The great migration - part 5 (Ngorongoro)

Lions! exclaimed Del and pointed across the plains. Where? I jumped. I zipped out my 10x25 binocs and aimed it in the general direction. Yes! a lion and a lioness no doubt. They looked like small binaca animals. This was almost proof of my rotten luck. By the time we get anywhere near them they will be gone I thought. Del gunned up the engine and started driving. The lions were getting closer. I was tense. Should we stop here and watch them, where was he driving us?

Del finally came to a stop where two to three other Jeeps were stopped. There was a small watering hole to our right and the Lioness followed by the Lion were walking straight towards us! This was too exciting! I did not know if I should watch them, take pictures.. "Nishu! get down and stay inside the Jeep!". or watch the kids. As the lioness got close I saw that her entire mouth area was covered with blood. She looked well fed. Del told us that they had just eaten. Then it struck me - she was probably coming this way for a drink of water after her meal and we were parked engine switched off and all
right there between her and her water!

I had certainly not expected the lions to be this unconcerned about human presence. She walked right up to the jeeps, did not as much as glance up at the people, crossed right between two jeeps, climbed up onto a rocky encampment and growled facing the watering hole. Just on the other side of the watering hole completely unexpectedly four little cubs raised their heads to greet mommy. My excitement knew no bounds! I thought
the trip had paid off much more than expected already! She went around to join them. Then came the giant Lion. He was huge, with a thick mane that was turning black. He too had blood on this face. He too crossed over between the jeeps and went to join the rest of his pride.

This is the real scary part. Once they lay down in the grass: nothing. That's when I knew how truly dangerous these plains where. The tall grass could hide an entire lion pride and you could be unaware even when standing just a few feet away. That's also when I realized how lucky we were to have been where we were to catch them before they went into a slumber.

Del told us that the lionesses do all the hunting. They are not very fast (compared to the prey) and hence need to use stealth and diversion to make a successful kill. The tall grass provides for the stealth element. But the herbivores are aware of this and tend to stick to short grass plains. So the lionesses need to hunt in groups so that one can cause a diversion while others stalk. Typically just one in five attempts succeed.
Once a kill is made, the lion eats first, followed by the lionesses and then the cubs.

The Lion typically sleeps 18 - 20 hours a day! The rest of the time he spends defending his pride. The females in the pride are all related (sisters, daughters, cousins). When a new male takes over a pride (by chasing away or killing the old male) he mates every 25 mins for 4 days continuously. At this point the life of a male lion started appealing greatly to all the men in our group :-). The new male will also try to kill cubs so that the female is more receptive to mating. Given the competition among males for a pride the gene pool remains healthy and prevents inbreeding.

The interesting thing is, I have started sympathising with the predator quite a bit on this trip. They seem to have quite a hard life compared to the herbivores who seem to be living in a salad bowl. Also we humans, once we decide to slaughter an animal pretty much do not give it a chance to save itself. While out here on the great African plains, it is definitely survival of the fittest.

The next bit of excitement was running into a family of Warthogs. The kids more familiar with the Lion King movie recognized them as Pumbaa, while the adults more familiar with Asterix recognized them as the food! Or wild boar. There were several families grazing away. One of the more sensitive warthog moms decided it was time to head towards safety and started running with her thin tail lifted straight up with the little ones following her. Del told us that she does that so that the little ones can spot her even when she is in tall grass. It was very cute. They are also highly intelligent creatures. A wildlife expert we met a few days later at Masai Mara told us that a warthog on sensing danger from people will run a certain number of feet straight away and then disperse. This certain number is the distance to which a rifle is accurate. They seem to have learnt this and passed it on over the generations as they were a favorite among hunters.

It was time to stop for lunch.. coming up more lions, cheetah, elephants... stay tuned.

The great migration - part 4 (Ngorongoro)

As we approached the crater rim the road started winding upwards and the vegetation turned to lush tropical forests with thick fern undergrowth and wide leaved creepers winding around tree trunks. We were travelling through the clouds to the rim of the Ngorongoro caldera to an elevation of 7500ft.

