Day 2 was unbelievable!!! We started off just before sunrise and headed out. You could hear noises in the brush but could not see what was making the sounds. It was kind of eary. But then the sun began to rise and the animals started to appear. And the sun rise... WOW! The sunrise over the Serengeti was something that I will never forget. I kept hearing the sound track from the Lion King in my head as it rose. It began by just silhouetting the trees and sending beautiful rays of reds, yellows and oranges out across the plain. Then as it was fully floating in the sky, the colors of the Serengeti took over. The tones of browns grays and tans of the rocks and dirt as well as the reds of the sand mixed with the colors of its inhabitants, the animals, and began to pop. It was awesome.
Then the animal encounters....
We saw a pride of lions who had made a kill of a Cape Buffalo just the night before. There were 14 lions in the pride. They had pulled the kill up under a tree and were tearing into it. It was apparent that there was a pecking order of feeding. One of the larger lions moved away from the kill and laid down in the sun. His belly was so swollen with his feeding he could hardly move. Many of the others had red faces and paws from working the carcass. It was as if we were watching a Big Cats special and we were only about 50 feet away (in the safety of our vehicle of course).
A bit later we saw a set of three cheetahs running through the bush. One appeared to be the mother and the other two were almost full grown children of hers. They were very skittish and tried to stay out of the way of us humans. They were beautiful in how sleek they were. You could see that they were built for speed, long and thin.
Then we came upon another pride of lions who were working a fresh zebra kill. This pride was made up of 10 lions. The biggest were working the chest and tearing meat from it. The little cubs were relegated to the head. One of the cubs kept tugging on the ears and jumping back when the head would move. Then he would leap up and land on the head again as if he was attacking. There were 4 zebras a short distance from the pride staring intently as if trying to determine which one of their friends was not going to return to the herd. It was interesting to see the Wilde Beasts and Zebra herds as they had seemed to relax now that the pride had made a kill. They were not the cautious on high alert types that we had been seeing. And overhead the vultures were circling waiting for their turn.
This fantastic scene was then followed by a scene right out of National Geographic... the Wilde Beast and Zebra herds going down to the watering hole to get a drink. And in the watering hole was a ... crocodile. We could see the eyes of the croc slightly above the water. The Wilde Beasts and Zebras were jockeying for position to get down to the water to get a drink. There were hundreds if not thousands of them. They would drink with an eye upon the water, waiting to see if danger would appear from under. Once they had a drink, they would try to leap and get back for the water as fast as they could. Some very brave ones (or maybe they were not experienced and fool-hearty) would wade out into the water and drink. The croc submerged a couple of times but did not press an attack. Quite possibly he, like the lion prides had just made a kill and was full. It was such an exciting treat to see this.
We definitely were in the Serengeti at the time of the great migration. The herds of Wilde Beast and Zebras strung on for a great distance. The numbers of them were too great to count or even try to estimate. The timing of our safari seems to have been perfect.
I will post photos when I can... I am having SIM card issues again. :(
All I can say is WOW! What an experience and what an excellent break from the riding. So happy for you! Debra
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ReplyDeleteRay Van Ostran
Great photos. Makes you want to stay out on safari, I bet.
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