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Published: October 28th 2008
Up and eating breakfast at 5am this morning we heading out on our last game drive in the national park before we were due to head back to Snake Park, the campsite our truck has been parked at for days. Our first port of call on this game drive?? What will now forever be known as 'the leopard tree'. We really wanted to see if we would be lucky enough to catch another glimpse of it before we left but we were disappointed. Even though Larry (we were naming our sightings by this point) wasn't there, there were two half eaten carcuses of thomson gazelles hanging from the branches. Our guide Julius said that this is how Leopards store thier kills and they are the only cat who will eat rotting meat too.
Driving on we spotted hundreds of birds in the trees which were a really stricking yellow and green colour. Julius told us they were love birds. We tried to get photos but they are very skittish so I think I only got one of them flying away from us. Moving on we saw all the usual of lots of giraffes, hippos and baboons. Giraffes may soon become a protected species as Julius says that people have now started to believe that something from a Giraffe is a cure for HIV/AIDS and they are being killed in large numbers. I wonder where that crazy notion came from. Driving along the road, waiting patiently for the giraffes to clear the road we went on some more, only to happen across a male and female lion, wondering idly alongside the road. We followed them slowly for quite some time and got some great photos. It was the first male lion I had seen close up and he was HUGE. I didn't like the way he kept looking at me though.
Rounding the corner I was becoming a little sad as I knew our time in the Serengeti was nearly up. We saw a female lion walking through the long grass and immediately you could tell that something was different. All of the other animals we have seen have basically gone about their business, not too bothered by our prescence and very rarely actually really look at you or acknowledge your existence. This lioness however kept looking over at us and was acting very shiftily. Bascially she looked completed pissed off at the fact we were there. Looking over to our left we then saw a small herd of wilderbeast. I turned to one of the others in my Land Rover and said 'Oh wouldn't it be cool if there was another lioness behind them and she would scare them and they would run right into the path of this one'. Not believing for one minute that it would happen. The next thing we knew someone went 'Oh shit, they are running', 'Oh my god there is another lion there' and then we saw 'our' lioness start running towards the group of wilderbeest who were kicking up so much dust as they ran away from the other one, not one of them seeing the lion that was in front of them. The lion took about 10 seconds to decide which one she was going to go for and that was it ... the chase was on. The other lion was nowhere to be seen. It was just 'our' lion and the chosen wilderbeest in the chase. The lion was about 3 meters behind it at its closest but then she seemed to run out of steam and she failed. I have to admit I was quite happy about that as I don't think I would have wanted it to be killed. After it happened I was physically shaking. I had to put my camera down before I dropped it over the side of the Land Rover (and yes - I got great pictures). My hands were shaking so badly, I don't think I have ever had such a rush of adrenaline. One thing that struck me about the whole scene was how quite it all was. Obviously, the Serengeti is a very quiet place anyway, but apart from a little bit of noise from the wilderbeest running it was absolutely silent. Like someone had put a mute button on. Very strange.
So, that was the end of our day and we drove out of the national park and just took in the scenery. Another three hours over the 'free massage road' and a BBQ waiting for us at camp and we all had a very early night. Far too much excitement for one day.
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Jemilla
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And heres me grappling with the commuters of London every morning on buses to Brixton.... cor blimey!!!! hardly the same adrenalin rush :-)