Friday, February 12, 2016
We flew 121 miles (194 km) from Arusha to South Serengeti Airstrip in Serengeti National Park. There were clouds along the way, so we missed the scenery over Ngorongoro Crater.
We met our guide who would be with us until we left Tanzania. He picked the four of us up in his safari land cruiser and off we went to the Kusini Plains, southwest of the Airstrip.
Reportedly, there are about 500 species of birds in the Serengeti. Here is our first bird sighting of the day.
Not long after, our guide went to a “kopje” or rock hill, as he had spotted a lion. We circled the hill and saw quite a few lions up on the rocks, hidden by trees.
Then we stopped the car by a lion that was trying to take a nap. Fortunately, she did not jump through our truck’s open window.
We saw quite a few zebras in the area. Here is one nursing her baby.
We next came upon a very large group of wildebeest. The buzzards in the foreground are eating a dead wildebeest.
Here is a closeup of the yawning lion.
Here is a Kori Bustard, the largest flying bird in Africa.
Our lodge that night was a tent camp with bucket showers. The showers worked surprisingly well. In the morning, we are going to drive a bit to the south of the tent camp.
But before getting to the camp, we saw a lot of wildebeest—as far as the eye can see. Here is a small portion of the total.
The next morning, we went out early. Here is an adult lion on the nearby kopje. Two cubs were close by.
Here is a Secretary Bird at the top of a tree.
As the wildebeests trot along in their migration, the babies don’t have much time to get up and jog along with mom.
We watched this baby being born—about four minutes before this video was made about learning how to walk.
Here is a closeup of wildebeests, which are definitely distinctive.
Wildebeests have a good friend in zebras! Below are two videos of wildebeest.
Here is a great looking black–faced vervet monkey on a kopje.
The next photo shows a good looking kopje near our lodge.
Here is a map showing the areas we have visited in Tanzania.
We flew to the southern Serengeti from Arusha, where we drove over the day to our first lodge. Here is a report on our first two days in the national park.
Next—more Serengeti!