The outside temperature on my porch – overlooking the white-dry soda expanse that at present is Lake Ndutu – reads 34 degrees in the shade… Not really surprising with only a sum total of 23 mm for the past four months; the south eastern part of the Serengeti, where we are situated, has turned into the lovely yellows and browns of the familiar dry season African savannah landscape. Some early rains have transformed other, more northern and western parts of the Park into lush, green pastures, and I am told the zebra and first wildebeest have started their annual trek south already! Well, we saw the clouds build up, we watched the lighting shows at night, we listened to the thunder at a distance, we smelt the rain and we tasted some drops!
Then followed the “Ndutu Raindance” feverish running to and fro to check the drums, tanks, drains and gutters, followed by the excitement with the sound of the first ‘coffee-coloured’ rainwater running off the roof and into a tank! At this point the quality of the water does not matter much – as we use it for mixing the cement – and are we busy doing just that!!!
Renovations still in full swing, we have achieved much during the past three months! With the help of a few extra ‘fundis’ (masons and carpenters) and many of our own staff, we are confident that we will have everything ready for the coming High Season. When it comes to that; Tanzania is having a “boom” tourist season this year, and it is unbelievably busy everywhere. Rare are the days when here at Ndutu we are without guests.
Our guests have enjoyed watching the much habituated dikdiks and hares that live around the Lodge and especially in the evenings, come right up to the fireplace in front of the Lodge. One serval cat frequented the birdbath for awhile and timed her nightly visit well when 30 guests were having dinner and could watch her drink for quite a time, whilst sipping their wines!!
Somewhat further a field, a herd of over one hundred buffalo continues to roam between Lake Masek and the Big Marsh. Scarce sightings of two small herds of elephants, both with small babies, have been a special treat too for recent visitors! The resident crocodile – Ndugu Snap – still floats around in the open bit of the water at the Big Marsh and nearby, one tourist group were very excited to see a very big python in a tree along the edge of the marsh.
Also at the marsh, three cheetahs killed a dikdik just when the cheetah researchers were watching, so that was a lucky coincidence. Another friend saw a cheetah kill a dikdik at the causeway; there seem to be dikdiks everywhere this year and sad to know they probably are providing some of the “staple” food for several larger carnivores!
There also were reports of very successful lions, with two adult giraffe and one buffalo killed, and lions found at a dead elephant near Twin Hills. We don’t know what had caused the death. It provided the lions with enough food for quite awhile during these dry months. At another occasion near the marsh, tourists saw a male lion with a freshly killed cheetah. However, not all is always well for lions, as we found out yesterday when we heard that one young male lion was killed by Maasai near Twin Hills, after apparently killing three cows!
Bird lovers will be happy to know that there was a “first” sighting of a (very) common or yellow-vented Bulbul at the Lodge!! This truly can be called one of THE most common of all African birds, yet it had never been recorded here! Equally exciting was the record of black-tailed Godwits at Lake Masek in August. Luckily Lake Masek still has lots of water and, off and on, flocks of flamingoes can be seen feeding there, and 14 pelicans have been in residence for at least two weeks, though what they were living on remains somewhat of a mystery.
A strange and sad incident at the Lodge occurred about a month ago. Sifueli, our mason had enjoyed his morning cup of tea and went cheerfully off to finish plastering a wall in one of the new cottages only to find a growling leopard, lying in front of the water tank behind the cottage! He got quite a fright, and hastily retreated, followed by the leopard! Luckily another mason saw what happened and came to the rescue as Sifueli ran towards him and actually a wheelbarrow on the path stopped the leopard from getting at them! The NCAA Rangers were informed and a vet organized to come out. The leopard by that time had slowly walked over to our birdbath in front of the dining room to drink. Its behaviour indicated it was not well, but that obviously did not stop lots of guests chancing photograph of a leopard 20 metres away from the dining room. Shortly after it moved haltingly to the big water-hole in front of the Lodge, it collapsed and died. Apparently it was a young leopard, and how sad to lose one at Ndutu!
On a very different and much more cheerful note, we are very lucky that Jenny Saar has come back to stay for three weeks at Ndutu. She is instrumental in the decorations at Ndutu and has all these years advised us too on materials and the interior! Jenny and I go back a long way and she stayed here for almost half a year in 1987 to help out with all manner of things! In that period she made our Logo too, which till this day graces the website, notepaper, brochures etc. She is now creating some exciting new decorations for the dining room which we hope will please the guests! All I will reveal now is that we have, on her behalf, bought lots of copper break pipe!!! I leave the remainder of this puzzle to the future guests to unriddle!
Aadje,
October 2004
Ndutu,
