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Look, how wonderful: just we took the initiative in doing new adventures and run up the flag of TDRUS over
the peak of Kilimanjaro, the heroes of the new film with the participation of Timothy Dalton -
"Loney Tines: Back in Action", - followed us and went to the African jungle, it may be said, almost after the scents of our February expedition!
Because the movie's First Night will take place after a year only, we decided to warm the hearts of our readers with the story about wonderful journey, which is called "The African Safari". Nickolas Nosov tells you about his impressions during the trip and shows his photoes. The musical score on the theme of the Little Red Riding-hood was prepared by Vuctor Karpovitch.
The African Safari - 2002
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"I want the only thing now: to return to Africa. We still didn't leave it, but waking up at nights I do lie, listen to it and already am regretful of it.
E. Hemingway "The Green Hills of Africa"
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We passed through the flight from Moscow to Amsterdam and then - to airport of Kilimanjaro, where we watched the bad try of letdown, when the landing gear already touched the air-strip, but at that moment our aircraft suddenly took up and made the additional 50 km circle in the air, making us to be a little bit thrill. We also passed through the hourlong journey from the airport to Arusha - and now, at last, we go to the National Park Ngorongoro!
The road was edged with illimitable savannah, where the natives graze fleshless cows on the meadows. Somewhere we meet the umbelliferous acacias and the detached baobabs. We are impressed by the African villages - some circular cabines, which are loking as it was at the times of Stanley and Levingstone. The circular frame is made from long poles, coated with clay. Another poles are used to support the strawy roof. The cabins are small, without any furniture - people sleep on the floor of clay. Children play in the dirty pools with pleasure.
Soon we see the tall mountain chain, which crosses savannah and spreads for many miles to endlessness. This is the Rift Valley or the Great African rift, which goes through the Red Sea, the whole African continent, the lakes of Tanganyika and Nyassa and has the end in Mozambique. We have the lake of Maniara on our left - the one of the sodium lakes, which were based on the place of the rift. Ascending the mountain chain, we cross the plateau and see the giant crater.
The Ngorongoro is the crater, which arose as a result of the volcano burst. The topsoil here, in Serengeti, consists of the volcanic rock. It is said, that the light mist appears from time to time in the center of the crater, however we didn't see it. The crater is huge, its diameter is 25 kilometers. We stayed at the back of the crater to enjoy with the view of the panorama opened. It seemed, that we watch the Earth of Sannikov or that the movie was filming in Ngorongoro. In the center of crater we found the lake of Magadi (that means - "soda").
We descend from the mountain using the rapid highway spiral. It becomes clear immediately, why Ngorongoro is the one of the most heavily populated with animals areas of Africa, one of the wonders of the world. It seems, this is no place, where you couldn't watch one or another specient of the African fauna. At the same time the vast area do not cause the congestion of animals - they do not clash each other. Almost at the first moment the zebras stopped our movement. They didn't pay attention to our car and simply lied on the road. By the way, we met the wilding zebras out the National parks. Probably, they are not a subject of hunting for the native people. Some minutes later we saw a troop of antelopes gnu.
The rose flamingo on the lake Magadi is unforgettable show. It seems, they walk upon the water, looking something over its surface. Their reflections in the water amplify the feeling of something beatiful. The jackal came to the water and began to look out for the birds, giving accent to the picture of a fairy tale. Moving a little bit along the road we saw a lying on the grass hyena. Hyena looked like a little domestic and bonhomous animal. It was not the usual impression we have after seeing different films and animated cartoons about hyena as the animal with a repulsive appearance.
Thomson's and Grant's gazelles are looking gracefully. They are running at grass of Ngorongoro peacefully. The antelopes Kanu are looking powerful.
Some moments later our car stopped because of meeting with a couple of lions, who were lying in the middle of the road junction. We are almost on the animals, however the lion does not take any notice of us, only moves his tail aside being dissatisfied with our appearance - it could be dangerous for him if we will cross it with the wheels of our car. We make some photoes being almost in the step of lions - no reaction! It seems, the lions accepts our jeep as an object out of sphere of his interest, though we do hang out of the windows and the roof of our car is completely opened. But the situation will change in a moment, if anyone of us will leave the car. Then he will become a quarry immediately and I am not sure, that someone will save him
With the help of a peepie-creepie we have got a note, that the black Kenyan hornbill was found nearby. It is a great fortune: indeed, there are only 22 adults in Tanzania and 18 of them are in Ngorongoro. Certainly these rare animals are in the Red Data Boot and are constantly under great care. The day-and-night patrol by rangers was organized with the help of the Frankfurt am Main Zoological society. They begin shooting at sight in the night time, but the population of hornbills decreases. However 50 years ago the famous Czech travellers Irgie Ganzelka and Miroslav Zikmund wrote in their book "Africa of dreams and reality", that it was dangerous to walk along the roads in Kenya and Tanzania at nights because the horbill's attacks. They have a tilt at the lorries and even at the trains.
Hornbills usually spend the nights in the forest Lerai, in the south part of the crater. In the morning they go to the plains, where make lying. We were waiting for a long time, when the hornbill will arise and we'll see him as large as life and rewarded for the patience. The hornbill got on to his feet and slowly made some steps.
The Munga-river runs in the North part of Ngorongoro. It flows into a lake Magadi. Here we met the drove of river-horses, who were lying in the middle of the river and were rubbing the backs with their tails. The little behemoth was almost overridden by the huge bodies and climbed on the back of his mother (see photo above!). The river-horses appear from the water at nights and then they could be dangerous for man - they could tromp him to death. And nobody goes here at nights.
