Our Travels: Monday, June 29: Serengeti Cats and Patience

Today was a full day Safari from 8am until 6:30pm. It was a day to search for the cats and go to some remote areas that require a full day of driving. One thing I can tell you is that paved roads have been long gone for about 5 days now. We are on dirt roads all the time. It is hard to imagine the days of smooth driving anymore. The park has a few main dirt roads that they maintain. Then there are several other paths that are not maintained but get you to other areas of the park. However, the driver is not allowed to make their own new path.

Today did not disappoint. However, we learned quickly how large the Serengeti really is. It can be an exercise in patience. We would drive over an hour sometimes without seeing anything substantial. However, patience would be rewarded each time with a spectacular find. Josh is very interested in animal pack behavior for the various species. He spends a lot of time talking with our tour guide about how the lion hierarchy works and the elephants, etc. Our tour guide is very patient with him (and us) and makes sure all our questions are answered. He is a very seasoned guide and a former game warden at several of their national parks so he knows his stuff very well. Josh was especially interested when he found out that elephant females announce that they are in heat to elephant bulls miles away.

Today was partly to mostly cloudy and in the upper 70s. The clouds really make it feel nice out. It ended up raining near one of the mountains later in the afternoon and it started raining at our lodge at dinner time (7:30pm) and is still raining now a few hours later. This is unusual since this is the beginning of the dry season. Their rainy season ended about 3-4 weeks ago. One thing that’s unusual is that our lodge is in the middle of the park without any protective barriers. So, the lodge has to work hard to keep the wildlife from drinking from the swimming pool in the middle of the dry season. Also, since there are no barriers, animals can roam freely on the lodge grounds. So after dark, you are not allowed to walk around the lodge grounds without an escort. So, we have to call for an escort to/from our room to get to/from dinner. So far we haven’t seen any large animals – just a few smaller ones. Although I heard some elephants came fairly close the other night.

The animals here are used to vehicles so most don’t really mind them – like the lions. We can drive right up to them and they look up and then flop back down to rest. The zebras and wildebeests are skittish and insist on cutting off the vehicle whenever possible – a skill Josh has apparently passed on to the local animals here. There are much fewer insects than we expected. Maybe it’s the time of year we are here. But there are almost no mosquitoes and other insects. Except the Tse Tse flies that are in one section of the park. Those guys can bite so we have to swat them away quickly – even the driver was swatting them away a lot.

Ok, onto the animals. It was a big day for cats, especially lions. (no cheetahs today unfortunately) We saw 3 prides of lions. One in the trees. One on some rocks. And one cooling off in some mud. We were parked right under the tree so we were right next to them. And we were also able to pull up right next to them in the mud. Like I said earlier, they don’t mind the vehicles so we can get really close to them. We were very fortunate to see two of the lion cubs climb the tree to get to their parents.

The big goal today was to see the elusive and solitary leopard. And sure enough we ended up seeing him later in the day. However, with all of the vehicles there trying to get a view of him, it was difficult to get a good shot. But Karen ended up getting some good ones. The leopard actually crossed the road and went in between some of the vehicles without any worries.

Josh was very excited that we were able to get very close to Elephants as well. The best was at the end of the day when an Elephant walked right in front of our vehicle and stopped in the road to munch on some bushes. I was able to get some video of them but I can’t upload them until I get back.

Some other animals and birds we saw were: Impala, Dik Diks, Topi, Hartebeast, Warthogs, Crocodiles, Egyptian Goose, White backed Vultures, Bateleur Eagle, HAmmerkop (hammerhead stork with a huge nest!), Hippos (one crossing the road!), Giraffes, Wildebeests (duh), Terrapins, Ostrich, Rock Hyrax, Servals, Elands, and Buffaloes.

Enjoy the pictures. Karen had a tough time trying to narrow down all of the shots today.