Safari Day 3 – More of the Serengeti

January 26^th, 2024 

We were up again early, eating breakfast at 6 am in order to get on the game drive by 7.  The morning greeted us with a lovely orange glow of sunrise.  Once we were packed up, we drove off to pick up the Portuguese group who had stayed at a different, and slightly fancier camp.  They were all a bit giddy as they had had lions making grunting sounds near their large tents in the night, which had prevented a few of them from getting a good night’s sleep.

The lovely sunrise glow:

Leaving our campsite:

Hello Mr. Sun:

While they loaded the vehicles, we watched a few hot air balloons off in the distance.  That could be an amazing experience to do, but it’s a pricey one, about $560 USD for a one-hour ride!  We also saw a lonely hippo wandering his way across a grassy field, probably returning to his watering hole after eating during the night.

A waterbuck checking us out as we approached the other camp:

The two little dots in the middle of the pic are hot air balloons:

About a half hour into our game drive, we watched as a female lion crossed the road in front of us and continued on her way.  Some vehicles ahead of us had tourists looking in the other direction so following their lead, we spotted a couple of lions, male and female, up on a big pile of rocks.  They were soon joined by a third lion.  We couldn’t get any good photos of them though as they were a bit too far away.

The lioness walking away from us:

 After we had our fill of the lions, we backtracked and headed around the north side of a grassy hill.  We got closer to a few of the hot air balloons and got to watch them land.  I teach paragliding for a living, and we are technically the second slowest aircraft in the world, after hot air balloons.  I’ve never been in a hot air balloon, which does look like fun, but also I think possibly more dangerous than paragliding as we can control left and right, whereas a hot air balloon relies on the wind changing direction at different altitudes.  Also, they have no way to slow down their forward velocity when they land…which can end up with the basket tipping over and people getting hurt.

An impressive male impala hanging out on his own:

Around the other side of the grassy hill:

It does look fun!

A Maribou stork hanging out on a tree:

Time to land:

The quick deflation after touchdown:

Shortly after, there was a big herd of impalas.  They were close to the road and were mostly content to just watch us.  The dominant male had an impressive set of horns and Lewis pointed out that there were some young males in the group, easy to pick out by their small horns, and that they would get kicked out of the herd as they got older as this was the dominant male’s harem.

Who you lookin' at?!?

The "man of the house" in the front and center:

We spotted a dik-dik too, the smallest type of antelope in the Serengeti.  He was pretty cute.  They mate for life with their partner so it’s possible that this guy had lost his mate.

The dik-dik...so cute-cute.

Later we saw our first crocodile.  It was about 50 meters away and sleeping in the morning sun on a rock so it wasn’t terribly exciting as he never moved.

Tough to see, but he's on the rock in the middle of the photo:

Hello Mr. Giraffe.

Many hippos chilling (literally) in a pool.

Giraffes are so crazy looking.

A momma giraffe and her baby:

We stopped to watch a troop of baboons by the side of the road.  They were up to their usual antics with the dominant male mounting an unhappy female, some play fighting, a few of them jumping on the hood of our car and even one on the back by the pop-up roof and a baby climbing up and down a bush. 

Whatchyoo lookin' at?!?

This freaked out some of the Portuguese crew...as you can see them ducking.

It was hard to get a good pic of the cute little baboon baby.

Testing the Land Cruisers again.

The flat plains of the Serengeti:

Another stuck truck:

Driving across the plains of the Serengeti:

One of the Ugly 5, a vulture:

There's a lion sleeping in the middle concrete culvert...tough to find shade out here.

A hyena walking away from the road...another one of the Ugly 5.

The wildlife dotting the plains of the Serengeti:

What a landscape!

Starting to drive back up the mountain, and looking back at the Serengeti:

In the background behind the giraffe is the Serengeti.

On our way back up the mountain, and towards our campground, we stopped at a Masai village.  The Portuguese group wanted to visit them (for a fee of course) and so did a few of the others from the other vehicle.  It didn’t interest me.  I’m not crazy about visiting another human society/civilization like they are a tourist attraction.  Everyone one else apart from me, Jenni and Melanie, decided to visit the village.  Before the tour even started, there were negotiations outside of the vehicles as to how much it would cost per person.  Kinda seemed weird to haggle as to how much seeing their culture was worth…

 

The French girls and I waited only about 25-30 minutes before the rest of the group returned.  A few of them had purchased some items, like a beaded necklace.  Later, the American Ryan told me that he agreed with my assessment of the situation.  They had been brought into a classroom where some young kids seemed to go through the motions of reading the alphabet and doing some basic math calculations.  He said that he felt it was quite contrived.  But some members of the group were happy with the visit, so to each their own.

The local villagers:

The Welcoming Dance...once they had paid their fees.

Jose, second from the left, is getting indoctrinated.

Their mud huts:

It was a long day in the land cruiser, but another good one.  We pulled into the Simba campsite where our tents were already set up.  This place was much busier than the campsite last night, but it was still a good spot.  Salim, our chef, made another good meal and as usual, he cooked way too much.

My tent:

In the middle of the night, I wasn’t woken up by wild animals growling or grunting, but to the chomping of grass by cows.  It was loud enough that I could even hear the chewing despite wearing earplugs!  Everyone seemed to have been woken up by the cattle.  Max, the guide in the other vehicle, said that he even felt the cow pushing against him through the tent wall.

An amazing pic taken in the night by Melanie...that's an impressive phone!

Ryan took this one...and he tried to wake everyone up to see them...luckily I stayed asleep.

The third day of the safari was a good one, but I was really excited for the last day, when we would descend into the Ngorongoro Crater.