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Published: June 27th 2013
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Day 7
We had an 8am start out into the park, and as we were waiting to get into the jeep, one of the couples told us that they had seen 7 lions about 20m from their room after we had all retired to bed the night before! Perhaps the security escort was justified after all! Our guide loaded up the picnic lunches into the front of the jeep that had been provided by the hotel, and we hoped they were better than the pepper sandwiches we had had in India's packed lunches.
We saw lots of impala grazing in amongst areas of burned grass. Sylvester explained that the Masai burn areas to rejuventate growth when the short rains come to encourage animals to come back to the area to graze. We also saw several warthogs grazing on their knees. They do this becauase 2/3 of their body weight is in their head. There were also herds of zebra and small groups of dik dik's, giraffes (which were quite dark due to the colour of the earth), elephants and topi (a type of antelope). Bird wise, there were secretary birds, which eat snakes, Egyptian geese and a large number
of african starlings. On a sadder note, we drove past a zebra on the ground, which at first looked like it might have been run over as there were no wounds on iI. It was still alive, but was unable to get back up. Sylvester thought it probably was diseased, and this was why there were no scavengers near by to eat it. It is the circle of life, but was sad to see.
Our guide was listening over the radio for news, as well as occasionally asking other guides if they had seen anything. We followed a number of jeeps to an area where there were already lots of jeeps gathered, and with binoculars in hand tried to see what all the excitement was about. Through the grasses, we could just make out a cheetah head. It kept on putting its head back into the grasses, until we couldn't see it any more. We decided to move on and sped past a number of jeeps, and scanning the horizon one of our group spotted a lioness under a tree. Excitement! We set off full speed ahead, towards the spot. For a moment, we were the only jeep there,
and got some good shots of the lioness. When we looked at what was going on round her, a herd of elephants were heading straight for the spot where she was sat. We were unsure what would happen next, so sat and waited for it to unfold in front of us.
We never imagined that it would be so exciting! The elephants avoided the lioness who clearly had her eye on something. In the distance, a group of gazelle were casually grazing, and as the lioness stood up and began to trot towards them, two of the gazelle were fighting amongst themselves, and failed to notice the approaching predator. She gathered pace, and then went for the kill. Success - a meal, and she duly picked up the carcus and took it under the tree to start to eat. We watched her for a while and then turned our attention to where we had seen cheetah. There were still lot of jeeps looking, and so we moved position to back nearer the cheetah. Then we spotted a big male lion, trotting through the grasses towards the exact spot where the cheetah was laid. Again we weren't sure what would
happen if the lion realised the cheetah was even there, but the cheetah kept a low profile, and the lion passed her and sat under the shade of a tree.
We repositioned ourselves again, and drove towards the lioness and her kill. On the way we spotted that on the opposite side of the road, there were a couple of younger lions and at least one cub that popped its head up. The two young lions passed between the jeeps, and headed towards the lioness. Under the shade of a tree, they were eyeing up an approach to steal the remainder of her kill. They eventually gathered themselves and set off. As they got nearer, she clearly could see what they wanted, and she bared her teeth at them, picked up the gazelle, and took it back to the tree they had just come from to finish it off. There was no way she was sharing it. After a short time, from the opposite side of the road, a female crossed with not one but two cubs to go and sit under the tree. Not to be deterred, the two young lions tried their hand again at getting the
kill off the lioness. She wasn't giving it up, and again picked it up and took it back to underneath the original tree.
After this flurry of activity, we continued towards a hippo pool. This time, they were out of the water for us to photograph, instead of it just being noses. We headed towards our lunch break, where there was a visitor centre and picnic tables. The hotel boxes upon inspection contained a piece of chicken, a grilled vegetable sandwich, water, juice, 2 pieces of fruit, cake, chocolate, a yogurt, cheese and crackers and peanuts! During our meal, we were joined by hyrax's, which are like large grey guinea pigs that can climb up trees, and on top of the picnic tables. The visitor centre had a short walk that gave you lots of information about the Serengeti, its formation and the challenges it faces. There were also some excellent metal sculptures of animals too.
We were not sure how the afternoon game drive would measure up to all that we had seen in the morning, but we set off with high hopes of continuing our good fortune in spotting the animals in the park. We were
however joined by some very unwelcome guests - tsetse flies - which were very persistent and vicious. We saw the usual array of animals - zebra, dik dik, giraffe, elephants and zebra, and also some crocodiles. We also spotted another lion near the riverbank, when we were looking for crocs. In amongst a group of Thompsons gazelles was an imposter - a topi, which are much larger and darker, which seemed to have been adopted into the group. We also watched a jackel trying to stalk some gazelles, and whilst he did try, Sylvester said he would be unlikely to succeed on his own.
Finally, we went to the largest of the hippo pools, where there must have been at least 200 hippos all submerged in there. To be frank, it stunk, and all you could see was green stagnant water and hippo poo being flung around. There was some grunting noises, and a commotion, and one hippo bit another on bottom. Sylvester also pointed out crocodiles sat on the bank which we hadn't noticed as we were too busy taking photos of yawning hippos.
We returned to the lodge, at some speed, due to the flies, and
met the others for dinner, which Gottfried insisted we sat outside for. We were also treated to some of his jokes, some of which didn't translate particularly well from Austrian into English. We watched a beautiful sunset and finished off the evening with a drink in the bar. We were also "treated" to a serenade by one of the staff members who sang Harry Belafonte, as well as a catchy number in Swahili. Just as we were going to retire for the night, the staff rushed up asking if we would like to see a leopard. we didn't need asking twice, and made our way excitedly towards the hotel massage tent at the back of the grounds really not all that far from where we had been sitting. The staff shone a torch, and staring back at us was a pair of cats eyes. As we got used to the dark, we could just make out the spotty coat of the leopard behind a wicker gate - we got an escort back to the room!
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