This is the time of the year when nature seems to not want to make up its mind: bring the rain or shall we wait a bit?
Often at Ndutu we get a half hand-out, the Lake Victoria weather extends to just about where we are, and the coastal winds and build-up tries to come in from the East, or at least that is what it looks like!
Dark skies fill the western and northern skies during the afternoons, and there are big clouds building up over Endulen and Lemagrut in the SE!
As all the acacias have now exploded in the greenest of green around us, one cannot but hope that with the Scadoxus (fireball-lilies) wilting, the rains are truly near!
So far we have had three good rainstorms and it has helped settle the dust a bit. Very windy days alternate with still, hot afternoons, up to 33* in the shade!
So we all scan the skies and keep our fingers crossed! Northern Serengeti I am told is green already and the animals have moved southward steadily, many zebras at Moru, gnus around Seronera and no doubt countless gazelles are returning onto the burnt grass plains, nibbling the new, juicy young shoots.
Mid-late August brought a period of the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets; the air filled with grassfire smoke and dust, and each day the sun appeared and descended as a red fiery ball across the lakes.
Photo by Eva Marie Widmark
True lodge sundowners for those lucky guests that joined at our fire outside!
Talking of skies, we also enjoyed some good views of the Perseids meteorite shower at the same time especially around midnight and early mornings!
At Ndutu the large buffalo herd moves constantly from Lake Masek to the Marsh and back, there are quite a few calves in the herd and the lions eye them all the time!
Our two resident lion prides truly have to battle to survive the dry season, and although some of them look very emaciated and thin… hopefully they will survive the dry season! Hamisi and his client saw the lions kill a young honey badger too, and we were told that 14 lions killed an elephant as well!
Apart from these interesting incidents, we know that buffalo, giraffe, donkey and warthog have regularly featured on their menu!
Every day around noon a family of warthog, Pa, Ma and 4 little ones have been visiting the water overflow in front of the Lodge; they use the same track past my house and to the front of the waterhole and back again…. It is sad to see their numbers dwindle… knowing the lions are mainly responsible for the absentees!
Even in the dry season, the cheetahs are doing well. A few days ago I found five cheetahs feasting on an adult impala in the Acacia woodland. The cheetah project has given this adult female the inspiring name of “AH 140”; she has two cubs of her own and has adopted two others! They were very relaxed even when eating and I was glad they all managed to finish their prey ‘unmolested’, not bothered by birds of prey or hungry hyenas.
The leopards Colin mentioned in the last Newsletter have continued to be seen. What a treat! Often very close, near the wells or thereabouts and very approachable too…. Some guests had a wonderful chance to photograph the young male, sometimes alone and sometimes with mum nearby in a tree not far from the Lodge.
Photo by Rick de Moel
Right now, with so much bare ground, the mice are everywhere, scuttling along, diving for any cover after bird alarm calls and busy nibbling away anything that is edible. Arvicanthis niloticus or un-striped grass mouse is a diurnal species, and they are expert road builders. Using all manner of groundcover left, sticks, dried grass, stones, plants, their well-used runways and roads are masterly designed! The best one at the moment spans a distance of about 20 meters and from a hole through two long grassy over spans it crosses a man’s path, then recedes under one of Kioki’s welding wonders – an aardvark – and then scoots along and disappears under a water tank where there is a leak and some moisture to enjoy!
At the peak of Dry season, one gets to know one’s residents! Unmistakably, as the quills give it away, a porcupine has arrived on the scene and so has a zorilla!
This attractive small black-and-white carnivore is rarely seen, and mostly nocturnal.
Well, by the looks of the state of the planted Sanseviera and the thousands of small holes all around the Lodge both creatures are having a wail of a time here…
Several times in the late afternoons, a warthog family just calmly trotted past the back houses and right into the garage area, presumably to look for water! Warthogs are normally pretty alert and it was still a bit odd to walk from one’s house, preoccupied with paperwork and to meet a warthog family face to face!
There was another Genet drama late August when of 4 young ones that were greatly admired by the staff and guests alike two were found dead right next to the main building in the morning…we all tried to work out what happened, and concluded that they must have been killed by another genet…. Luckily the 2 remaining ones reappeared with mum after sometime, and since then, another small family has decided to call the main bar area their home… We have all held our breaths as the growing youngsters start doing their acrobatics on and along the poles and inside rooftop. Maybe their fluffiness keeps them safe when they fall from great heights onto the tables and floor, only to be picked up by mouth by mum and carried up onto the wall and roof yet again!
The birdbath, until the first rainstorms, was the highlight of the Lodge breakfast, with a great variety of smaller birds in and out all the time. Some impalas occasionally moved in quickly to drink, only to bound away with great leaps as soon as a guest appeared!
For the first time, out of the blue we heard and then saw a pair of speckled pigeons at the bath. Rather uncommon just here, these colourful birds have dark red eyes and a distinctive call, but I think they have disappeared again to the hills and rocks further east!
Whenever guests arrived at the Reception and were enjoying their welcoming iced tea drink, they were not only greeted by our receptionists, but also by a chameleon, that lived in the euphorbia tree, out came cameras immediately, well before registering!
It stayed there over a month and guaranteed a good first round upon arrival!
Room no. 12 hit the limelight when an adult python was discovered in its roof! The starlings went crazy and when I walked over to have a look I saw a big python hanging from the front of the veranda, looking around, mobbed by the birds!
I quickly ran back to collect my camera and managed to capture the body turning to hide back into the rooftop… as the room was going to be occupied that afternoon the room stewards were very anxious we should block it; however, the occupants I knew were going to be Gail and Doug Cheeseman, old hands and pure professional Tour Leaders, who visit Ndutu so often and love snakes, bats as well as all other fauna on hand, so I did not worry too much. I did warn them about their gatecrasher, but predictably, they were most hospitable and delighted at the idea!
Needless to say their triple guest did not show during the entire 4 nights they were there… in fact, nothing happened till about a month later, when it was seen again in the roof…. Possibly it may have been there to shed its skin and has since left, …..we think !!
Oh, and the good news is that our famous old pal DT is back!!
Not yet right at the Lodge (heaven help us again) but very close at the causeway, looking healthy and well, and big! Colin saw him too and noticed he is in musth… so we know what he is up to!!
Maybe his preoccupation with the girls and the ladies will keep him suitably occupied for the time being. Also hopefully he will find enough rain puddles in the coming period to leave our drinking water tanks alone!
One of these days he will rock up here to say hello, for old and new time’s sake!
I am off to Holland soon and won’t have to worry about the bushes and the trees at the Lodge when he is around and hope he will leave some of them standing before I return in December!
Aadje
November 2010
