Day 2 of Safari : Being an "american" and playing cricket in Serengeti

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We got up early to go for morning game drive. As usual, I went straight to the toilet, before other campers could make it un-usable... and gee .. being the first one for the day, I found everything in pristine condition 😊

It had rained all night, so there was slush/water everywhere. Even though rain had stopped a few hours back, rivulets/channels were all flooded. Thats because encatchment area is all flat and it took time for all that water to collect. The scene reminded me of National Geographic/Discovery shows and how they talked about Flash Floods.

Morning wasnt very productive as most animals didnt have to come out to drink water. We saw lots of hippos, and the best sight of the day was seeing a leopard walk across the grassland and jump onto a tree. 2 leopards in 2 days !! - we were damn lucky. We didnt find any lions closeby - although we saw a pride far away. Ameer tried his best to get us close to lions by going around several Kjopes (they are big mounds of rocks - a place where lions usually live/rest... just like in the movie "Ghost and Darkness".

Sun was harsh, and I burned my face/nose and neck badly. During te trip, I overheard Ben and Rich talking about loud and distasteful Americans. I protested right away... atleast Aussies (no offense meant) shouldnt be talking about loud americans!! We had an interesting conversation about how wrong general impression about americans is. Anyways - it was a very friendly and fun discussion... and I was glad I finally asserted my american identity (whatever it may mean)

we got back to the camp around noon. We had lunch... Rest of the group were headed to Nogrongoro, while I was to stay put. There was a group of English+Australian+Kiwis playing cricket with tennis ball. I jumped in - swung a few hits and bowled a few overs. I sprained my left ankle really bad while trying to catch athe ball. We stopped playig after an elderly woman hurt herself while batting.

Demographics at safari camp was very different from Kilimanjaro camps. Safari was dominated by Anglicans - There were a lots of people from UK, Oz, and NZ. Its probably because of colonial legacy of England in this part of Africa. There were a few dutch and swedes too.

As Ameer left with Rich and others, my new guide was Omar. He was younger, with a very friendly demeanor. We left for an evening game-drive. It had rained in the afternoon, so we didnt find much wildlife. I had the whole car for myself ... it was good and bad (because it meant we just had 2 pair of eyes to spot wildlife).

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