That full feeling

In the last few days, we have seen a gazelle chasing an ostrich, a herd of wildebeest chasing a hyena and a hippopotamus chasing a crocodile. It was a heck of a safari.

We started out looking for a 2-night safari that would have taken us to a couple of parks near Arusha, the Tanzania town that has been our base for the last week. But after the first day, we decided to add two nights in the Serengeti. It was a good decision. Not five minutes after leaving the Serengeti welcome centre, we came upon two lions lounging at the base of a tree about 3 feet from the road. We sat and watched them, the first wild lions we had seen. Lions eat once or twice a week, and spend a good 22 hours out of every day resting. So if you see a lion in the Serengeti, or anywhere else in Africa -- even a zoo, for that matter -- chances are it's going to be snoozing. These two were no exception, but they did raise their head for the occasional photo. It's pretty thrilling to be not more than a few paces from something you know could effortlessly rip you to shreds.

After leaving the lions, we heard the radio crackle and our guide slammed down the gas. There were cheetahs ahead. We burned down the road, dust billowing behind us, until we came upon a group of other safari vans. I couldn't see anything, until someone in another van pointed out to me the two cheetah heads poking out of the grasses. We sat and watched them look around, and then lope off. Then we turned our attention to the trees behind -- a pair of sausage trees in the distance. We saw a shimmer of motion on the branches: a leopard. It wasn't the clearest of sightings, but it was good enough to convince us that we had seen the Big Five -- and this as all before we'd even found our campsite.

As we drove to the campsite through the approaching dusk, we saw great herds of gazelles and, just before we arrived, zebras and wildebeest. We set up our tent by flashlight, ate, and then as we and our fellow campers grew silent realized that we were sleeping in the midst of the great wildebeest migration. The air was thick with the sound of contented wildebeest chewing down grasses. It's difficult to describe, but imagine a cow mooing with a frog in its throat. It's not an entirely unpleasant sound, and it serenaded us through the night. It also masked out other sounds, so when I woke up in the middle of the night I had a brief moment of panic: could there be a lion nearby? Sleeping in a tent in carnivore country can be an unsettling experience.

The next day we trundled many kilometres across the savannah in search of animals. Several times we came across groups of thousands of wildebeest as they migrated. We managed to park ourselves mere metres from where these great groups of animals were running by; they always seem to be on the move, and frequently quickly. There were so many they stirred up great clouds of dust. A fascinating experience.

Later in the day, we came upon a group of 23 elephants -- everything from a huge bull to a tiny one so small it would probably fit in a doghouse. They were bathing in dust on the road we were driving on, and advancing toward us. At one point, it was hard not to feel a bit scared when a bull started walking directly at our Land Rover. You feel pretty small when a big elephant starts looking like he wants to run over you. We must have stayed nearly an hour, watching them walk and eat and throw dust on themselves. That night we slept to the sounds of hyenas and lions roaring; the wildebeest had moved on.

But the best was yet to come. After the Serengeti we drove to the Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is an utter paradise for animals. We saw elephants eating from great fields of yellow flowers; got within spitting distance of cape buffalo, zebras and wildebeest. We saw hyenas loping across fields, hippos sparring, a litter of jackal pups playing in the grass. And we finished it all off a few metres away from a group of 3 lions lazing by a river. One spent the entire time we were there watching us. Another slept most of the time. Another actually got up, walking right up next to us and sniffing the air. It was a fantastic experience. As we headed back to Arusha, I felt the way you feel after eating a good meal -- full and content. I really hope I get the chance to come back some day.

For now, though, we're heading off to Zanzibar to spend our last few days in Africa frying on the white sand. Hopefully we're a little better accustomed to the heat now and can enjoy it for what it is. Won't be long before we're home . . .