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Published: June 12th 2003
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The next day we entered the Serengeti National Park at about 10 am. As soon as we got into the park we saw massive herds of Wildebeest covering the whole of the ground you could see. It was the annual migration. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/tanzania/attractions.htm#serengeti). We drove to a picnic site and on the way saw a couple of lions inside a bush very close. Lots of Zebras also. After our picnic lunch we saw Elephants, a couple of bull Giraffes fighting - banging their heads against each others necks! Wildebeest are a very strange shaped animal with short back legs and long front legs. We also saw some Hyenas with some old pieces of bone running around quite close to us.
The lodge was amazing in the middle of the park. It had a lovely terrace where we all watched the sun go down over the acacias and grassy savannahs. A hyena ran by just after the sun disappeared. The next day we drove around the park marveling at the sights. We saw many lions resting in trees - which they like to do to avoid the grass ticks when the grass is long. We saw the cubs with their babysitter and we
saw larges males with their big manes and the females hunting hiding in the grass in formation and waiting for dinner to arrive. We saw a small crocodile swimming in a stream. I really wanted to see a Leopard but by about 3pm thought that it would be unlikely. We took a few quieter routes to see what else we could see in the afternoon and at one point Petra shouted that there was another lion in a tree. We all jumped onto the top - as we did to view the animals and I looked through the binoculars. As soon as I got the cat in the viewfinder I was startled. It had such a lovely coat with very well defined black rings and a pair of piercing green eyes. I shouted - "that's not a lion its a Leopard". We were the only vehicle there and David drove very close to it so we could get some photos. It was by far the most imperious animal seen in Africa and did remind me of the Tiger we saw in India. It seemed so intelligent lying in the tree looking at us and it's very shapely face so well
defined in comparison with the Lions and the Cheetah. The Cheetah's pattern is quite blurry compared to the Leopards lovely smooth coat. The sun went in as we got closest to the Leopard and to our delight it didn't move away but just let us get very close. We had to watch out for other groups in the distance as David was not really allowed off the track. He was quite nervous and quite a few of our group were screaming at the sun to come out again for the best photos (not me of course since I didn't take any photos this year). Other Land Rovers began to arrive and we got back onto the road to watch from a little further away as the radios enticed many groups of tourists to come and see the Leopard. I felt pretty good about not having a radio and our Guide had done an amazing job in organizing our days with great sights. We watched the Leopard for quite a while and then went back to the big pride of Lions. We watched them looking very hungry for a long time. Small groups of Zebras or Wildebeest would appear in the
Giraffes
fighting! distance and all of our willing could not entice them to pass between the two rock formations with the Lions in between. It was a shame and David agreed that we could come back first thing in the morning to watch them. We weren't allowed to be out in the park after sunset.
The next morning we watched the pride of Lions very close up. There were about 3 larges males, 7 females and two groups of about 4 cubs each. One group of cubs was munching on the remains of a kill that happened in the night. It was interesting to look at the pride and work out what the group dynamics were. I think I could remember quite a lot from reading "Born Free" when I was young and was aware that the young females in the pride looked the hungriest. I think they were last in the pecking order for who gets to eat. There was a nervous moment when our engine stalled right in the middle of a bunch of Lions and we were sitting on the top. Another Land Rover came right up to ours and pushed our start. We definitely did well on our "budget" safari. After we saw the Lions we went back and had breakfast at the lodge and checked out. It took us a while to get everything sorted and David was getting a little anxious. We were also nervous about when our bus would pick us up from the middle of the Park. David dropped us off at this little village in the middle of the park where all these Marabou Storks were wandering around. The children were throwing stones at the Baboons and the little monkeys and it was a lovely scene. The Marabou Storks are so cool and walked around like old men in Tuxedos. They reminded me of the book "Marabou Stork Nightmares" by Irvine Walsh which was a great read and I can see why he picked those 5 foot birds to always show up at the strangest times. Kristen, Shelly and I were dropped at the village by David and waited about 2 hours there for the bus trying to stop the monkeys getting our lunchboxes.
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