African Safari

Tanzania

My childhood was dominated by books and the lure of wilderness. One of my favorite books was a picturebook about Ngorongoro which I got from my grandfather. Hours and days I would browse through its pages and go on imaginary safaris down the magic crater.

The Thompson gazelle was my favorite. Small and graceful it was the most perfect creature. I loved its colours and its perfect eye makeup. I didn't like the Gnu antelope - aka wildebeest- at all. It was big and dark, bearded and hunched. It looked grumpy and - unlike the gazelle - not at all playful. The lion was majestic and powerful, the cheetah slender and agile, the elephant huge, funny but reliable. The hyena was definitely ugly and lacked backbone. The hippo was sociable and chubby with a large pink smile. The rhino, however, was solitary and menacing. I loved the fancy outfit of the zebra and the bold design of the giraffe. The baboons were naughty and playful whereas the flamingos graceful and delicate.

Over the years I watched numerous documentaries about the Serengeti and the crater and the wildlife inhabiting them. I read National Geographic articles about the African wildlife and never forgot the fascinating name of Ngorongoro.
And yet, no matter how much I read or watched documentaries about these places and their animals I wasn't prepared for the encounter.

Entering the Ngorongoro Conservation Area I entered the world of my picturebook.
I was witnessing the migration of wildebeest raising clouds of dust, filling the air with their "moo"s and grunts.
I was following the gazelles running and leaping elegantly out of our way.
I was suddenly watching the cheetah devouring its fresh kill under the watchful eyes of the hungry vultures blood dripping from its mouth; the lion stretched out in the grass satisfied after its copious meal; the hyena running, blasting off the group of vultures and dragging away the still bleeding carcasse.
I was admiring the ostriches parading in a line along the horizon; the zebras bobbing their heads while walking or rubbing and resting their necks against each other; the giraffes twisting and braiding their long delicate necks together while staring at you from dark eyes under the most beautiful eyelashes in the world; the elephants hugging each other's trunk tenderly; the little lion cubs playfully climbing on the back of their mother.
I was there amidst hundreds of zebras and wildebeest watching out for the predators. And I was watching fascinated and torn apart at the same time, feeling sorry for the baby wildebeest lost and confused on the endless plains of the Serengeti yet wanting to see the lion feed its cubs.

However, neither place is only about the wildlife. The scenery, the background itself is stunning.
The Serengeti plains are endless, as the name says, and hence the solitary tree in the distance, merely a green dot on the border between the vast green and blue seas of the plain and the sky, respectively, strikes you as bizarre yet so beautiful. It breaks the balance of those spaces whilst creating a new one; it makes you follow it, search for it and rest on it. And so are the boulders scattered around sparsely like rocky islands on the grassy plain.
And then there are the acacias dotting the rolling terrain, the umbrella trees with their delicate crown like a lace spun over the branches - the unmistakable staple of an African landscape.

The colours are fantastic: golden, green, brown, blue. The light has a special quality here and the effect is stunning and surreal. The perspective creates layers upon layers of colours and exquisite patterns; you can see how the zebra fits in with its stripes. Just another mirage.

When the giraffes popped up almost towering the delicate umbrella trees the drawers were missing and so were the melting clocks hanging off the trees. I could see, though, that they guarded well their secrets and I could feel the time running at a different pace, melting away any instrument in the slow cycle of nature. This wasn't a landscape imagined by Dali but a more grandiose place created by an invisible magician. And it was fascinating and overwhelming to be there.

The Ngorongoro crater: a concentration of beauty. A delicate green jewelry with a precious diamond at its center: the shallow lake reflecting the blue of the sky and the clouds glistens in the sun. The edges are dark green and lush surrounding the flat grassy caldera. A ring crowned by a diamond - a magic place.