Seronera

Saturday, 22^nd January

This morning we returned to Seronera, following the track beside the Seronera River, because Helmut wanted to call on Marcus Bourner, a German researcher funded by the Frankfurt Zoological Society since the about 1977.  He heads up some kind of monitoring program.  We also needed gas and of course wanted to go on a game drive around all the old haunts where we used to find the animals for visitors to see, who weren’t able to stay for long enough to wait for them to walk by our house, which they all did from time to time.  We saw hippos in plenty in various places and at one point came upon a traffic jam of about 20 tourist vehicles.  It was a leopard and cubs that was attracting as much attention as royalty, even though the leopard was far away and not easy to see or photograph, strolling along in the long grass on the plain some distance away from the river.  It was a lovely drive.

Early morning balloon safaris seen from Wilderness Camp

Leopard with cubs near Seronera River

A herd of Landcruisers filled with leopard watching tourists

A hippo keeping an eye on us watching from the bank of the river.

There are plenty of hippos in the Seronera River

One hippo setting off from the river to graze on the grassland the other side of the road.

One of the few Seronera giraffes

Vervet monkey sharing the shade under a tree with us

We went to the new Visitors’ Centre not far from the Parks Headquarters, which consisted of a beautifully done interpretive walk around the kopje and a garden with picnic tables and a small kiosk selling snacks and a souvenir store.  There we found our beloved ‘pimbis’, or hyrax – both tree hyrax and their larger relatives the rock hyrax – in abundance, reminding us of the tame ones that lived around our house, especially Rafiki (friend, in Kiswahili) our particular pet, who used to like to sit on Helmut’s shoulders and sneak into the house to steal our bread or fruit if we were careless enough to leave the door open.

View from the kopje on which the Visitors' Centre interpretive walk is situated.

Rock hyrax like Rafiki, the tame hyrax or 'pimbi' that liked to sit on Helmut' lap on our veranda years ago.

Tree hyrax are smaller and greyer than the rock hyrax.

By then it was after noon, but we didn’t want to eat our packed lunch there, so we drove out onto the plains and ate our picnic under a tree before returning to our camp to spend a long, lazy afternoon there.  I even spent some time listening to and learning one of the movements of Brahm’s Requiem, ready for our return to Yellowknife!  We are now the only visitors staying at the camp.  Soon we will eat dinner and probably go to bed right afterwards.

Me relaxing and learning my notes at Mukoma 2 Wilderness Camp