The Holy Adventure: Serengeti National Park

A day  lost in Arusha with countless hours of negotiation with the safari company rends its fruits next Wednesday morning when I was finally headed for Serengeti National Park with my Colombian group. It was a long but worth drive from Twiga campsite, passing by Ngorongoro Conservation area, home of the Masai, to finally reach the endless plain of Serengeti: the truly lion kingdom. Until then, I had only seen it on the BBC documentaries, so I felt unsurprisingly privileged to be able to enjoy such a magnificent landscape.

  

 After a game ride in Serengeti, we arrived to the campsite around 6pm in the middle of a heavy rain. I was a bit surprised whet I glanced the campsite through the car window. It was an open, unfenced area, right there, in the middle of the park and where some buffaloes and zebras were roaming at the time (not to mention all camouflaged animals that I couldn’t see, but were definitely nearby). What, silly? I don't think so, even the Masai fence their settlements to avoid wild animals. But Mirage, our safari guide, assured me that it was ok to overnight there as long as I had a flashlight to scare the animals away! Ha, it did come quite handy when I was coming later that night from the washroom to the dining area (only protected areas, in which by the way, cooks and safari guides sleep while the send the adventurous tourists to sleep out there, in the park!!)… As I was saying, I was coming from the washroom when I heard a funny noise that made me point in that direction with my flashlight. There it was, a hyena searching in the trashcan!. It was standing about 3 meters away, with those bright eyes looking at me. It briefly stayed there and then calmly disappeared in the dark. Holly s-adventure!!

 

Next morning, we were all ready for fun game ride:

I was so exhausted in the nighttime that I fell in a deep and nice sleep that was later interrupted by a group of hyenas dragging the trashcans nearby. I could hear their hysterical laughter that was then harmonized by a roaring lion, the grunting noises of some buffaloes, birds singing, and all the animal noises you can possible imagine. I could hear them all that night. I then realized that I happened to be alone in tiny tent at some point of earth called wild Africa. It was scary, but not as bad as when an animal decided to come by my tent to search around. I kept thinking on screaming or turning on my flashlight to scare away that mysterious animal. Instead, I freaked out to death and said all the catholic prayers I could remember for that animal to go. Oh my god, there I was thinking of my imminent and absurd death. I was horrified, but soon realized that the animal wasn't interested in coming inside my tent, as it seemed to be just curious or looking for a nice spot to sleep. After what felt as an eternity, I finally heard Jorge – the Colombian guy -- chatting with his dad inside their tent next to mine. I almost whispered to him, “Jorge, Jorge, I think there is animal outside my tent”. Wait! He commanded me, advising to not open my tent while he could take a look. Don't worry, he said soon after, it's just the wind! …