Celebration Day...

Our first day at Sayari Camp was a special one for us - our Anniversary! After a brief rest, David and Malaki picked us up at our tent for our afternoon game drive. Our arrival after some early rains meant that the landscape had turned green for us; grazing and regular dry season fires mean the grass is short in this season anyway, and the rain turned the plains into a giant putting green as the new vegetation germinated. Rock outcroppings called kopjes (pronounced "cop-eez") occasionally break up the scene where the land has eroded to bedrock, but in other places the grasslands stretch uninterrupted for miles. Serengeti, after all, means "Endless Plains" in the Maasai language.

We weren't far out of camp before we found a zebra wandering alone. This is a little unusual as zebras tend to group together or with other animals for protection. It was the middle of the day, though, so the lions and leopards were asleep and a cheetah would be hard-pressed to take a adult zebra unless it was working with a team.

We also came across this tiny (2 feet to the tips of the ears) baby Thomson's gazelle, whose mother was nowhere to be seen; she was probably nearby, but we couldn't spot her. The baby was no larger than a dik-dik, which is another small species of antelope which seems to turn up everywhere. Somehow, though, we didn't manage to get a picture of a dik-dik. At Ndutu they wandered close to the campfire while we were sitting watching the sunset and were almost treated like pets around camp.

It was quite a warm afternoon, so we headed into one of the large rock outcroppings looking for cats. We didn't find any, but we did disturb some zebra that looked a little guilty, and had some beautiful, wide views of the landscape.

Our jaunt into the rocks was a little spooky because sightlines were so limited; we could easily come across lion or leopard at any turn. It did give us the chance to see Klipspringer up close, however. Klipspringer are another small species of antelope that are particularly adapted for life in the rocks, with special pads on their hooves that allow them run up almost vertical rock faces. This gives them a key advantage in the survival game, letting them evade predators and have safe havens in which to rest and feed. We watched two Klips easily scale the almost vertical face of a 20 foot high boulder at a dead run. Mountain goats have nothing over these guys.

Giraffe seem to be everywhere in this part of the Serengeti. The Acacia trees are generally not very tall, so the browsing is good. They don't seem to have a preferred "grouping" - it is just as common to see solo animals as it is to see pairs or family groups. I don't think we ever saw anything resembling a herd, though.

This afternoon's excursion was a fairly short drive since we made a late start and would need to be back at camp by sunset. As the day wore on we eventually found our way to a broad hilltop scattered with zebra. There is a tradition in the Serengeti called the sundowner: as the day starts to fade you find a good place to view the sunset within an easy drive of camp, and have a drink to celebrate the magnificent setting. In our case, however, we were celebrating our anniversary, as well.

David, of course, had planned for this, and out came the bottle of champagne!

Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to savor the moment. The clouds were gathering and darkening, and soon after the first glass was downed David and Malaki looked at each other and said, "We should go...". Two minutes later, drinks and table stowed, we were bouncing across the landscape trying to outrun the imminent rainstorm, arriving at the tent as the first drops started to fall. Within a few moments the rain was pounding down, lightning was flashing, and thunder was rumbling. Water is life in Africa, and the people who live here consider rain a blessing. We were thoroughly blessed that night!

After a bit of rest it was time to call the main tent for a ride up the hill to dinner. The meal, as were all of our meals on our trip (save, perhaps, the bushboxes), was wonderful. We were pretty exhausted from the events of the last few days and were looking forward to getting some sleep, but I could tell that David had something up his sleeve. Spend several days in close quarters with someone and you can read them pretty well. I had no idea what it might be, but dinner was winding down and dessert on the way, so it would have to happen soon.

The camp staff takes great pleasure in the celebration of special events, and for our anniversary we were treated to something David called a Tanzanian conga line. The entire staff came out of the kitchen in a line, singing and dancing and clapping and generally whooping it up. After a couple of turns around the dining room, they presented us with a cake which we shared with the rest of the guests and the staff.

The bad part about being the center of attention is that you have little opportunity to capture the festivities with a camera. It was a highlight of our trip, however, and a memory that we will hold dear forever. Thanks again to the Sayari staff for making our anniversary so special and David for trying to be sneaky!