Ngorongoro was apparently a peak over 14000 ft like Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is thought to have erupted over two million years ago losing almost half of its height and depositing millions of tons of ash and lava into what is now the great Serengeti plains. Ash is very fertile and over the years formed rich grasslands which are now home to some of the largest herds of plains game in the world.


Ngorongoro itself remained the largest unbroken caldera in the world. The crater floor is 2000ft below the crater rim. The floor is roughly 10 miles across with an area of about 100 sq miles. The crater offers several lakes and an abundance of grass year round for its herbivorous herds to remain within the crater. It also has the highest concentration of lions. Lake Magadi within the crater became alkaline and attracts large flocks of Flamingo.


Once we reached the rim road we got a spectacular view of the crater floor. We could see almost the entire crater. I thought to myself if all these animals are in the plains below, I am sure we will find at least a few. I was very skeptical about my luck in wildlife viewing. I was sure someone will yell out "Lion!" and I will go "where? where?" and the lion will be gone.

The jeeps were stopped and parts of the roof came off so that we could stand up and pop our heads out. Far below in the crater I saw something that looked like a slowly moving swarm of black flies. The drivers confirmed that they were wildebeest herds. This was looking very promising! The kids (and many of the more excitable adults) were told to finish up all their yelling and cooing and chatting up here. We had been requested to not wear strong perfumes and keep mum on this game drive.


The drive into the crater was exhilarating. With wind in our hair we waved at recently circumcised boys in traditional black shukas herding their cattle. There are still a few Maasais who live within the crater walls.


The first burst of excitement came on sighting three Wildebeests. These creatures are quite ugly is the first thought that came to mind. They have shoulders higher than the rump, black mane and are generally black-gray in color. They belong to the antelope family. Males are generally bigger and sport horns.
They have a very good sense of smell, but poor eye sight which is rather unfortunate when there is a predator around. All cameras, binoculars, video cameras started rolling following the antics of the star threesome.

We next ran into some Zebras (which did not get us as excited as we were already spoilt having sighted them a few times before. The Zebra's stripes are supposed to be unique to each animal like our fingerprints. We later learnt that the Zebra (basically the African wild ass) developed these stripes as an adaptation to deter the dreaded Tsetse fly which spreads sleeping sickness. The Tsetse fly has numerous eyes and gets confused by the stripes and does not land on the Zebra. The Grevy's Zebra found elsewhere in Africa has slightly different stripes to ward off another insect. Apparently in some areas where the threat of the Tsetse fly is diminishing, the Zebra is losing its stripes. But they are certainly exquisite creatures. Rather unfriendly we were told and tend to kick and bite on the slightest provocation.


As expected the next herbivore was the Gazelle. These beautiful delicate creatures are a lot smaller than the Zebra and the Wildebeest. We spotted both Thompson's and the Grant's Gazelle. I was amazed that having seen an animal and noticing its distinguishing feature once I was able to accurately identify it again whenever I saw one through out the trip.

These three animals (the wildebeest, zebra and the gazelle) are the most abundant in the African plains. They form large herds and migrate together. The wildebeests have a keen sense of smell and can smell fresh grass which starts off the migration<. The Zebras with their keen eyesight lead the migration. They also relish tall grass making way of the shorter grass loving wildebeest. The Gazelle comes last and eats the shortest and the most nutritious grass.
I was not quite ready for the sight that beheld us when we rounded a bend around a hillock. The jeep ahead of us was right in the middle of that swarm of wildebeests that we had seen from the crater rim. Thousands upon thousands of them. As we moved ahead we got caught up in the sea as well. It was fascinating to see bulls chasing each other defending a moving territory, calves quite grown up now, bending on their knees to nurse. The herd stretching as far as the eye could see. This was definitely a Great African Safari moment!

Just as I was thinking to myself the prey is here, now where are the predators? Del our driver exclaimed Lions!

Stay tuned.

The great migration -- part 3

I was woken up in the morning by Patel thumping on the door. Being the obsessive runner that he is, he was doing his daily run by the light of a torch around the foggy, freezing grounds of Lake Manyara lodge.


