2017/09 Part 4 Serengeti - Wed eve Serena Lodge |
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The Serena Lodge is on a hill and the approach road had been washed out by the recent rain. So we rushed up it at walking pace. We were glad to be in a Landcruiser. We beat the curfew by five minutes.
The lodge reception staff said we were welcome to walk out to our rooms as it was (just) daylight but we must call for a security escort if we wanted to walk anywhere after dark. That included going to and from dinner. They explained that the lodge is unfenced so wildlife is free to walk through the grounds. Sure enough, the gardens were full of dik-diks, little antelopes, who probably felt safer with all the humans around.
The rooms are in “rondavels”, based on traditional East African dwellings, but 
without the dung-based mortar (we hoped). They are arranged in a circle around the gardens and swimming pool.
Our room’s décor was styled after Makonde art. It had a balcony that looked out forever, which is what “Serengeti” means in Maa, the language of the Masai. There are over a hundred such tribal languages in Tanzania, but the official language of the country is Swahili, originally a trade language based on Arabic, now a lingua franca for all of East Africa.
The dining room and bar are in larger versions of the rondavel, across the 
gardens from ours. When it was time for dinner we summoned our security escort, wondering whether he’d show up with a traditional spear or the ubiquitous AK-47; he had neither, but delivered us safely. After dinner, we appreciated the escort back to our room as we might not have found it in the dark.