Tanzania: Close Calls and Wild Encounters

Peter Alden’s upcoming memoir will feature stories from his pioneering nature journeys the world over. It seemed fitting to share a condensed version of the Tanzania chapter to complement our upcoming safari to Tanzania this November.

Chapter 14: Tanzania By Peter Alden

The Serengeti Circuit is the most iconic safari route in Africa, famed for the great migration—over 1.5 million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebras and gazelles travel over 1,000 kilometers in search of greener pastures. This migration is driven by seasonal rainfall and unfolds in a predictable pattern. My earliest Mass Audubon tours could come and go through Kenya to do the Serengeti, but in the 1980s Tanzania closed its border to Kenya through the Maasai Mara.

Judi Wineland, OAT Founder, 1983

I longed to return. One day I saw an ad in The Boston Globe about a company in Cambridge offering Tanzania camping safaris. I was one of the first customers to visit their new office. The owner Judi Wineland knew of my Mass Audubon African safaris. She invited me to join a free "fam" trip. Wineland's company, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), was one of the early adventure travel companies along with Mountain Travel and Wilderness Travel. I would later work closely with Judi in Cambridge, helping design and lead trips for their nature groups.

Almost all safaris in Tanzania begin in Arusha, a small city in northern Tanzania located in the shadow of two great mountains: Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. Towering 19,341 feet above sea level, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world.

The verdant highlands of this region offer plenty of chances to see large game. Hippos sometimes forage during the day in the highlands, whereas in the lowlands they typically come ashore only at night. I was once leading a birding group here when we were charged by a hippo in the middle of the day. We escaped it by fleeing down a dirt road. Many westerners do not realize that more Africans are killed by hippos than by any of the great cats. Lions, leopards and cheetahs have a reputation for fierceness, but far more common than encountering any of these animals in the savanna, at least for locals, is being attacked by a hippo while rowing in a lake or down a river.

A few hours’ drive southwest of Arusha is Tarangire National Park, a land of giant baobab trees which have massive trunks and harbor herds of elephants. Among the many beautiful birds of Tarangire is the Superb Starling, which is bright blue with an orange breast and bright eyes. We’d stay at camps perched over the river valley, in safari tents with full beds and tea service—far more comfortable than the Boy Scout setups some guests remembered.

Traveling west, we descended into the Great Rift Valley, a cradle of evolution with lakes full of brilliantly diverse fish species. Lake Manyara National Park, home to waterbirds and hippos, brought some unforgettable moments—like waking up to elephant dung between our tents or watching a baboon steal 50 bananas during lunch. We once zeroed in on a snipe in a stream, only to realize a python was stalking it. The snipe escaped just in time.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater, a vast volcanic caldera, is a mosaic of marshes, forests, and grasslands filled with flamingos, buffalo, and rhinos. You can walk along the crater rim in search of birds, though always watch for buffalo or speeding vehicles. We once stopped for lunch only to discover lions lounging behind the outhouse. At another picnic area, guests were surprised by Yellow-billed Kites stealing their sandwiches right out of their hands.

Most of Africa’s large herbivores and carnivores roam free in this vast habitat, including the rare Black Rhino. Poachers hunt them merely to saw off their horn, leaving the carcass behind for vultures, hyenas, and Marabou Storks.

Due to conservation efforts their numbers have grown from a low point about 20 years ago to about 6,000. However, they are still critically endangered. The horns are ground into powder and used medicinally, for aphrodisiacs, carved into ceremonial cups, knives, and other things. Park rangers kept watch for poachers from the rim, and on one trip I donated my telescope and tripod to the park in the hope that it would help their efforts.

West of Ngorongoro lies Olduvai Gorge, where Mary and Louis Leakey discovered key hominid fossils. As a student of anthropology, I was thrilled to visit the museum and see active digs. A highlight for me was seeing a Red-and-yellow Barbet nesting near the museum—one of Tanzania’s many dazzling birds.

Beyond Olduvai stretch the famed Serengeti Plains, home to kopjes where lions scan for prey. We stayed at Ndutu Camp and ventured out in search of giraffes, leopards, antelopes, and endangered African wild dogs. Once, we even shared a lodge with Jane Goodall, who later helped me avoid a traffic ticket in Cambridge after charming the officers with a signed photo.

Wildebeest in the Serengeti

In Seronora, at the heart of the Serengeti, guides communicated with headlight signals to help one another find lions, leopards, and cheetahs, boosting tips and guest satisfaction. But not everything was majestic—monkeys stole food (and once, a client’s ExLax), and guests needed reminders never to exit safari vehicles. At the Grumeti River, we watched wildebeests brave Nile crocodiles in their desperate crossing. One night, I slept under our truck to escape a snoring tentmate and awoke to a crocodile staring at me. Thankfully, he slinked away.

Camping outside the pards allowed us to visit a Maasai village and have a chance to meet with the local nomadic cattle or sheep herders. On one such trip, I was sharing my tent with a bird artist from New York whom I’d known for a while. In the morning, he took out his battery-operated razor to shave. Puzzled by the unfamiliar sound, the villagers gravitated toward us to see what it was. He finished shaving and showed them the electric razor. To our surprise, we soon realized that the razor wasn’t of interest to them; what they were fascinated by was the hand mirror he’d been using while he shaved. They had never seen a mirror before, and passed it around so that they could all look into it and see their own reflection.

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Tanzania Wildlife Adventure | November 11-23, 2025

Join Peter Alden, author of National Audubon Field Guide to African Wildlife, on an unforgettable Tanzania safari, where you'll witness the incredible diversity of East African birdlife alongside iconic animals such as lions, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, wildebeests, zebras, buffalo, impalas, gazelles, spotted hyenas, baboons, and more. Tanzania, a land of extraordinary biodiversity, boasts unique ecosystems ranging from wetlands and coastal forests to savannahs, Rift Valley lakes, and mountain forests. Our safari will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the popular National Audubon Field Guide, first published in 1995. LEARN MORE.