Safari: Episode 3

We woke very early in the morning for a drive through the Serengeti. Although we weren't optimistic about seeing many animals because we were north of the great migration, we still saw thousands of grazers. We came across a huge herd of zebra, slowly cuing and winding their way south. We also saw wildebeest (oddly cute), who like to co-mingle with zebras to enhance security. Apparently wildebeest have the good hearing and zebras have the good eyesight in the relationship. We were really excited to see three female lions roaming around the bush in search of some shade. They seemed pretty non-plussed by the vehicles and the tourists snapping photos as they wandered about. Later in the afternoon, we saw a second group of three female lions. We miss our cats.

In late afternoon, we drove out of the Serengeti to the adjacent Ngorogoro Crater conservation area to set up camp on the rim of the crater (technically a caldera). This campsite was overrun with giant stork, who look like creepy old men. It also seemed a favorite spot for elephants and zebras to walk through.

After dinner, we were honor-bound to buy Julius a drink for being the first of us to spot lions that day (of course, we didn't argue his advantage in having the radio where guides are cluing each other in about where the animals are). We drove to a local bar that caters to drivers and rangers and had a beer after a long and dusty day. After a fun conversation about American politics--George W recently paid a visit to Tanzania and every African we've met is really excited about Barak Obama even if they don't really consider him black-- we drove back to camp. This was the impromptu night safari part of the trip where we saw water buffalo really close for the first time (we almost hit one in the road), as well as zebra, giraffe, elephant, and mongoose. Did we mention there are a lot of animals to be seen?

-k & d