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Published: April 20th 2016
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Day 4 (Nov 3) Manyara Lake NP - Good news, I wake up with some feeling in my hand and could ALMOST hold a water bottle without dropping it. Bad news, Angie picked up a cold through our travels. We start off our safari with a two hour drive to Manyara Lake NP for a taste of the safari life. First wild animal was the water buck. Followed by multiple types of monkeys and baboons. Continuing on we came across a dozen zebra, wildebeest, and elephants (our first "big five"). Throw in a few warthogs, ostrich, hippos and numerous birds and you have yourself a pretty good day, including a nice lunch with a great view. Highlight being the elephants coming within a few meters of the jeep.
We ended the day driving up the cliff side to a beautiful view where we bought elephant carved wooden salad spoons. And ended the day at Country lodge, which was very nice, where we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a great meal.
Day 5 (Nov 4) Serengeti - Today I can hold a bottle of water without dropping it, Angie still sick. Bumpy dirt roads starting now. 2 hour drive
up and over Ngorongoro crater to the Oldupai Gorge Museum, an important archeological site that traces the beginnings of the first man and extinct prehistoric animals. 2 more hours driving to the Serengeti, spotting gazelles, zebra, ostrich, and jackals along the way. Made it to the main gate for lunch and captured some nice pics from up top a hill. Entered the park with a "surprise" from our guide Timothy. Two lions (big 5 #2) within the first 2 minutes of the park right on the side of the road about to mate. Unfortunately she wasn't having it so we moved on. Surprise #2, the great migration of wildebeest just started back into the park, including thousands of wildebeest and zebras.
The day continued as we traversed over central Serengeti where we saw 2 cheetah resting, numerous hippos, amazing giraffe, lots of hyenas (some laying in pools of water on the road), water buffalo (big 5 #3), and the cue de gras, a leopard eating his kill in a tree (big 5 #4).
We arrived at our luxury Kati Kati tented camp just as the sun went down, absolutely majestic. We had dinner with our driver and heard
lions bellowing not so far away and saw a hyena on the walk back to our tent.
Day 6 (Nov 5) Serengeti ll - Early start, great sites across wider regions of the park. Finally got to see elephants in the park, a lioness with 4 cubs eating, a crocodile, a ton of the usual suspects, and finished with a wonderful secluded lunch where Timothy parked behind a ridge right in front of a huge train of wildebeest, which we later drove right through as we parted the 100s of animals like the Red Sea as they surrounded the vehicle. Another magical moment.
Very long drive back down the same bumpy dirt roads to the Ngorongoro Sopa crater lodge, which is insane. We also had a fantastic pitstop at a massai village along the way, with a private welcome song and tour of the village, fascinating. We got to the lodge just before sunset to get a great view of the crater from our room. Nice dinner and early bedtime for another early morning. Too bad we are only at each lodge for 12 hours, primarily in the dark. I would stay a few days in each if
I could as the facilities are quite nice.
Day 7 (Nov 6) Ngorongoro crater - Early morning with Angie and I slowly recovering. Fairly uneventful day viewing much of the same "boring" animals. We spotted vultures sitting atop half a corpse of yesterday's lion dinner. Turned off the car as usual, but this time it wouldn't restart. Thankfully another jeep gave us a bump push start and we were on our way.
We did happen to catch big 5 #5, a rhino mother and baby laying in the grass, unfortunately much too far for a photo. We passed a huge lion pride of 13, but a bit off the road. Circled back to find one lion hunting two water buffalo. One lion can't do that so we left. An hour later we hear on the radio a 2nd lion joined and they scared the smaller buffalo right towards the pride of 13, where they closed the deal on the side of the road. Unfortunately we missed it, but got to see the whole pride up close. Eventually a female got bored and was curious with all the jeeps and decided to jump on the hood of the jeep
behind us. Driver shit his pants, started the car and lion jumped off. Idiot tourist was still standing in the pop up taking photos.
We grabbed a quick lunch in the crater, where a kale (eagle type bird) swooped down to try and grab my chicken leg from my hand. All I saw was a shadow of large wings and I rolled on my back as my life passed before my eyes. Ha. We drove up and out of the crater with a last few great shots and drove 2 hours back to Arusha, finally back on paved roads. We met our Kilimanjaro guide Amir, ate dinner and crashed pretty early.
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