Serengeti - 2nd full day in Central

Not so great a sleep last night. Something was at our lantern outside, we told Felix about it this morning and he says it was probably bats. OK, I can live with that, if I hear it again tonight I am just going back to sleep knowing it is bats. Andres tummy is bothering him a little, hope he makes it through the day OK. We did get a full rainbow on the walk from our tent over to breakfast, hope this is a sign of good luck for the day.

Pot of gold right behind our tent, but we didn't find it, though we didn't venture too far looking for it

Started off this morning again at 7AM for our game drive. We were not more than 2KM from our camp and came across 2 cheetahs finishing up a breakfast gazelle. They were so close to the road, amazing. When the finished they crossed the road right behind us, proceeded to lie down and start washing each others bloody faces, WOW. What a special moment, I really nearly started to cry, there were a few tears... All cleaned up and they decided it was time to hunt again, a few minutes later they spot the gazelle they want and get it! They are incredibly fast, really hard to follow exactly what happened, but 5 minutes later they are eating again. There is only 1 other car with us at this point, as it is only people coming out of our camp that would really be here, so very very special. I am sure we spent about 45 minutes just watching these 2 cheetahs, what a way to start the day!!!

They cross the road right between the 2 jeeps that were there

Time to clean up our faces!

We see something very good for breakfast over there and we're still hungry

Lets go get it

Delicious, they were so quick we never even got it on camera!

We had told Felix that whenever we had the opportunity to use a “real” bathroom today we should stop. We are an hour into our day and we go to the picnic area where we had lunch yesterday but notice that the bathrooms are still locked up, it is close to 8, so we thought they should be open. We see a jeep parked by the picnic tables so we drive up and find 3 leopards!! One is in the tree, it had taken it's kill up there and was eating. The other 2 walked along, jumped on the picnic tables and just lounged around. Wow, wow, wow. I don't even think we have covered 3 km yet from our camp. We just watched the interaction for a while, there were only a couple of us there, but then word got out, we could see the dust coming from the jeeps as the approached from the distance. A hyena came by, we thought there might be some action, but it decided to move on. One of the other leopards decided to go up the tree as well, but the youngest stayed on the ground just romping around, licking at the ground where some droppings must have fallen from the kill in the tree. It started to get very crowded with jeeps and we had our fair share of time here so time to move on. Needless to say no bathroom stop was had.  We saw guides taking pictures with their cell phones here, so I guess it isn't all that common.

We had lunch at this area yesterday, we'll leave it for the leopards today....

This leopard was way up at the top of the tree with her kill

This hyena came to see what was going on, but moved on quickly

Word gets out about the leopard, so we move on, you can see the dust from the jeeps coming...

Next up we drive for a couple more km to find a cheetah in the field by itself. People were driving by us like crazy to get to the leopards and had no idea they were missing the cheetah. One of the problems I see with the guides just using radios is they are in a mad dash to get to whatever they hear on the radio, but are potentially missing lots as well. We see one more single lion as well that has a tracking collar as well resting under a tree, we think this is the same one we saw yesterday, but who knows. 

Cheetah moves on to find some shade of a tree

 

We drive along a couple more km and there are about 4 jeeps parked, a sure sign some kind of cat is around. Some kind of cat turned out to be 13 lions, we think the same big pride we saw the first day we were here. They were all resting under a tree, but we could see one lurking in front, making it's way slowly towards 2 zebras. Another lion joins the front one, and at this point all the other lions sit up and take notice and watch very closely what is happening. One zebra crosses over the road, but the other one starts to move a little closer to the lead lions. At this point all of the lions start slinking forward, what a sight! So very exciting. All of the slinking and moving forward is quite a slow process, we were probably there for about 30 minutes watching them move forward. At this point the one zebra decides to cross the road as well, this was like the trigger for the move, lots of running lions, zigzagging zebras as the one ran towards the other one, so now 2 are being chased. I was watching through binoculars, Felix started moving the jeep to keep up with the chase, one lion got the zebras tail, but the zebra got away! Both zebra live to see another day, but what a scene. That many lions would need to get a lot of kills to feed everyone, poor things I guess I do feel a little sorry for them, but I was kind of cheering for the zebra, Andre was on the lions side. The lions all meander back to the tree shade again, still hungry, but I'm sure they will find something soon.

Waiting for the signal from the lead lions to move out for the hunt!

Tell me when to move!

5 of the lions spread out behind the leaders in position for the chase

Ignore the jeeps and take your position!

Be very very careful zebra, you are really not in a good spot

I am so so hungry, I can nearly taste that zebra

Missed it.

 

I am so disappointed, I so wanted that zebra

We drove along for another less than 10 minutes and could see quite a large number of elephants in the distance, so off we head towards them. Because of all the action at the leopards, and we have gone off a little side road we are the only ones there. As we get closer we come across 2 male lions resting, Felix pulls up beside them, one sits up and and growls us, oops we back off, I guess we were too close. Some amazing pictures here again. One is quite a bit older than the other, it's mane is quite dark. We stayed and watched them for a while, they got up a couple of times and moved around, beautiful. 

Felix then said he thought the elephants were close to the road, I looked through my binoculars and could see at least 5 more lions there, so we're off again. Arrive at another large pride, including 4 cubs! We think there were 13 in total with the cubs but they were a bit hard to count as they kept getting up and down in the grass. The cubs were so cute, not sure if there was just one mother, but only saw them nursing on one lion.

Cubs feeding

There were 12 elephants just behind the lions going about their business in the watering hole right behind them. A couple of baby ones enjoying rolling around, the large elephants always seemed to be keeping an eye on the lions. 

