The original word is siringet, Swahili for 'the endless plains', and it doesn't take us long to figure out where we are.
There are large herds of Thompson gazelles scattered throughout the land wherever we look. These are elegant animals with a fine built, only that they are in what I would call a consistent twitchy state. The ears, the eyes, their muscles...all of these seem to be moving with an alertness you would only expect from an animal who is accustomed to being chased all of its life. The curse of being at the bottom of the food chain.
In a way the place reminds me of the wide open spaces of Montana, where Custer fell at Little Bighorn. The only difference is that there are cape buffalo instead of bison. Next up we find a jackal feasting on the remains of a baby wildebeest. Everywhere there are vultures, marabou storks, secretary birds, and cranes, the undertakers of the Serengeti waiting to clean up the victims' flesh and bones.
The vultures signal to all predators in the Serengeti just where exactly there is a fresh kill, resulting in a congregation of predators that usually finds the largest ones escaping with the spoils, regardless of which ones did the work. Human beings act according to the same principle when it comes to photo opportunities. Ahead, we find a pileup of cars. Something tells me they are not there to watch a herd of guinea fowl.
And sure enough, there are three male lions, each one bigger than the other, and yet, judging from their manes, not fully grown. We open the top of the Landcruiser and peer outside. The lions are no more than fifteen feet away from us. Like the typical cats that they are, they are sleeping, unperturbed by all of these people who have shown up in their cars.
A couple hundred feet away I can see a commotion and break out my binoculars. The assembly of vultures and hyenas means there is a feeding frenzy happening nearby. I can tell there are hyenas chowing on a dead Thompson gazelle while the vultures inch closer, eager to be allotted their share of the spoils. And yet, they will not eat until the hyenas say so, as one of them chases off the birds at intervals.
And where are the lions in all this? You would expect them to make a play for the fresh kill somehow, but our driver Masagi shakes his head. No, he says, pointing at the lions. They are full. Once one of the lazy lions finally stretches and rises on all fours, we can see he is right. That's as full a belly as you'll see on any creature, one that's probably had 50 kilos of zebra or cape buffalo meat recently shoveled into it.
Next come the cape buffalo, hundreds of them bunched together, grazing on both sides of the road. Judging from how they are staring at us, there is nothing frightful in their expressions at all. They seem to be saying, Just what do you want here? It takes a few minutes and we discover that we are surrounded by them on all sides. Did I just mention Montana and General Custer?
We cross the river and run into an equally large herd of wildebeest and zebras, constant companions in their migration and their never ending quest for food. These animals will always head toward where the next rain will be and can sniff it out from hundreds of miles away. They start crossing the road when one of the wildebeest comes to a complete stop, and the herd freezes behind him.
There is clearly something the point man doesn't like here. After scanning the area for clues, we finally decide that, very likely, we the people in the Landcruiser are the source of their distrust. Eventually they backtrack and decide to cross the road and the river a few hundred yards behind us. Naturally, the herd is migrating toward the dark cloud looming on the horizon.
Whereas the kids can no longer be bothered with so many animals, the rest of us crack open a bottle of wine and raise our plastic cups to Africa and the stunning display of natural beauty all around us. The zebras, wildebeest, and buffalo disappear in the distance, and it is soon sunset, meaning it is time to bring on the night and with that the predators who rule it.
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