Yesterday morning, we had the most handsome male lion sitting in front of the lodge which was a great treat for those guests who were eating breakfast. It was one of the two males from the Masek pride, who had just stopped by to drink from the birdbath and to show off for the cameras. I must say, he did look magnificent when he sat up with his blonde mane flowing in the wind. There were three males with the Masek pride, but sadly one went missing sometime last year. The two remaining lions look fit and well and fathered seven cubs at the beginning of this year and, to my knowledge, all are still alive. The real test for them will come in the next couple of months as the dry season really starts to bite. Two weeks ago, both males walked pass the front of the lodge early in the evening along with four lionesses and three of the cubs, which was a very special treat for guests enjoying sundowners by the fire, although I did notice that afterwards everyone discreetly moved inside!
This morning was the cheetah’s turn to walk past! A mother and her three six month old cubs walked right past the dining room with the playful cubs trying to chase some guinea fowl, which caused quite a commotion. It’s a very special treat to have cheetah walk through the lodge as it’s a very uncommon occurrence, so today it was nice to see everybody enjoying it so much. Louise and I saw another exciting thing the other day. It was a cheetah hunting a black backed jackal in the Ndutu woodlands. He caught and ate the jackal, which wasn’t a nice thing to see. I’ve never heard of this behaviour before, although researchers studying cheetahs here in the Serengeti have told me that they have been known to chase and even kill bat-eared foxes occasionally. I think cheetah do much better and are more numerous in the woodlands than people might think. But they are much harder to see in the woodlands than on the open plains, but you do come across quite a few by chance amongst the trees and maybe here jackals are actually a regular prey species???
We have the most amazing spectacle going on at the Big Marsh at the moment. Hundreds of thousands of red billed quelea, or even a million or so, of these small finch like birds are flocking together in tight formations that resemble clouds of smoke or a huge swarm of bees as they come to drink from the brackish water. They fly past with a roar as hundreds of thousands of tiny wings beat as fast as they can. Naturally a situation like this attracts predators which take any birds which fall into the water or some even try to snatch them out of the sky as they hurtle by. These include storks like the saddle bills, yellow bills and marabou as well as sacred ibises, grey and black headed herons and, at times, marsh harriers speed the flocks on their way. All this activity is being watched by Mr. Snap, the small resident crocodile at the marsh who I’m sure is not an innocent bystander. Another special thing about the dry season is the large numbers of Fishers lovebirds that come to the birdbath at the lodge. Lovebirds are brightly coloured small parrot like birds and the Fischer lovebird is endemic to Northern Tanzania while the Ndutu area has one of the largest populations in the country.
Ndutu Safari Lodge was started in the mid 60’s by George Dove, a retired hunter, who along with his son, Mike, built the lodge. George sold the lodge in 1974 and they both moved to Australia. George died a few years ago but Mike returned to Ndutu this month, for the first time in 27 years. He was very pleased to see that the character and charm of Ndutu hasn’t changed and even more pleased to see Marceli, Thomas and little John, who are still working at the lodge. They spent many hours chatting about the past and recalling so many of their adventures from the old days.
The night sky this month is stunning with so many shooting stars, which are just pieces of rock or, if you prefer, planetary debris burning up as it enters the earth’s atmosphere. The constellation Cygnus (the swan) is rising from the east and the bright star Vega is unmistakable in the North, part of the constellation Lyra.
The Ndutu annual darts competition was a great success with Robert the carpenter walking off with the trophy. It would have been an international competition but I wasn’t allowed to play, as apparently I wasn’t judged to be good enough. I’ve consoled myself, by taking up the guitar which I think I have a gift for. Once I can figure out how to tune it and learn some chords I should get even better?
DT, a young bull elephant in his early twenties, regularly visits the lodge to cause some sort of mayhem, generally to flatten the odd tree. I don’t like to use the phrase “elephant damage” but prefer the expression “elephant improvement”. I do, however, often use the expression “dik dik damage” as these tiny antelopes are probably munching up tree seedling wholesale. Sorry, I diverge! What I was going to say was that when DT comes right into the lodge grounds we try to discourage him for obvious reasons by clapping hands or making a bit of noise. The problem is that he’s now so used to it that he doesn’t take any notice anymore. The latest idea to frighten him off is for me to play my guitar to him when he next visits. Everyone here is convinced that it will work although, personally I think the beautiful music will only attract him and others!
Ndutu Safari Lodge.