We then see a very large elephant coming towards the other elephants quite quickly, a male that came along to ruin the fun. The male played a little rough with the females, who then decided they had had enough with him, took their babies and headed off. At this point the fun really began. The elephant decided to chase the lions, the lions were really afraid of it, and did that elephant ever want to pick on the lions. It charged them over and over again, baby cubs running every which way, hiding in the grass, running up the hill on the other side of the pond all by themselves, but the elephant really only seemed interested in harassing the older lions. 

Mean male elephant chasing the lions!

We spent 45 minutes here all together watching the elephants and lions and it was time to move on, we were still the only ones here.  We had a little help with this though, we could see jeeps stopped in the distance on the other side of the little creek we were on, and when we got there found another cheetah with a gazelle. Half of the gazelle was still there, guess it was too full to finish eating. This is what I am sure kept people from coming over to see why we were stopped for so long, it probably looked like we were just watching the elephants because from the angle of the gazelle you would have had no view of any of the lions. Another special moment, what a day. 

Another cheetah with a gazelle, cheetah are winning the battle today

 

Next stop is a very very long line of Cape Buffalo crossing the road. We could not see the end of the line, guess we have found this migration now? Still not my favourite animal for sure.

Lots more great viewing this morning

Black headed heron

One of my favourites, tails in the air when running

Love this picture, gorgeous tree

Lunch time. Our guide has been speaking to the other couples from Vancouver guide and we are meeting them at the Information Centre for lunch. Great to meet up with them again and talk about what we have been seeing and doing the last couple of days. They are staying at a new camp, and are the only ones there. Our camp was full last night, and we are really enjoying talking to people before dinner over drinks and snacks so I am happy we are here. They fly out tomorrow to continue their holiday in other parts of Tanzania so we will not see them again here, but hope to stay in touch. There is quite a nice information centre here, lots of exhibits that take you through a walk and get a tiny bit of exercise. Lots of mongoose and hyrax about, in the trees and on the ground. Guess they are looking for handouts. We also see a leopard tortoise, something I've told Felix I wanted to see, so another thing crossed off the list. Quite a few Agama lizards around too, very pretty colours on the male, of course trying to attract the females. Say good-bye to our friends and we are off.

Busy information center and lunch stop, a nice break

Part of exhibit in information center

Dwarf mongoose

Hyrax

Usambiro Barbet

Agama Lizard

Leopard Tortoise

I'm safe, they didn't get me!

Next stop is at the little airstrip where we will be taking our plane from in a few days out of the Serengeti back to Arusha. No idea why we are here but Felix says it is for paperwork, there seems to be a lot of paperwork in Tanzania. The 3 minutes he said it would take was African 3 minutes, so time to go through and clean up a few of the hundreds of pictures we have taken today. Off we go but first have to stop at this little gate house to turn in some of the paperwork I guess, and away we go.

A stop at the airport for more "paperwork", maybe this is the plane we will be taking out?

Next stop is just down the road as Felix spots a Topi, an antelope that we have not seen yet. Very pretty colouring on the face and legs, and on the way out we see 2 more, now another antelope I will not remember the name of when I see it again...

Our first Topi

We next stop at the water hole as we see hundreds of zebras around. We pull up right behind our friends only to hear that we just missed a crocodile that should have had a zebra. All of the zebra have now scattered to the other side of the road. They so want to come to drink but are too afraid to cross over. 
 

We run into Robina and Don watching the zebra

We watch for about 10 minutes, no action so move on. We decide to move on to see if the large pride of lions from this morning are still about, and if they look full. We find them under the same tree where they were early this morning, this time pretty much all legs up in the air sleeping, and no sign that there has been a kill. Would be amazing to see the pecking order of eating with this many lions, I so hope we see it before we leave.

We then take some more side roads, after this morning it is very hard to get excited about an ostrich, a secretary bird, and warthogs, but that is pretty much what we still do, and I still can't believe that we see these just driving around. Our failed attempt at finding more leopards and we head home but go by the picnic area first to see if the 3 leopard are still there. Lots of jeeps around as we approach so we are sure they are there, one is sleeping on the picnic table, all curled up around the umbrella stand, so very cute. We snap a few pictures and move along. 

One leopard is still at the picnic site at the end of our day

What a busy day,  all this posing for the cameras

 

Looking back at all the jeeps at the lazy leopard

 

Back to our camp at Kati Kati for the last night, tomorrow we move to a different tented camp, Felix says it is a fancy one and he won't say if he thinks we will like it, we'll see. Another 10 hour safari day under our belt, I wouldn't trade one minute of it! Count for today only (I count them as a count even if I think we saw them prior to today, but I don't count them if I see them twice in one day) Cheetah 4, Leopard 3, Lions 28, what a cat day!!! Good luck to Felix in topping this day.

Pre dinner fire, drinks and snacks were fun again tonight. Love visiting with the others and see what they are up to and where they are going next. Tonight there is a young couple from the US, first other North Americans here with us, and we have seen hardly anyone else the whole trip from anywhere near home. He is a Dr., did his degree at McGill so fun to talk about home a little. They are here for 4 nights, have been travelling through Africa for 3 weeks so far, lucky them. We also met a single woman that was here last night that we hadn't spoken to, she is from Belgium, and this is her 12^th trip to Tanzania. She comes every May and November, and now only comes to the Serengeti, she says when she crosses under the park sign she feels like she is coming home. She is I am sure retirement age and says as long as she is healthy and can afford it she will continue to come here.

Amazing leek soup here for supper, every night they start with a soup and they have all been excellent. Tonight was so good we asked for seconds. The main course has always been good too, the desserts suck, and box lunches suck even more. Why they would ever put a chocolate bar in a box lunch in this heat I have no idea, messy, messy, messy.

One last load of laundry done and catching up on the blog

Off to supper, this light will protect me right?

Fun pic of the day today, no lens envy from Andre here