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Published: January 25th 2012
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After N'dutu we headed into the Serengeti, still hopeful of getting to see our big cats hunting. You can't really blame us for trying, our guides seemed to be pulling through on anything we could ever hope to see, why not a tragic wildebeests end?
Our goal for the Serengeti was to find some leopards. We spent a lot more time driving than in the crater or Tangire Park, as there were fewer animals here and the migration hadn't arrived to this park yet. When the migration rolls through, lions are often spotted watching their prey from the peaks of the rock outcroppings (the artists from Disney must have done the same tour because the Lion King totally pegged Pride Rock). Even though we didn't get to witness it for ourselves it wasn't tough to imagine. While we were driving around imagining hunting lions, we stumbled across a leopard chilling in a tree. She was more agitated by our presence than the other cats we had seen and decided in a hurry that she didn't want an audience and disappeared into the tall grass. We found her again when she popped up near some huge rocks, but she continued to
move out of sight every time we found her.
The Serengeti is home to one very massive hippo pool. I used to think that hippos were awesome, that was until I saw them fling poo all over each other and smelled the stench of their sewer water. The poo flinging is a sign social status among the hippos, we are just happy that it was not a trait passed on to humans. We would much rather claim our social status by the rating of our coffee drinking snobbery. We watched them for about a half an hour and quickly saw how they would be a massive danger to people, they are all covered in scars from fighting with each other and we witness them get into more than one little tiff.
Our guides picked up the manager of the hippo pool, he had started walking as the park ranger was an hour late picking him up and it was starting to get dark. For obvious reasons, a very unwise thing to do, especially since we had spotted an injured lioness just prior to arriving at the pool.
As if to further prove our point we saw five
more cats on the drive back to camp. Two leopards in trees and a lioness with her cubs. Even though we didn't get to see anything hunted, we did see one of those leopards with her fresh gazelle kill up in the tree. How they get them up there is beyond me, but apparently they do it to protect their kills as they are not good fighters, and have been known to stay with a carcass for three days.
Our nights were filled with noises of hyenas and Lions roaring further off in the distance. Curtis had a brief stare down with a set of glowing hyena eyes (we figured it was a hyena as we heard one calling just by the mess tents that night as we ate dinner. We thought maybe it was one of the guides trying to scare us, but when they all joined us and the noise continued, that theory was quickly put to rest).
We learned that we were escorted to our tents each evening, not because of the lions or hyenas, but rather buffalo or elephants which are even worse. The local people and Maasai tribes don't have the predators at
the top of the most dangerous list, as when they are seen they will retreat into the grass to hide, will pretend that they haven't seen you and will leave you alone. The elephants and buffalo are another cranky lot however, and if they spot people and get scared their first instinct is to defend. As one could imagine, a seven ton elephant could make short order of us Canadians and our lion proof tents 😊
Our last morning we were met by a big herd of giraffes (the biggest group we had seen) on our way to the airport. Which by the way was about as low security as they come, we rode out on a twin otter 300 series plane where they check your name off the manifest after you have thrown your own luggage in the carrier and not one person verifies that you are who you say you are.
We are happy to report we arrived safely to our destination and despite the small planes, no more members have entered the chuck club 😊
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