Serengeti Family Safari

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	Serengeti Family Safari By Kurt and Anne Kutay July 1, 2000

Join Wildland Directors, Kurt and Anne Kutay and our 10-year old son, with three other families on our Serengeti Family Safari. Traveling in open-roofed land rovers we seek out the great herds of the Serengeti and set our mobile wilderness camps in the bush where interactions of predator and prey are easily observed. Accompanied by our Senior Guide, Willy Chambulo and his 10-year old son and 8-year old daughter, we hike with Maasai warriors, go out on nocturnal safaris, hunt with the Hadzabe (bushmen), and take a balloon flight over the Serengeti.

A Is For Africa

What's the first wild animal bigger than a dog that you think you would see on your first day on safari in Africa? Nobody in our group guessed it right. After a long 22 hour trip on KLM from Seattle to Arusha and a short night's rest at Meru Mountain Lodge, we found ourselves cruising across the wildlands of Africa. And the first wild animal we encountered was an ostrich. After that it was one thrill after another.

We are a group of 13 representing 4 families with kids ranging in age from 10 to 17. Ten-year old Bruce Hill dutifully noted all the sightings during the first 3 hour leg of our 12 day safari through Tanzania: "Four sightings of gazelle, five zebra, two ostrich, one secretary bird, two wildebeest, two giraffe and one jackal". By the end of the first day, we all lost count.

We decided to drop Arusha National Park from our itinerary in favor of heading straight to a remote camp in Sinya at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro just across the border from Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Since we are planning to visit all the major National Parks of the northern Tanzania safari circuit, we knew that camping and hiking in the African wilderness far from any other tourists would plunge us into the soul of Africa.

Since we arrived at this camp we have not seen another vehicle, no tourists, nor any other development of any kind. Camp is spread out under the shade of Acacia forest on the edge a dried up depression in the earth. On the other side of camp we can see zebras and gazelles, and giraffe grazing the tree tops. Paw prints and hoof marks of predator and prey are recorded in the dust and hard-pan cracked earth. Bowling-ball size elephant dung litters the area. This is a migration route for elephant in their constant search food and water. We learned that elephants eat 16 hours day and must keep moving in search of water as dry season takes hold. Unfortunately, as human populations grow, tourism develops, and Maasai are encouraged to cultivate the land, elephant migration routes are getting cut off creating more conflicts as man and beast simply survive.

As we drive off on safari each afternoon from our camp, we see herds of zebras and wildebeest, Thompson's gazelles, giraffe, huge troops of vervet monkeys, and an occasional baboon or warthog. But the elephants are the most impressive. They let us approach close. We sit in the quiet just watching as they shake tree trunks like maracas dropping seed pods and knock down whole trees devouring leaves and small branches.

The kids prefer riding in "Wille's toy", an open air rig with roll bars well-equipped for bumpy, off-road thrills and close, unencumbered encounters with wildlife. Such a vehicle is not allowed in the national parks, nor are the bush walks we do in Sinya. This is Maasailand and Willie has an agreement with the local Maasai community to use their land for our Wildland safari camps. We pay the community a fee, which we hope will buck the trend encouraged by missionaries and government officials for the Maasai to settle and cultivate the land. For centuries Maasai have lived in harmony with wildlife. They neither hunt nor eat wild game. They graze cattle and goats and have always acted as custodians of the land and wildlife. But times are changing. We hope that ecotourism might be one way Maasai may find a way for themselves to embrace modern development while preserving their cultural values and protecting the natural world.

Three Maasai warriors stay with us, leading our bush walks and watching over our camp. They came here dressed in red cloth and carrying a spear and short blade. "What do they use their spears for?" asked Bruce, the youngest member of our group. It was hard for any of us to imagine that these gentle souls in their teens would actually take on a lion or a leopard in the wild. They depend on their keen senses to avoid the predators and live with mutual respect for the predators, rather than dominate them. They showed us how to track game, pointing out fresh leopard tracks in the dusty trail. One of them stopped Lee Sweeney in her tracks, but we couldn't see what danger was about to befall her. The young Maasai bent down to pluck a small twig close to the ground. We still couldn't see any harm until we turned our binoculars around to use as a magnifying glass and discovered the twig was a swarming mass of baby ticks just waiting for a warm-blooded host.

Our medium style camp is the perfect balance of simplicity and comfort. Spacious tents easily sleep a family of three with room for a table. Beds are sturdy cots with a mattress and clean linens. We sleep soundly under thick wool blankets as cool African air wafts through the screen at night. Each morning we are awoken just before dawn with a fresh basin of warm water. Hot showers are available anytime on call. After a quick "pre-breakfast" of coffee, tea and ginger biscuits, we head out on safari for a few hours. When we return the dining table is set outside under an Acacia tree for a full breakfast to order. Today we visited a Maasai village and school to deliver boxes of student supplies and teacher curriculum donated from our Brighton School Kids Care Club.

The afternoons are free to relax, read, journal, nap, talk and watch the kids play. After another afternoon safari, we gather around the campfire for wine and snacks. By the time dinner comes around, the cook and wait staff are rushing one course after another to get in all the tasty dishes before kids start dropping off to dreamland.

Someone suggested perhaps we should have desert first. Actually, in the bigger picture, we did have desert first: Sinya has been a sweet start to this Wildland Adventures Tanzania Family Safari.