February 7, Tuesday

February 7, Tuesday

After a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and coffee we took off for our first full-day game drive.  We spotted quite a few impala  (remember the MacDonald Bok from South Africa?   With the black M on its backside?)   I found out that the ring on their horns represent how old they are:  one ring = 1 year in the Serengeti.  (In South Africa 2 rings = 1 year, possibly because there is more rain?)

 Having a hard time counting the rings, but he is older than 20 !

  One of the many rock outcrops where you would expect a big lion to be sitting !   Never saw even one on a rock outcrop.

We drove around for a few hours without seeing much.  In the distance, one of the guides spotted a female lion sitting in the tall grass, but by the time we drove up she had lied down again and we only got a limited glance.

 You can barely see the beige skin among the tall reeds,  but in those dark circles are female lions.

  You can just distinguish her ear in this shot.

There were actually three of them lying in the tall grass we were told, but all we could see were dark spots in the grass; invisible to all of us but spotted by our G-Adventure guides !

Only a short distance away (maybe a mile or two) we spotted another male lion on the prowl. Even though our vehicle kept up with him for a while, he completely ignored us.

 Gorgeous animal...  especially from the safety of our vehicle !

We moved the vehicle on to another road to follow the lion, and he joined up with one of his “brothers” who was on his“honeymoon”.   

 Male and female lion during mating season

"Honeymoon"  Nice terminology indicating that the female is in heat and the couple have been going at it for one week.  We were told that at the beginning of the honeymoon, the lions will mate every few minutes.   By the end of the week they will be down to every half hour.   The honeymoon for these two must have been almost over because we didn’t get to see any “action” during the more than half hour we watched them.   If you look closely, you can see that the female has been “collared” for location purposes.  If she manages to get pregnant, the researchers will be able to follow her and monitor progress and birth.

In the distance, a third male lion appeared !   Absolutely incredible !   He came across the pond/stream and kept his distance from the other three lions, choosing to rest in the shade of a huge nearby tree.

  This guy seemed older than the other two.

We drove on to another sector, and here are some views of the Serengeti

We came across some Cape Buffalo along the way. So within less than one full day of being in the Serengeti, we have seen 4 of the BIG FIVE: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Cape Buffalo. The only one we are missing is the Rhino.

 We kept on driving and spotted a Dik-Dik, the smallest of the antelope family. If you look closely you can see his tiny little spiky horns. By the way, our campsite on the Serengeti is named “dik-dik” so it is quite appropriate that we see at least one of these tiny delicate animals. 

   Hartebeest
Tall Masi Giraffe
   A tree within a tree !   If you look at the green top of this tree you will see a growth sticking out in the middle;  that's a cactus.   I grows within the shade of the tree and usually is taller.   We saw many of these during our drives.

Our drive continued and we kept seeing more animals and beautiful natural sites.  
We drove back to the site where we had seen the leopard the day before, but it wasn't in the tree.  We only drove a short distance when Deo & Festos located another leapord, in a different tree !   Unfortunately this one was too far for my camera to capture, but I've got great film footage on my camcorder.   At first we could just see the one leapord, then we saw movement on the higher branches and realised she had two cubs with her.  She had a kill already in the tree.   We watched them for about half an hour along with about 4 or 5 other vehicles and saw Mama leave the tree.  The other vehicles finally drove away and we moved up to change the angle of viewing, to see if we could get a better shot of the cubs.   We were the only vehicle left and we saw Mama come back to the tree, hawling another kill.  We watched her struggle to get it up that big tree.   Un-flipping-believable.   This trip just never ceases to amaze me.


Even caught an elephant having a bath ! 

 After rolling around for a while, he/she (it really is hard to tell unless the male is aroused) decided to amble out of the water.
  and came up to the road
  It wasn't a steep bank, but it was an impressive sight.
It was late afternoon and we were making our way back towards the campsite when Deo spotted a zebra carcass in the woods beside the road.  The smell probably gave it away.  PHEW !   Just a few feet away the lion stretched from its nap and I was able to catch a pic of her, although with a limited view.
 Zebra carcass
 Check out the lion's big paw up in the air.  That's as close a look as we got.  She must have been too full to move !
  As we neared the area where the hippo pools were located, I caught this shot of an oasis in the middle of the Serengeti.
  Storks settling down for the night
  The sun starting to set behind the clouds

The sun was setting fast but we kept seeing all these beautiful sites and our driver Elias was very cooperative.  A huge elephant came lumbering by and stopped to give us a photo op !

  Beautiful close-up
    Beautiful profile against the setting sun

 Check out the fan at the end of the tail

 "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille"

   And the detail of the back of the trunk is beautiful as well

And the day just would not stop !   The sun was quickly setting and we kept on seeing more animals

   Mama hippo & her baby.  Her head is on the left, but if you check her back side, just behind the branch, you can see the baby's head sitting on Mama's rump.  He was so tiny, he/she had to be a new-born.

The sunset was really spectacular, and Elias found the most beautiful spot for us to see it from.

We made it back to the campsite while there was still some light and just as the full moon was rising.

   What an amazing day this was.  Cannot believe the wonders I've seen.  It is such a beautiful world.

  Me in my tent at Dik-dik campsite

 Our tents and dining tents
   The view from our tents.
  Our dining tent is ready for our evening meal

Another great meal prepared and served by Severin & Festos.   Another early to bed night since we would be breaking camp the next morning.   Since I had not managed to go for a shower, I took some hot water from the Tea water and poured into one of my bowls,  brought it into my tent, and gave myself a good sponge bath “sans sponge” !   Thank God for the small camping wash cloth and towel I had brought along for this trip.

Slept fairly well, but still haven’t pooped.