From Ngorongoro to Serengeti for the afternoon

Trip to the gates of the Serengeti are uneventful. You basically have to drive the whole way around the crater rim again for the way we did it, so more fantastic views for quite a while. 

Drive to Serengeti

Drive to Serengeti

 We then start on a very bumpy road that seems like it will go on forever.

  

How many ostrich in this picture?

 

3 sisters?

We stopped at the gate  for Felix to pay our next round of entrance fees and Felix said take your box lunches and go see if your friends are here as he thought it was their jeep.

 

Could this be Robina and Don's jeep?

Felix was right, Robina and Don are eating lunch, so a surprise meet up.  Fun to run into them here again and find out what we have each been doing for the last couple of days. Turns out they are our swanky friends, the place they stayed required you to wear a shirt with a collar to dinner, that would have been a little problem for us! There is a little hike around the rock at the gate that we did as well, some very cute lizards, and fantastic views of what we have in front of us. A nice break from driving and fun to catch up. We bought a fridge magnet at the gift shop, and Robina and Don saw the girls from Fernie that they had gone through customs with. What a small world! They were just leaving the Serengeti, Joey she works at the college sometimes so I'm sure she will say hi, I think maybe her name was Lynn Mullin? She says she will remember us as A&W and will stop in to see you.

 

Marabou Stork at lunch stop

View of the endless plains of Serengeti from top of lookout at lunch break

We thought this was dusty, Felix says this is nothing, in high season you need to drive with your lights on

Agama Lizard

Good-bye to our friends again and we are off for some more safari. We traveled a little while past the gate until we put the top up and started our game drive for real. So much to see, the plains go on forever, and you see animals pretty much forever as well and we've just seen the tip of the migration. Only the zebras are here now, wildebeest are close behind, we will go find them as the week goes along. Felix tells us the first rain and they will be here too. A couple of firsts for us, our first leopard so the Big 5 is now complete.

Our first leopard sighting, Big 5 completed

 We also see a huge pride of 13 lions. They are all sleeping under a couple of trees, but then one by one they start stretching and all get up and start walking. By this time there are quite a few cars around so it is a bit of a juggle as everyone tries to get a good viewing point, but everyone was quite orderly. We are not in central Serengeti, from what we're told it is where the busiest part is. We actually see our friends a couple more times driving by, the Serengeti is huge so the chances of this are really unlikely. 

 

13 lions = many cars to watch

More game viewing around the watering hole

Zebras, watch out for the Nile Crocolile

Yellow Billed Oxpecker

 

We then move on to check in to our mobile tented camp, Kati Kati, for the next 3 nights. There are 10 tents here for guests for sleeping, a big open shelter for meals. Before supper they light a campfire and serve drinks and snacks if you want them. A great time to meet some of the other guests, the majority are from France, us and a couple from New Zealand. Fun to hear what everyone has seen, and their plans for the rest of their safaris. I think we are the only ones not going on to Zanzibar, a very popular choice for a beach rest following safari. 

 

We move inside for supper, this is the first place the Felix will be eating with us. I feel a little bad for him after spending about 10 hours a day with us already then he has to have dinner with us. Dinner was fine except I really didn't like the entertainment. There were at least 3 lions watching us right by where we had been sitting around the fire earlier. The sun goes down very fast here, and by about 7:30 it is pitch black. The guards are always shining their flashlights around to see what is out there, yep lions. Lots of jokes amongst us all, they like dark meat more than white so the tourists are all fine, Andre said they like Filet |Mignon best so they would go for the French next, so we are fine. One jeep only arrives close to 8PM, you are not allowed to be out after dark, but this group got lost, so that put dinner late for everyone. Plus they had to drive the jeep right up to the front of the shelter so they didn't have to walk by the lions. After supper two night guards escorted us back to our tent. I sure felt safe, they were both armed with flashlights, yep they bonk the lion on the head I guess. Off to bed again early, the heat wipes us out a bit.