We circuit the lake Magadi from the East and meet the drove of the African owres - the most powerful wilding bulls, whoose weight might overweigh one ton. There are not very much enemies for them. Only lions collect their taxes, hawking at the cows and young animals with the whole pride. The owres' braincases you can find everywhere in Ngorongoro.
The owres do not herd with another ungulates, but you can always see some Egyptian ardeas near them. The ardeas often sit on the backs of the pasturing or resting owres. A lot of people were died being killed with the horns and hoofs of owres. The hurt owre. Running away, makes a full circle and lies up near own spoors. In the jungle being under a sudden attack man usually even doesn't fire a shot. In his own book "The African safari" the professional hunter Zdenek Wagner wrote, how one owre killed the American hunter, nailing him to the earth, and a moment later Zdenek's friend was tossed by the bull, because his gun missed fire. However you'll probably do not appreciate the self-protection above as a special ferocity and aggressiveness. Anyway the owres weren't going to attack us, though their eyes watched us carefully.
In the veld between the lake and the bog Goreegor we meet the ostriches, who are peacefully grazing with antelopes gnu. The cock ostrich differs from jenny-ostrich by the colour: the first one is black - the second one is gray. And here we film on video the "wedding dance" of the most beautiful birds of Africa - the coronated courlans.
Having achieved the verge of a forest Leraye, we camp. This is the place of the ranger's base. Here you may walk a little, staying not very far from your car. The weather begins to go down, so being afraid, that rain will break our plans, we go to our jeep and continue our excursion. We move through the forest, making photos of elephants, and then ascend the mountain of crater and leave it.
Some animals ascend the hillside of the crater too. I have met a hyena in 200 meters near our hotel гостиницы "WILDLIFE LODGE". To leave it is forbidden, especially at nights, because the danger is real. And it's not necessary, because the hotel is equipped well to watch the animals: our apartment has a glass wall, looking at the crater, and also we had a spyglass to see the animals at the balcony.
Next morning we go to the National park Manjara. Firstly we move along the same road we went yesterday. We camp at the little square on the peak of the Rift Valley, where from the hill commands a fine panorama of the lake Majara. We also try to get some fruits of baobab and throw stones at the trees for a long time. The fruit of baobab is large, like a melon, and it's pity, that it was damaged during the flight home and I will never do the experiment with grow it on my dacha!
We took right before the village Mto-Va-Mbu (this name means "a gnat river") and enter the park. We often meet baboons. They completely ignore the riding cars. One baboon even was peacefully sleeping on the juggles near the road, reminding us the guy after a good carousal. However if to out from the car, the monkeys begin to trouble and go off, so it's better to make photographs from the jeep. After we entered the park the whole armada of baboons arose immediately. They went one after another slowly, they staggered and were looking very seriously and pluming themselves. In advance of the others the most powerful baboon staggered more than his brothers, It was their leader. And every step, every his muscle showed us the head of the pack. He passed our car and went away like our jeep didn't exist at all. Some monkeys followed the leader, but the rest stopped before our jeep being very interested to study the object. At last a little baboon decided to follow the leader and the rest adults went away too.
This National park differs significantly from Ngorongoro, because here the lake is surrounded by forest, where you can watch and hear numerous birds and even enjoy with the view of rare blue monkeys. Nearer to the lake the forest is beginning to thin. We come in the meadow and meet the drove of giraffes. They are grazing there, browsing on the tree-tops.
The African giraffes are very tall, up to 3 meters in shoulders. Even sitting on the roof of our jeep, you see only giraffe's croup. They drink very fun: to do it giraffes must straddle and incline the head with two-meters neck down. Very often you may find the impalas nearby giraffes. They aren't the rivals, because giraffes take their feeding stuff from trees, but the impalas - from the bushes and grass. Very often you may watch the droves of antelopes, were the only jack is surrounded by numerous jenny-impalas. This way the drove is at grass. If another jack appears, you will watch a fight to win a whole harem.
Somewhere you may meet a pride: one jack and two or three jenny. The lions here are special. They can move on the trees and attack the quarry from the height. That is not typical for lions, because they usually are hunting from the thicket of deep grass. In the bushes we found the debasing owre's body. Lion didn't eat it and nobody helps him. Two jenny-lions are lying in the bushes, hiding themselves from the heat. Some moments later they go towards the lion synchronously.
We carefully scan the crowns of trees, trying to find the leopard, that attacks the prey from the branches of tress, but we didn't succeed. And our guide told us, that it's very difficult to recognize the leopard, because he is a master of camouflage. As a compensation we saw the smallest antelope dick-dick.
Somewhere in the brush we saw the silhouettes of the African elephants. They are larger than the Asian ones and in distinguish they couldn't be tamed. Sometimes they are dangerous. The Czechs described the happening, when the elephant, passing near the jeep, casually glanced off the radiator with his snout. The snout got a scald. The elephant got into a rage. People ran away, but he knocked the car to pieces.
We motor to the meadow, where the whole drove of elephants is resting. The elephant-mummy tusks to find some food for her baby elephant. One adult cow-elephant comes up our car and begins to rub her ear with a tree. She sways the tree, its branches slash at the roof of our jeep. Another cow-elephant went to the slump and became very dirty from legs to head. After that she found a tree, moved one leg through it and began to fray.
Leaving the lake, we ascend the slope of a hill and stayed for a dinner. For a long time we studied a termitary, but didn't find termites - probably they were hidden inside!
We returned to Arusha in a festive mood. To be honest, I didn't wait to see it. The impressions are great - the wild animals in their habitat. I saw them nigh at hand and could make photos without teleobjective! No one zoo might be compared with it. It is beyond argument that the National parks of Africa are the world, international wealth, the one of the miracles of contemporary world!
Nicholay Nosov, photoes by author - 2002
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