No matter how often I visit the Serengeti its magic never palls. In
this wild and open country you feel you could drive forever and never
have enough of it. Out on the plains the light is dazzling. Colossal
thunderheads trail shawls of rain across horizons wider than the sea,
and wherever you look there are animals.
When United Nations delegates met in Stockholm in 1972 to choose the
first World Heritage Sites it was the Serengeti that came top of the
list. Today it is one of the most famous national parks on Earth,
renowned for its magnificent lions but best known for its great
migration.
The key players in this 1,200-mile odyssey are the wildebeest –
1.5 million of them – accompanied by 200,000 zebras. For them, every
year is an endless journey, chasing the rains in a race for life. The
action takes place across 150,000 square miles of woodlands, hills and
open plains, a wilderness that includes not only the Serengeti national
park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve but also the dispersal areas
beyond.
The yearly cycle begins in the south of the park, where half a
million calves are born between January and March. But when the rains
end in May the land dries fast and the grazing animals must move on,
heading for their dry season refuge in the Maasai Mara.
With the beginning of the short rains in late October the migration
makes its way back into the Serengeti, so this a good time to be
anywhere in the north of the park between Klein’s Camp and the Lamai
Wedge. By December, having emerged from the northern woodlands, the
herds return past Seronera to mass on their calving grounds again and
the circle is complete.
When to travel
Rain is the engine that drives the migration, dictating where the
herds will be at different times of the year. While July to October is
generally the time to catch the show in Kenya, unusually dry conditions
in the southern Serengeti have encouraged the animals to head north far
earlier than usual.
Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest began arriving in the central areas of the Serengeti in March.
The rainy season normally runs from October to May. It begins with
the short rains – a period of gloriously hot sunny days that end with
brief torrential thunderstorms. It peaks in the long rains of April — a
month to avoid when most camps close and the plains become quagmires.
The journey is beset with danger (Photo: AP/Fotolia)
When the rains end in May the wildebeest make tracks for the Maasai
Mara. Some take Route One – north across the Seronera Valley. Others
swing through the Western Corridor, but for all of them the journey is
beset with danger. For a start there are the famous Serengeti lions –
about 3,000 at the last count – to which can be added leopards and
cheetahs, hungry hyena clans and monster crocodiles.
That is the migration’s normal pattern but this year is different. Lack
of rain forced the herds to leave their breeding grounds early, driving
them into the Western Corridor two months ahead of time.
There, lying in wait for them are the notorious Grumeti River
crocodiles. Now, at last, rain has come,the river is high and experts
are predicting unparalleled scenes of high drama as the monster crocs
take their toll.
Zebras are often the first to arrive in the Mara, chomping down the
tall grass with the wildebeest hot on their heels. Here they stay from
July to October — the main tourist season – when visitors flock to watch
the dramatic river crossings.
But as soon as the rains return the wildebeest head back to the
Serengeti, drawn towards their calving grounds in the park’s deep south.
In the dry season you will see nothing here but an emptiness of dust
and stubble. But between January and March when the calves are born
there is nowhere on Earth so vibrantly alive.
Where to go
Tanzania
The best game-viewing areas in the Serengeti are the short-grass
plains and their granite kopjes in the south, the Seronera Valley, the
Western Corridor and the far north of the park where it meets the Mara.
New since last year is Namiri Plains (www.namiriplains.asiliaafrica.com),
a small luxury camp 90 minutes’ drive east of Seronera. This area was
closed for 20 years to create a cheetah haven until it opened last year
and is offbeat Serengeti at its very best.
The Ngorongoro Crater (Photo: AP/Fotolia)
Ndutu Safari Lodge (ndutu.com)
is ideally placed for exploring the southern plains, set on the edge of
woodlands that teem with game in the rainy season. There are soda
lakes, too, with pink clouds of flamingos, and marshes where serval cats
love to hang out.
One of the loveliest areas lies in the heart of the park, where the
Seronera river meanders across the plains, creating a linear paradise of
Senegal palms and fever trees in which to look for leopards.
June is when the migration pours through the Western Corridor into Singita Grumeti, a private game-viewing stronghold the size of the Mara with only 70 guests at a time (singita.com).
The north of the park between the Lamai Wedge and Klein’s Camp is a
wild, broken country of granite kopjes, hidden valleys and open
savannah.
Off-track driving is still allowed and the abundance of game is
reminiscent of the Mara I knew 30 years ago. During the migration in
early November you can watch huge river crossings with fewer vehicles
than you will see in the Mara.
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