Right on schedule all 22 of us were up and loaded into our land rovers by 6:30am. All my doubts and notions about travelling in such a large group with so many kids were falling apart. Things had gone very smoothly so far.


I was excited about my company. VT knows a lot about animals, MT has the best photography equipment, they speak kannada in the most entertaining manner and have a fantastic sense of humor.



Ngorongoro is located between Lake Manyara and Serengeti. It is close of the western wall of the Great African Rift Valley. The rift valley runs for about 6000 miles from Syria to Mozambique. It is formed by the earth being ripped apart. Its a highly volcanic and earthquake prone region. But this process has been a blessing to archaeologists as numerous fossils have been uncovered in the deep fissures formed in the earth's crust. Olduvai gorge nearby is where an Australopithecus dating 1.8 million years was discovered.

The Maasai people
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We were taken for a quick visit to a Maasai boma. The Maasais are one of the 100+ local tribes, but one of the most famous. They are cattle herding nomads who believe all the worlds cattle was created for them. They travel around the pastures of East Africa is search of fodder for their cattle. Any money they get from contact with tourists, they use to buy more cattle which is a symbol of status.

They also draw all their sustenance from the cow. Their staple diet is a mixture of cow's blood and milk (The cow does not die, its more like blood donation) and occasionally meat. They sleep on cow skin, their homes are built using cow dung and urine. They also apply a mixture of cow fat and ochre and smell funny, but it apparently helps ward off lions.

Each Boma is a joint family. They practise polygamy. The paramount chief near Masai Mara apparently had 10 wives and 67 children. The women build houses, collect water and firewood, milk cows, cook and care for the young. The warriors are in charge of security while the boys are responsible for herding cattle. The elders act as advisers.


The people look healthy and happy. The warriors are very tall, proud and have well defined muscles and can be thought handsome. They all wear bright cotton blankets mostly with bright red color called Shukas. The lions can see this and usually give them a wide berth. They also wear a lot a bright bead jewelry. They have large hanging ear lobes (which is formed rather painfully by drilling with a wooden stick)


The Boma is organized in a circle. The inner enclosure is for the cows, around that are small round circular home that look like bread loaves. Each is probably 8 ft in diameter and 4 ft in height. If you squeeze in there, there is room to cook, sit and sleep!!! There is small kindergarten for the young ones. The calves are kept in the separate enclosure outside the main enclosure.

Many ceremonies mark the life a Maasai. Important ones being:
* Circumcision upon reaching puberty. This is done without any numbing agent and is supposed to be very painful. But every boy wants to go through it because it signifies his transition into adulthood. (women have to go through it also)
* Warrior graduation after 10 years in warrior camp. Originally, this involved the slaying of a lion. But that has been mostly abandoned because of wildlife protection laws.
* Marriage. The groom has to give the brides family about 10 cows. Each father gives the young boys a few cows to raise. The boy has to raise them and form his own herd of cows to give away when he gets married.


We were welcomed into the boma by traditional singing and dancing. The dancing is a lot of swaying back and forth and jumping (very high!) and the singing is very deep guttural with sudden high pitched notes. We visited the homes and the kindergarten, took some pictures, danced with them (they took off their necklaces and put it on us). They were charging $25 for each necklace.


We saw some more zebras nearby and reminded ourselves we had not yet reached Ngorongoro. So we bid farewell to the Maasai people and continued on our journey.

The great migration -- part 2

The great migration -- part 2

Arriving on the Tanzanian border we were accosted by another herd. A bunch of colorfully clad tribal women with very short hair trying to sell us bead bracelets. A lot of confusion ensued. Conversion from dollars to shillings - which shilling? a dollar is 75 Kenyan shillings and 1130 Tanzanian shillings. Some women were choosing colors, some were bargaining on the price, some just buying out of pity and others getting scolded by husbands for not running along and completing immigration. Shauni the youngest was terrified since he was not used to all this. It was very touching when he started to cry and all the tribal women started waving and smiling at him to calm him down. As a precautionary measure he learnt the Swahili word for "no" (hapana) and used it every time he saw people selling anything.


