African Safari: There’s a Cheetah, oh no, it’s an A-L-T!
Tanzania African Safari: There’s a Cheetah, oh no, it’s an A-L-T!
By Charles L Harmon
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Have you ever been on an African Safari? It’s a great adventure I think most people would really enjoy, especially with a small group of people like the safari I went on. Our main guide was Fabian Ngua of Bushbuck Safaris Ltd. We were staying in a mobile tented camp run by Didas Godfrey. He was the camp manager of CC Africa Under Canvas – Serengeti where we were staying for a few days.
Early in the morning we would head out to the trusty “office” of Frank Kivuyo, our knowledgeable guide. That’s what he called his dark green Toyota Land Cruiser – his office. We were prepared for a few hours of excitement looking for some of the few wild animals we had yet to see. That was mainly cheetahs and leopards. Oh yes, we had not seen a male lion up close. We did see one previously on a night safari, but he was maybe 300 to 400 feet away and was walking away from us. We wanted to see one up close as well as one of the other two big cats.
We had already seen many of the animals that roam that particular part of the Serengeti, but cheetahs and leopards are very elusive and one could go on a safari and never see one. That just wasn’t going to happen – not if our guide Frank had anything to do with it. He knew the area like a book and was taking us to the most likely areas where we hopefully would spot either of the two big cats.
We had gotten used to seeing the easy to spot animals like elephants, hippos, crocodiles, impala, Thompson’s gazelles, wildebeest, zebras and the like. But now was the time to see if we could spot one of the two most elusive animals. All eyes were looking in the bushes, trees, and for any hiding animal in the tall grass. Every few minutes it seemed one of us blurted out – “there’s one over there” or “I think see a cheetah”, etc. It got so bad, us spotting all sorts of things that were not animals that our guide Frank would say “That’s an A-L-T”. After he said it a few times we asked what an A-LT was. He explained it was an “animal looking thing”.
Now I don’t know if Frank made up the term, but it stuck. We were making fun of all the times one of us, me being one of the most frequent, were spotting “ALTs”. It seemed like everything we thought was a cheetah hiding or in the bush was an “ALT”. I think Frank was the originator of the term ALT because when we later explained to some of the other staff at the camp they seemed like they had never heard the term. Well Frank, if indeed it was him that thought of the term, must have thought we were crazy for spotting so many “ALTs”.
If anyone reading this knows of any other origin of the term ALT, “animal looking thing” be sure to comment on my blog, http://charlesharmon.com or even better on Safari Kay’s blog, http://safarikay.com. Unless we hear otherwise, we are attributing the now famous term, ALT to Frank, our guide at CC Africa Under Canvas – Serengeti, in Tanzania Africa.
We came so close several times to spotting a real cheetah, but it eluded us for hours. Frank got a call a couple of times over his radio that a cheetah was in an area close by and he headed over there quickly, but still the cheetah, maybe two of them were still invisible to us.
Finally we saw a large group of Land Cruisers with other safari goers about a half mile in front of us. It seemed someone there had spotted a cheetah. We pulled close and saw everyone looking through their binoculars trying to spot the cheetah. It seemed like none had, but were looking anyway. Then suddenly out of the bushes not far from us we saw two beautiful cheetahs calmly walking toward our vehicle.
Oh how lucky. As it turned out the cheetahs calmly and slowly walked almost right up to our vehicle. We were maybe 100 feet or more from the next nearest vehicle and all of them were in front of us. Maybe there were fifteen or twenty vehicles all vying for a front row seat. We were the lucky ones. We got a lot of camera shots of them and they walked within ten feet or less of our vehicle.
Even though they were truly wild and could have leaped and attacked us if they really wanted to, it did not seem scary. The cheetahs were almost totally ignoring us as well as all the rest of the people trying to get a good view of them. We had the best view and the longest view of the two cheetahs as they slowly walked away into the tall grass disappearing into the grass with their natural camouflage coloring.
Well that adventure had culminated with us finally spotting not one, but two cheetahs. Our tour guide, Safari Kay swore that those were the same two cheetahs she saw a year earlier on another safari. In fact two of the women on that previous safari were on our safari too. Like Safari Kay, they had come to like East Africa and going on a safari that they just had to come back.
Well it looks like all of us on this safari want to come back again. It’s expensive, but really an excellent way to spend a couple of weeks. I don’t know, but if I get the money I think I will come back too. I am ready for my next trip of a lifetime on an African Safari. I cannot come back next year, but look out 2010 as it is very likely all of us on this wonderful safari will be back. Tanzania Africa get ready for us! CC Africa Under Canvas – Serengeti get ready for our next mobile tented camp adventure! Bushbuck Safaris get ready for more of Safari Kay’s safari tours!
Copyright © 2008 Charles Harmon
