Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Africa

Sunday, April 11, 2015    Serengeti National Park Safari

Jumbo! Jumbo! African greeting meaning Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Day!

Also safari is swahilli for journey. Sernegeti is derived from a Massai word, "siringet" meaning endless plain.

                                               Our home for two nights in the Serengeti

What a gorgeous day! Our fourth African morning is greeting us for the first time with brilliant sunshine. All the others have had foggy, misty mornings with a burn off around 10 to 11:00am.When I looked out the window, I saw the cutest little critter….a dik dik…almost fawn like.

Their lifespan like the gazelles is no more than ten years.

Anyway we had another fabulous  breakfast buffet with omelets filled with your choice of ingredients. Right off the dining room we spotted colorful little yellow birds fluttering about their many little basket like hanging nests…yellow speckled weavers. Interesting to watch because they entered the nest from the bottom, hanging upside down.

On the road by 8:00am we went back down our favorite bumpy washboard super highway spotting zebras and giraffes for about half an hour before turning onto a smoother dirt road that lead us to see our first topi…..largest African antelope.

                                                      This is a giant among the little gazells.

                                                             Love spotting the lions up close
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From there on we spotted buffalos, guinea fowl, secretaries (large birds), vultures, marabou storks, toni eagles, thomas gazelles (striped) and grant gazelles.

 

 

Further we saw Nile crocodile, bush buck, troops of baboons, hippos, more buffalo, hartebeests, hippos, superb starlings, herons, ostriches, slender tailed mongoose, pumbas, red neck spurfowls, reed buck antelopes, sandbill storks, larks, and a dung beetle that was rolling a ball of dung….very interesting to watch.

                                          Why would an insect want to roll dung?

                                               I really enjoy seeing these African Acacia trees.

Although we had a lot of fantastic times today, these were the most amazing:
     

Amazing moment one…… spotting a leopard. It crept between the bushes and embankment. What a awesome coat it had! One of the most beautiful animals we have seen….but very, very recluse. We were so fortunate to see it…according to Nixson.

                                                               Stunning animal!
 

Amazing moment two….seeing three different lion prides….a total of 23 lions….2 young cubs….and one old male that slept the whole day away….we saw him  under a tree both coming and going. He was so relaxed that he slept on his back with a couple of paws in the air. It was incredible how close we were. You could actually see his chest movement from his breathing.

 

 

Amazing moment three…we actually saw a pride stalking a group of wildebeest. Females are the hunters. The males sat back and watched. A young female led the chase with four others spread out behind her to help. She sprang too soon to catch one of the wildebeest. She came back going first to the mother lion who nudged and cuddled her. Then she crept over to the father lion who rubbed into her as well. It was a tremendous family bonding moment to watch. Even being unsuccessful, the young lioness was accepted. Who would have thought that we would see this happen?

                                                 This old lion must have had a full tummy!

                              The male lions set back and let the females do the hunting! Serengeti is home to the highest concentration of lions in Tanzania....2,500. WOW!

Amazing moment four….we had lunch in the middle of the great migration…Yes…yes…YES! As far as the eye could see to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south… all we saw were wildebeest and zebra in this fantastic flatland. We were amongst the two million wildebeest who were gathering to migrate north over the Mara River into Kenya….thousands will loose their lives at that time to the crocodiles waiting in the river.  Over 400,000 little wildebeest that had just been born in February and March were mixed into this scene. WOW! WHAT A SIGHT! The clouds in the sky went all the way to the horizon with specks of wildebeest as far as you could see. What a moment! What an experience!

Amazing moment five….the last new animal of the day spotted was a verreaux eagle owl sitting in a tree…sleeping. He would open his eyes half way and then shut them tight. His catch from the night before was a bird with long red legs and white feathers still attached that were stretched out on the limb before him. Guess he left it there in case he needed a snack.

Amazing moment six…We had a sensational sunset off our deck at 7:00pm. What do you think?

How can a day get much better than this? Tomorrow we are visiting another part of the Serengeti National Park before heading to Ngorangora Crater….our time in Tanzania is going by way too fast!