Drunken Elephant

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Once upon a time, in a beautiful expensive plain in East Africa, there lived an elephant. Every day he would head to the local campsite where the owners would skim off the residue from the banana beer they made and leave it outside for the hungry elephant to devour. One day, however, they forgot to leave it out. The elephant had grown so accustomed to it that he couldn't go a day without eating the sweet bananas. He went on the prowl to find the goodies and came across the huge vat of banana beer and drank the whole thing! The next morning, the campsite owners found him sleeping off a monster-sized (or should that be elephant-sized?) hangover which lasted three days!

That's just one of the many stories that our guide, William, told us on our 4-day safari trip to the Serengeti. Not sure if I quite believe them all, but they were fun none-the-less!

We started in Tarangire National Park, before heading to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We saw thousands of zebras, wilderbeast, water buffaloes, elephants etc. over the course of the trip, but a few moments stand out as highlights:

On leaving the campsite one morning, a hippo lumbered out of the river and crossed right in front of our jeep!

We saw a giraffe bending down to drink water - not an easy task for something with a neck that long!

We saw two lions mating, which only lasted 15 seconds (and he calls himself the king of the jungle!!!)

There was a lazy leopard sleeping in a tree with about 15 vehicles of tourists watching him. Every small movement or twitch gave rise to a chorus of "awwws" and "ooohs" up and down the row of tourists!

And the big highlight....a near-kill. Our driver spotted a lioness walking along with a limp (apparently lions often get injured by water buffaloes). She began to crouch down, clearly out on the kill. Suddenly, she sprinted and disappeared into the gulley. Seconds later, a mother warthog and her six babies came flying out of the gulley and right across the road in front of us, with the lion in quick pursuit. We were sure we were about to witness our first kill! With only a few feet to go, the lioness suddenly stopped and lifted her paw up sharply, hobbling off on three legs to sit in the shade. Her injuries had obviously gotten the better of her. The warthog family certainly had a lucky escape!

Speaking of lucky escapes, Scott and I both had problems on the trip. On the first night at camp, Scott somehow managed to get a piece of grit lodged in his eyeball. After several attempts to wash it out with bottled water and my contact lens solution, it still wouldn't move, so our guide drove us down to the local hospital, if you can call it that. It was quite scary and I mumbled to Scott not to let them poke his eye with any rusty old tweezers! Luckily, the grit dislodged itself in the nick of time in the waiting room (or rather the old wooden bench outside that we were waiting on!). Phew!

I also was attacked by an animal in the Ngorongoro crater! The whole time we had been worrying about the lions and crocodiles, but it was the birds that were the real menace! As we ate our lunch, a lot of tiny birds along with mini-turkey-type things surrounded us. They were obviously involved in an elaborate plan with the Black Kites (birds of prey) as they kept us occupied while the Black Kites circled around us unnoticed. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain. A Black Kite had swooped down to try to grab my soggy salad sandwich, missed, and had dug its talons into my finger instead, leaving me with a bloody wound to prove it!

Right now we are waiting at the port, ready to catch the boat to Zanzibar for some much needed rest and relaxation, and a respite from bumping along all day on dusty roads!

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Photos

Lioness
Stops in pain and misses her kill