Monday
morning we went with a 4x4 jeep for a 3 day safari. In the car we met 2 other
Dutch couples : Gejs & Nelly, and Thomas & Lisanne… But we also
lived an incredible story… We were almost in the Lion King Movie. You want to
know why ??
First let
me present you the first roles:
SIMBA
(this actor is the most paid for doing nothing)
NALA
(Her salary is just enough for what she does)
The second roles :
PUMBA : The curious warthog 
DUMBO :
The solitary elephant 
SARAH :
The hungry cheetah
RAFIKI :
The baboon with blue ass 
THEO :
The shy hippo
ISABELLE :
The fast running gazelle
NICOLAS :
The nice impala
FRIEDRICH :
The funny ostrich
CYRIL :
The dangerous crocodile
JOE
: The tired buffalo
LEO :
The slow rhino
RAJAPOUR : the robbing vulture
ROUKI :
The small fox
ALEX :
The social zebra
DIEGO :
the charming bird
ZAZOU :
The singing bird
The story
starts like all stories: the sun rises over the savannah and SIMBA, the Lion
King, lies on his back while other animals walk around. ISABELLE the gazelle
goes out of her group for few seconds…But that is enough for SARAH to attack
her and eat her… Yes, actually that is also the “Life Story”. And this tragedy
made several animals happy: after the cheetah, it was the turn for RAJAPOUR and
his friends to finish the dish… Fortunately, while someone dies, others are
born…
DUMBO is very proud of his family, and SOPHIE hugs her daughter because
she knows, that she will growth very fast.
Almost
midday, some animals use that time to have a rest but some others such as ROUKI
and ED prefer looking for food. PUMBA likes playing and NICOLAS does jogging
with his friends.
The strong sun of this day will be responsible for a new
tragedy: GILOU, the little wildebeest was thirsty and wanted to drink at the
river… Bad idea. CYRIL the crocodile attacks him with a strong bite… GILOU
tried to escape several times… But CYRIL was stronger!
RAFIKI
didn’t care about the noise and continued doing what he likes: playing with his
wife. BERNARD also didn’t move from his rock. Good location to enjoy shadow and
to have a look on his future meal… For DIEGO it was different: he was well
dressed to attract a female but she was more interested by POLO the
flamingo….
FRIEDRICH was the luckiest
ostrich ever seen: he has 2 females. THEO was into the water but he didn’t feel
comfortable. He would like more place, unfortunately it was too early to get
out of the water….
In the
afternoon, the temperature started to decrease a little bit: LEO the rhino used
this time to have a walk and to visit JOE. The buffalo wasn’t really happy
about this visit because he was sleeping…
PROUST was
in a very good mood; it was more than one week that she didn’t meet BERTRAND
the dangerous varan…
But unfortunately, ALEX the zebra is not so lucky: ALEX
was following his family but he didn’t see that NALA was looking at him. Other
zebras saw the lioness and tried to prevent the others but it was too late: In
the general panic, every zebras ran in all directions and ALEX was directly on
front of NALA… She didn’t say anything and just jumped to bite ALEX in his
neck… After few seconds he died and all lions will have a great diner tonight.
That’s how
ends « The Life Story, the eternal Cycle”! Another day will start tomorrow
in the savannah and someone will be killed and someone else will be born!
This short
story seems incredible, or just coming out of a documentary but that is what we
saw in front of us… But now it’s time for you to learn few things about the
national park and its animals…
The
Serengeti National Park is the largest park in Tanzania and the second largest
in Africa. Its name comes from the Masaï word « Siringet » which
means « Ashes ». In fact it’s a volcanic region and the ground of Serengeti
is composed by ashes. That’s why there is no tall trees in Serengeti but only
small one. Even during the rainy season, this area is often missing water and
it burns… But some of these fires are not natural, they are provoked by
poachers: If there is a fire somewhere, all park rangers will go there and
don’t care of the poachers…
The
Ngorongoro crater is located in a conservation area. It’s a conservation for
wildlife, vegetation and human being. 65000 Masaï live there. The name
Ngorongoro comes from the sound made by bells that Masaï attach on cows. Masaï
living there, live almost in traditional conditions. Their houses are made from
branches recovered with a mix of water and ashes (it is waterproof). Houses are
built by women: When a woman get married, all other women of the village help
her to build her house. Huts are very simple: 2 beds (for parents and children)
made with cow skin and a fire in the idle for cooking. There is always
something burning just to create smoke and keep mosquitoes and insects away
from the house. Men may have several wives… They are usually farmers (having
cows and goats) but they don’t do agriculture. They eat meat and a mix of milk
and blood every day. The village has a huge fence out of it to protect against
wildlife.
The
Ngorongoro Crater is in reality a caldera: it means it’s a crater where life is
possible. It’s the biggest of the world. It was created 2 million years ago
after two volcanic explosions. Before exploding, the volcano was higher than
the Kilimanjaro (5800m). The surface inside the crater is 200km2 and it is 610m
deep. The lake inside is never totally dry.
In
Ngorongoro crater there are 21 black rhinos. That are the only ones living in
Tanzania. Compare to the white rhinos, the black rhinos live solitary. In that
case it’s much easier for a poacher to kill a black rhino. They are killed for
their horns. (In Asia you can sell lit for a very high price). The only other
country to have black rhinos is South Africa. It is an endangered species. And
even protected it’s really difficult to have babies: The female is fertile only
each 5 years…
From sixty
years old, an elephant becomes solitary. And most of the time he loses his
teeth. To survive, he can only eat fresh grass.
Lions can
live until 12 years old. Usually only the lioness hunts but for bigger animals
such as buffaloes or giraffes, males come to help. As the digestion process of
meat is long, lion eat only every 3 days in average!
The leopard
prefers smaller animals such as gazelles. Then he can bring them in his tree. Because
leopards live in trees. The male put his two back legs on the same side while
the female has one leg on each side of the branch.
So, we
really enjoyed this safari and we are happy to have seen the big five (Lions, Rhinos,
Elephants, Leopards and Buffaloes) and a lot of other animals. If you’re coming
nearby, just do it, it’s worth the price !!!
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