The landscape started changing from dusty and arid to lush green as we started gaining elevation. We were nearing Arusha. The main export of the Arusha region is cut flowers and sun flower oil. We saw a lot of nurseries and sun flower fields. After lunch at Arusha (more good Indian food) we were divided to occupy 3 land rovers (Big jeeps, with removable roofs tops) for our journey up to Lake Manyara lodge - boasting the best pool in Tanzania. We were looking forward to that after a long journey.

Our Jeep contained the Thirumale and four of the oldest kids. The kids immediately started a race with the other jeeps which involved a lot of booing and making funny faces as we passed one another. They also got very creative with making tiresome songs like putting the words "Macaroni and Cheese" to Beethoven's Fur Elise.

We got to know our driver Del who would be with us for the rest of our stay in Tanzania. He knew a lot about the country, culture, the local people, flora and fauna.

We were able check off Olive baboons in our wildlife checklist on the way.


The Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge is located on a hill overlooking Lake Manyara. The rooms are built as cottages resembling Maasai Bomas (homes of the local tribe). The beds had mosquito netting. The famous pool was spectacular perched on the edge of the cliff almost like if you swim to the edge you can fall right into Lake Manyara far below. But it was also freezing and fizzled out my enthusiasm for a dip. We were entertained by some African Rumba dancers and acrobats.

We were told to be ready to leave by 6:30am so that we could start our safari at the Ngorongoro crater early. I read the log near the front desk and people seemed to have spotted a lot of animals. So I tucked myself under my mosquito netting waiting for daybreak so that I could finally get to go on my first safari adventure!

Stay tuned for the unbelievable sights of the Ngorongoro crater often referred to as the Eden of Africa, The eighth wonder of the natural world and the Cradle of Life!

The great migration - part 1

The great migration started in the early morning hours of Sunday the 26th of June. A herd of 18 silicon valley dwelling Indians started the great journey towards the vast verdant plains of East Africa. Four more of our kind were to join us from Bangalore when we reached Nairobi, Kenya.

I would like to say that each pair of eyes held the anticipation of returning to the cradle of life itself, but we were just a bunch of sleepy Jones who had dragged themselves out of bed at 3:30am. We had our share of worry bees in our midst who made sure we left home at 4:15 am to catch a flight at 8:15 am.

For me, new experiences started the moment our ride to the airport arrived. It was a white stretch limousine! This was certainly a first for me. The plush leather seats, the neon stars, the champagne glasses (not lucky enough for the real stuff. Not the hour for it either). I knew I had at least made the right choice in the people to travel with.

We had had numerous meetings and get-together and email exchanges debating what to take, what not to take, how to pack etc. We had all ultimately managed to pack light. About 3 long pants, 3 long tops and a jacket.

We were in all 22 people. Five families of four (The Singhs, The Thirumales, The Vaidyas, The Ghirnikars and The Iyers), our running coach Patel and me.

After hours of flying we finally arrived in Nairobi at dinner time. Thanks to Patel being a Gujarati and our Travel agent in Nairobi being a Gujarati, we were all taken to a wonderful Gujarati restaurant. It had been a long time since I had eaten such tasty Indian food. We all managed to overeat. Mr Jackie Jaikishan had also bought us bags and bags of crunchy Indian snacks. Chakli, mixture, Khara kaddi you name it and we had it. We all resigned to the fact that we would gain a few pounds on this trip.

The hotel we stayed at (The Norfolk) was very nice. Very colonial. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I had my own room (which turned out to be the case for the whole trip). Nairobi also reminded us all of Bangalore (not as crowded and little cleaner). We were up before day break the next morning (which turned out to be the case for the whole trip) and had a sumptuous buffet breakfast (which turned out to be the case with every meal). We were all loaded into our private bus and carted off to Tanzania.

We were given a little wildlife checklist to check off any birds or animals we saw. This certainly kept the children (10 of them aged between 5 - 11) busy. I was reminded of travels with my own family when I was young. It used to be so much fun to travel with other kids. I remembered counting Gummas (hooded men) with Mallika. This bunch certainly had a blast! We were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of big Cranes, Gazelles and even some Zebras along the way to Tanzania.

Stay tuned for the Tanzanian adventure!