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Published: June 28th 2013
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Day 8
After the excitement of a leopard the night before, we were keen to set off and see if our luck was going to hold out. We set off from the lodge at 8am for a morning game drive armed with our picnic lunch.
We immediately saw monkeys, and the "usual", which sounds terrible, but the zebra, impala, warthogs, giraffes and gazelles are everywhere, so you stop getting as excited about them. We did stop when they were particularly close to the road if we thought we could get a good photo. Our guide was very accommodating and didn't mind stopping the jeep whenever we asked him to. We also saw a couple of antelopes we hadn't seen before from the same family as topi's and wildebeest - a reedbuck and a hartebeest, darker and with different shaped antlers.
We seemed to go a bit more "off road" on this game drive. You have to stick to the marked routes in Tanzania, there is no off road driving. It's the dry season, but there are still areas of water which attract the animals to come and drink, and this also attracts lots of birds, like the marabou
stork and black headed and grey herons.
As we rounded a corner, there were a couple of jeeps stopped, and we craned our necks to see what they were photographing. Sat by the side of the road, quite untroubled by all the attention, were two lions. The male was sat up, but the female was basking in the sunshine curled up and partly asleep. We managed to get some good close up shots, before deciding to move on.
We continued on our way, and before we had gone too far, we saw that a lot of jeeps had congregated in the same spot and seemed to be staring up into a tree. Through the binoculars, we could just see it was the elusive leopard. For us, this was the completion of seeing the "big five" - buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion and leopard. There was a bit of jostling for position, but we waited patiently to try and get to a better position where we could get a photo. At first we could only make out its legs straddling the branch and a curly tail. No matter where we were, we were still quite a distance away, and the
leopard seemed to have its head down. There was much excitement amongst us when it got up and walked along the branch.
As we slowly moved along the road, we realised that there was a second leopard in a second tree, and through the binoculars we at first wondered whether the leopard was licking itself. We quickly realised that it had taken it's kill up there. We could make out that it was another gazelle that it was chewing on. Again, we were quite a distance away, and the branches and shadows made it difficult to get a good photo. As we moved round to a better position so we could photograph it's head, Gottfried noticed that there was a third leopard in the tree right above where our jeep was parked. We really struggled to get a photo as it was laid flat on a branch above us.
We were definately on a high, and as we continued on along the road, we passed the point where we had seen the dying zebra the day before. We expected to see just a set of bones, but in fact there was nothing there at all! We could see
some marks in the mud, and Sylvester thought that it had probably been dragged off, maybe by hyaena's.
We continued to scan the horizon and long grasses for signs of animals, and as we sped along, we saw a solitary tree at the side of the track. To our absolute surprise, and delight, there were 3 lions that had climbed up the tree and were sat in the branches. We stopped dead to get the best shots, and quickly realised that there was a whole pride in the long grasses below. We counted a total of 11 on the ground, of all ages. We scanned the opposite side of the track, to see if there was any potential prey in the offing, and there was one solitary wildebeest. Suddenly, a lioness set off trotting into the grasses,in the direction of where the wildebeest was heading. This prompted the other lions to all get up too, and slowly they followed her lead and set off too. We moved the jeep further along the track, and waited to see if the lioness intercepted the wildebeest, but luckily for him, he disappeared into the grasses and the lions gave up the chase.
It was a bit of a shame, as we really wanted to see another kill, but even so, it meant we got some great shots of the rest of the pride of lions.
It was lunchtime, and we were heading out of the park. On the way back to the exit gate, Sylvester stopped under a tree (we checked for lions first), for us to have our picnic. It was the same as we had had the day before, and after the morning we had had, i think we were all ready for something to eat.
We were certainly sorry to leave the Serengeti behind, as we had had such a great couple of days there, but we were hopeful and the Ngorogoro Crater would also provide us with some great animal encounters. Between the two parks, we stopped at a Maasi village. It had been included in one of couples tour, but for the rest of us it was an optional excursion. We were introduced to the son of the village chief, and some of the ladies gave us necklaces to wear. They did a welcome dance, followed by a demonstration of the jumping competition that they
are famous for. We then went inside a traditional house, they are really small, and to the school, where the children sang for us. There was then the usual bartering for items at the end, none of which were cheap. We felt like we had done our bit, but to be honest we had been on better ones!
As we entered the conservation area, we slowed down a couple of times for one of the couples to give out lollys to the goat herders. They all waved, but really the outstretched hand wanted money not sweets. We gradually began to ascend the crater, and Sylvester told us it was 600m height difference to the top of the crater where the hotel was on the rim And the crater floor. We were hoping for a good view of the crater from the hotel, as it is famous for it. We carried on climbing up, and by the time we reached 2400ft the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees.
When we got to our rooms, they certainly had a view! The radiator in the room gave us an indication that we would need to add some layers before we
went to the bar. Again, the bar area had huge panoramic windows looking down into the crater floor, as well as a roaring fire. Dinner was great, and we retired to bed having retrived an extra blanket from the cupboard to put on the bed.
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