Leaving the Serengeti

 

Friday September 6

Today we left the Serengeti and traveled southwest to the Ngorongoro highlands. “Driving to the airstrip” takes on a whole new meaning here, as the two hour dive featured more lions, hyenas, many herds, and of course birds. 

 

Reflecting on our six days in the Serengeti, it is hard to fathom or describe the sheer scale of the grasslands and the herds.  One hears about the migration of 1.5 million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra, but until you see the herds spread out over the landscape or in long lines trudging towards the river, it is hard to appreciate or visualize. The area was recognized and set aside for conservation in the 1940s, one of the earliest UNESCO world heritage sites.  Flying across the Serengeti in a small plane gives you another appreciation of its size and the size of the herds. 

A few other aspects: not all herbivores migrate. Some are general grazers and can make due with less tender grass in the dry season. Others are prone to hoof rot and cannot move to places where the ground will be very wet. And while the big herbivores migrate, the predators do not. So in different areas of the Serengeti, the lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and jackals have a feasting season (when the migration is in town) and a lean season (when only non-migratory prey are around).   

Today we flew to an airport on the shores of Lake Manyara, and drove to the town of Karatu, in the foothills near the crater and one of three towns that serve as access points for the conservation area.  

We stopped to visit a primary school that Natural Habitat clients have been supporting for over a decade. The government and the local community are responsible for the running of the school, but Nat Hab projects have provided them with a better school kitchen and a new water tank. The school has 892 students, ages 7-14 in seven grades, and only 10 paid teachers as that is the limit of the government funding. Many of the students come from poor farms and villages and walk three hours to get to school. The improved kitchen enables the school to offer lunch for the students, and a new vegetable garden is intended to improve the overall nutrition of the students. The head master has worked hard over the past 8 years to improve the passing rate on the national exit exams from 16% to 90%. He will clearly not be satisfied until every one of his students passes and can advance to secondary school. 

Only a few (maybe 60 or so) of the students were there today, as it is a school holiday period but they came to study for those exams. They sang, danced and played drums for us. We met with them in a classroom to allow for some questions and answers (in both directions).  It was a delightful time, but also inspiring and sobering. 

Posted: Oribi (a small antelope), flap-necked chameleon, Yellow-throated Longclaw, classroom at the school