Festival of Wildlife 2009 - Tanzania - Staff Report by Mel Kinder

As far as the eye can see....

Nothing can quite prepare you for the expanse of the Serengeti plains. Driving to our private camp from Arusha in preparation for the 6th Annual Festival of Wildlife was a truly memorable experience for Alison and myself. With numerous bags loaded with Festival auction items, little customer gifts purchased at the Masai market, projector, laptops, a printer, banner and our personal equipment, we headed away from the ever-growing arable suburbs and bustle of the town and west towards the peak of Ngorongoro crater. Having carried out the necessary pre-Festival meetings in Arusha we were being treated to an afternoon game drive in the crater with top guide Ayoub, en route to our camp spot in the central Serengeti. As we climbed towards the rim of the crater the increasingly green landscape turned into what could almost be described as lush rainforest. Ayoub suddenly insisted we close our eyes and then, once instructed a moment later, we were gazing down into what must surely be one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. But where are the flamingos I insisted? I was overwhelmed by the landscape before me but intent on cementing my dream of witnessing the mass of elegant pink birds on the lake.

Soon we had descended the steep sides of the crater and were eye to eye with zebras, hyenas, Wildebeest, warthogs – you name it! But still no sign of pink. This is when you begin to realise just how big the 260 square kilometre crater is. We trundled along and although we had managed to see lions and 4 of the meagre Black Rhino population within an hour, it wasn’t until we neared closer to the soda lake that the blur of pink haze became thousands of individual birds….astounding!

Leaving the hospitable and comfortable Serena lodge bright and early in the morning we headed further west and down into the lowlands towards the Serengeti, passing solitary and regal Masai herders as the dark green turned into varying shades of yellow and brown. This is where the horizon becomes infinite and space unrestrained and this is where we were to host the Festival of Wildlife.

Turner’s Camp was the perfect base from which to witness the Great Wildebeest Migration – the reason for our presence in this location. At the end of the rainy season the ground here provides the perfect larder for the million or so White-bearded Wildebeest and Burchell’s Zebra which have arrived from the east. They did not disappoint. Having flown back with our Festival group into the local Seronera airstrip we were all warmly welcomed with cheery register calls of endless grunts resembling ‘here’, ‘here’, ‘here’, as we passed by the scattered and sometimes bunched brown cattle.

The welcome continued at camp with dancing by the local Wakuria tribe, poachers in a past life but now working with conservation tourism. Everyone was glad to have finally reached their home for the next 5 days.

Festival is always ‘full-on’ and this year was to be no exception. Joined by expert wildlife photographers Mark Carwardine, Suzi Eszterhas and Nick Garbutt, artist Mandy Shepherd and editor of BBC Wildlife magazine Sophie Stafford, not forgetting Selous Save the Rhino project leader Fraser Smith, Jackson Looseyia from Big Cat Live, local Masai and bushcraft expert Ole Kirimbai and Damian Bell from the local Honeyguide Foundation, we had a lot to pack in.

‘Water ready’ came the call in the dark at 5:30 each morning as our superb camp staff miraculously provided about twenty tents with hot water for washing before everyone congregated around a welcome camp fire for hot porridge and tea. Head torches blinding fellow participants, we headed for our designated vehicles in readiness for the mornings viewing. ‘Who heard the lion roar last night?’ exclaimed a voice ‘It was really close!’ In fact much closer than we had realised. At dusk a lioness was spotted a few dozen metres from camp, surveying the territory atop the nearby kopjes.

Festival is all about sharing wildlife knowledge and information flows freely from dawn till dusk as the melee of participants, experts, camp staff and the Wildlife Worldwide team share stories, witness events, listen to presentations and attend workshops in their preferred subjects.

Varying workshops this year included beadwork with the Wakuria ladies, bushcraft with local Masai guru - Ole Kirimbai, birding with Nick Garbutt, painting with Mandy Shepherd and the ever popular photography skills and manipulation. The pace is fast but there is just so much to do and see in the space of the event so a few nodding heads just after lunch are all part and parcel!

Everyone’s back in camp for brunch at 11am and the stories are coming thick and fast – lions in abundance in trees, leopards spotted both in trees and wandering through the thick grass, Wildebeest in their thousands and a solitary python trying to hide unsuccessfully in a termite mound!

Once fed and watered presentations follow, taking in subjects like ‘Last Chance to See’ with Mark Carwardine previewing a couple of antics from the forthcoming series he has been filming with Stephen Fry, ‘Tales and Tragedies from Tiger Land’ by Nick Garbutt about his recent India trip and ‘Life as BBC Wildlife Editor’ by Sophie Stafford.

Workshops and further game drives ensure everyone is kept busy followed by a quick bucket shower before sitting down to the delights created by Leonard the camp chef and stories around the camp fire. Having never visited the Serengeti before, I understand now that May and June are excellent months to visit; before the numbers of visitors really kick in. As a reasonably large group taking 8 vehicles out each morning, we rarely came into contact with more than one or two other vehicles at most stopping to view a similar event. Our local Tanzanian guides were extremely knowledgeable and attentive to the needs of the group. Aware that other vehicles would encounter equally exciting events, they did not jump to grab a radio resulting in situations of vehicle overload, as can so easily happen when wildlife viewing.

There is also another wonderful way of getting a different perspective on the whole area – a balloon ride. Six of us braved the 4:30am wake-up call and headed wearily to the take-off point. Packed like pigeons into racing baskets, with only heads protruding as we sat in our advised astronauts position. Slowly the heat built into the balloon and we were upright again and gazing out towards the rising sun and the magnificent plains. Soon we could see for miles and the rising and falling to turn of the balloon, allowed us unparalleled wildlife sightings as we skimmed vulture nests in acacia trees, saw lion cubs darting into the undergrowth and gazed in awe at the aphid-like mass of black which described the head of a huge Wildebeest herd and the tail stretching for miles behind.
Everywhere the abundance of wildlife is staggering. Big cats lounge nonchalantly in acacia branches, well fed and seemingly unconcerned by the stampeding of nearby hooves. Giraffes in their dozens browse gracefully as they create acacia topiary and hyena and jackals roam freely on the off-chance of a grabbed meal. All this and thousands of Wildebeest on a mission. I couldn’t help but draw an imaginary comparison with the bison roaming on the former plains of the USA and the cartoon by the great cartoonist Gary Larson where he has drawn a traffic report helicopter entitled ‘Herd Report’ circling above a mass of cattle with a bubble from the pilot stating ‘It’s bad out there today folks....Noses to derrières as far as I can see.

Of course we can never take these incredible spectacles for granted, and the Festival ethos is one of conservation and learning to highlight issues and promote discussion regarding solutions. We always try to raise as much money as possible for different conservation groups in whichever destination we happen to be. This year we are raising money for Save the Rhino International, The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and the Honeyguide Foundation. Even in this year of cutbacks and credit crunch, people realise the importance of wildlife conservation and we are proud to have raised £5,135 during this Festival trip alone. The Serengeti is a vast and unique wildlife reserve without boundaries which is constantly under treat from land usage, poachers, climate changes and more. Let’s try and ensure that its fate is not sealed as below……

If you would like to find out about next year’s Festival trip to the Pantanal in Brazil then please click here.