Birds Flyin' High...: SAFARI! Part 2: The Serengeti

The next day we had a long drive into the Serengeti, stopping on the way to visit a Maasai boma (village) which was a complete tourist trap that I later wished we'd avoided!

It took most of the day to get to the park so we didn't have time for any real game-drives, but we still managed to see quite a few animals on our way from the main gate to our camp-site. The highlight was another family of elephants, frolicking on the plains.

Elephant family

I didn't think we could have a better elephant encounter than we'd had the day before... but somehow we managed it! While most of the elephants ignored us, one looked over at us and then started to approach the car. It stopped next to the side of the car, where we were all standing with our heads popping up out of the roof, frozen in place, trying not to make a sound. It breathed heavily and sighed and tried to figure us out, at one point stretching its trunk out to us, apparently trying to sense what kind of creatures we were and whether we were a threat. I felt so small and insignificant next to this huge, powerful creature, who could have so easily tipped the car over and trampled us to death if he'd chosen to. It definitely put us mere humans in our place! Finally the tension broke and the elephant turned and slowly plodded away to join its companions. Now that we could finally breathe and talk we were all giddy with excitement. A very cool encounter!

He was so close I couldn't fit him all in the photo!

We also spotted our first lions this day, but could only see the top of their heads as they napped in long grass, and our guide promised us better sightings the next day, so we left them to sleep. We saw a jackal and some more giraffes on our way to the camp-site.

Awkward Giraffe

Unlike our first camp-site which had been fenced in, this one was completely open and animals were able to wander in and out at will. I woke several times during the night, to the sound of various strange animal noises very close by and was told the next morning that they were hyenas and zebras. Still at least no lions paid us a visit - something which has been known to happen in the past!

Dusk in the Serengeti

I'd been most excited about the third day of our safari, as we had a full day in the Serengeti with two long game-drives. And it was the absolute highlight. Within an hour of setting off we'd seen zebras, giraffes, gazelles, impala, hartebeest, topis, hippos, elephants, lions and numerous different birds!

Topi (I think... keep getting the antelope family mixed up!)

Hippos in a pool... there's a croc in there too

Then came a big highlight: two leopards in a tree. They were a little too far for a really good photo but we were able to see them very well through the binoculars. We watched them for quite a while. One was quite active and enjoyed jumping from branch to branch and even made a half-hearted (and unsuccessful) attempt to catch a gazelle.

Relaxed Leopard

Active Leopard

Further on we saw two lionesses prowling through some long grass a short distance from the car. After watching them for a while we were excited to see them turn and start heading in our direction. They crossed over the road right in front of the car and flopped down in the shade of a nearby tree.

First lion close-up!

Is it just me or does she appear to be smiling?!

After moving on, we almost immediately came across more lions (further away this time) and a big family of elephants (including two who were fighting, and a baby feeding).

Elephant tussle

Elephant family

Just moments later we saw a number of cars lined up in the distance, having clearly come across something good. We decided to go and investigate... and found a pride of about 15 female lions, snoozing under a tree. They were sprawled out together, looking very relaxed and content. Every so often one would wake up, sit up, stretch, look around... and then usually flop back down and continue napping.

The pride

Sleepy Lion

Bed-head Lion

At one point, a lion got up and walked over to one of the others who nuzzled her and then gave her a really good wash! It was incredible to witness this show of intimacy and affection from so close up. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Licking Lion

A bit of mutual grooming...

Almost immediately after leaving the pride, we came across another female right by the side of the road, and then a male lion under a tree nearby!

Female lion - so disinterested in the cars she turned her back on them!

The Lion King!

After lunch, and a cold but refreshing shower back at the camp-site, we headed out again. We'd already seen so much by this point and agreed that cheetahs were the only major remaining animal that we wanted to find. As if by magic our guide managed to find some almost straight away, but they were in the distance and moving quickly so I didn't get more than a passing glimpse, which was a bit of a shame.

We soon moved on, and got some nice close-ups of a warthog, a buffalo and some zebras.

Warthog - pretty ugly

Buffalo

Zebras

We then went to a hippo pool, where 50 or so hippos were wallowing in the mud, which was spattering around as they flicked their tails. They were pretty stinky and definitely not the most attractive of the creatures we'd seen! There was a crocodile there too.

Stinky!

Foul-mouthed

We spotted another 4 or 5 lions on the way back to camp, but always from quite a distance. We did manage a good close-up of a giraffe though. What a fantastic day!

Giraffe

The next morning we were up at 6am for a sunrise game-drive. The sunrise itself was pretty spectacular even before we saw any animals!

Sunrise in the Serengeti

We were rewarded for our early start by almost immediately coming across three cheetahs, out for a morning hunt. They were already pretty close to us when we found them, but then came closer and closer until they walked out and crossed the road in front of our car! (A recurring theme, it seems!).

About to come out in front of our car...

Hurry up you two!

Golden like the sunrise!

There were lots of gazelles grazing on the grass nearby, apparently unaware that the predators were closing in. One became separated from the group and, after stalking him for a few moments, the cheetah raced forward to attack.... and missed! It was funny as I'd initially wanted to witness a kill (raw nature in action and all that) but when it came to it I was really rooting for the gazelle to get away! I guess there's always something satisfying about seeing the under-dog come out on top!

Er... I think you're going the wrong way?!

We followed the cheetahs for quite a while as they wandered through the fields and along the road ahead of us. There were so many gazelles and antelopes nearby but half the time the cheetahs were more interested in play-fighting each other and rolling around on the road!

Resting on the road

And they're off again... look out antelope!

We'd seen a hyena following the cheetahs from a distance, and finally he came out and approached them, looking for leftovers of their kill. He must have been disappointed to find they had nothing to show for their morning's work!

Hyena approaches looking for leftovers

Moving on, we happened across a lioness sleeping right next to the road (she woke up when we passed because we all forgot ourselves and yelled out to the driver to stop!).

Basking in the early morning sun

We then soon found another male lion. We had seen so many now, but I could never get bored of them! Such beautiful animals.

Boy Lion

After brunch back at the camp-site, we loaded up the jeep for our journey on to the Ngorongoro Crater. On the way out of the park we had a good sighting of some ostriches and then found another male lion napping under a bush next to the road, and another female drinking from a pool.