Where is Everyone?!
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
January 03, 2016
We were up and on the drive shortly after 6:00 and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. The entire surrounding was cool and very calm. We had to stay seated in the vehicle for a while until the sun was up in the sky to warm everything up.
The serengeti was very quite this morning and we did not see a lot of animals. We did see some baboons and their babies having some breakfast and playing on the way to the hippo watering hole.
The highlight of the morning for me was watching the hippos. There was a lot of them crowded into one small area, so tempers were flaring! I was also lucky to see a mom and her tiny baby come out of the water and up onto shore for a bit Hippo Fight. So adorable!
We caused quite a stir at one point when we stopped to take photos of the banded mongoose. We were there for a while trying to get a good shot, so everyone thought we spotted a leopard. They all pulled up beside us and were craning to see it. We attracted 10 other vehicles and they were all very disappointed!
We were almost back at the camp for lunch when we heard a strange hissing noise. Wolfgang asked, "Is that my tire?". Yes it was. Thankfully he was an expert tire guy and he had it changed in short order while Karen enjoyed her Coke and delicately seasoned dry roasted peanuts, I had a hard boiled egg leftover from breakfast with Kilimanjaro beer and Bill had some peanuts and a beer.
Lunch was exceptionally good today. We had the best beef kofta ever with a cucumber sauce and a fresh salad with tomatoes, peppers and red onion Roller in Flight. It was made even more special because we were seated outside under one of the acacia trees and we had a great view of the plains. After lunch we did some catching up on the blog and photos and I had a short nap.
Our afternoon drive was pretty uneventful. The grass is so long that if there is something 5 feet away from the road, we would never see it. We have had good luck seeing birds and hips since they are not in the grass, but otherwise, we struck out.
Near the end of the drive we saw a group of vehicles, so we pulled up to see what it was. There was a group of female lions sleeping under a tree. When they had their heads up, they were clearly visible from the road. When they had their heads down, they were totally hidden. You could tell that this was the only thing happening for the day because there were 9 vehicles camped around the tree and grass for a while!
After the drive we freshened up and sat by the campfire with a nice glass of red wine.
New and Noteworthy:
thick-knee
dwarf mongoose
banded mongoose
stripped kingfisher (beautiful song)
eastern chanthing
goshawk
hippos
black faced monkey
lion's claw flower
nile crocodile
golden weaver
barn swallow
lilac breasted roller in flight
African hoopoe Magpie
