, cosy, thoroughly Instagrammable individual domes with wooden floors, wood-burning stoves, and, in the case of our ‘honeymoon suite’ an outdoor hot tub on its own stilted platform. Each space is a curious blend of African lodge and Scandinavian log cabin, but it works – at least visually (more about that later).
The safari experience is also different here. The 260 sqkm crater is only an hour’s drive away (unfortunately down that same goat track) and promises a full safari drive experience in one day, making it popular with day trippers from Arusha. The crater is nothing short of spectacular. Two million years ago the volcano exploded, leaving a vast, flat and partially sheltered microcosm that’s home to a plethora of animals, from lions and jackals, to elephant, zebra, wildebeest, hippos, cape buffalo and many varieties of birds. Species that are usually migratory love the crater so much they never leave.
SHARED DISCOVERIES
As we descend from the crater’s edge, Adam points out elephants hiding in corpses of evergreens, duelling adolescent zebras, elegant grey crowned cranes and Egyptian geese, and thousands of pale pink flamingos, their reflection caught in the waters of a vast soda lake. During lunch under canvas at a riverside spot, the camp’s ever-cheerful staff serve fresh salads and grilled steaks while guests from around the world discuss what they had seen during their drive. There’s a sense of shared discovery that you only get on safari.
It gets cold quickly up on the crater rim, the clear skies venting the day’s heat as a vast canopy of stars emerges from the inky darkness. Staring up at the constellations and listening to the sounds of life in the village below (it’s aptly named Nainokanoka, which means fog and cold),
I soak in the wood fire-warmed tub until a great bank of descending fog chases me inside with as manly a shriek as I can muster. In the darkness, the flames from the stove dance on the canvas walls and through the Perspex the stars twinkle brightly. However, at around 3am our wood stove goes out and the temperature inside our oh-sopicture-perfect bubble nosedives until our breath emerges as plumes of steam, making the 5am wakeup call more challenging than ever.
All the same, as we rumble our way past the Maasai shepherds and their flocks on our way back to the airstrip, I see the effect Africa has had in Maggie’s eyes. It’s hard to resist this ancient, contrasting and breathtakingly beautiful place, its savannahs and its highlands, its wild animals and welcoming people. Something tells me this might have been her first visit, but it won’t be her last.
The writer flew with Ethiopian Airlines from Asia to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, via Addis Ababa.
The Kimondo camp costs from US$668-986 per person per night, including full board accommodation, all house drinks, scheduled game drives, air strip transfers, and laundry service.
The Highlands ranges from US$528-$1,017 per person, per night, including full board accommodation, all house drinks, scheduled game drives, Olmoti Crater hike, Empakaai Crater hike, Maasai cultural visit, hot lunch on the Ngorongoro Crater floor, airstrip transfers, and laundry service; asiliaafrica.com