Serengeti - Day 5



Serengeti landscape

 We were up at the usual time of 5.30am for coffee, but we had to pack up for the drive out.  After checking for hyenas (there had been at least one hanging around one of the tents the night before) we packed up and both us, Ali and Chris were all ready to go by 6.30 – quite impressive since hardly anyone else had left for the morning drive yet. 

Serengeti - Day 4



Green-winged pytilia

Again up early in the morning, but the morning drive was unsuccessful, hardly seeing anything around.  Ali needed to put petrol in the car, so he dropped us off at the visitor’s centre to have breakfast.  We were still photographing the birds and rock hyraxes by the time he got back, entertained by the boldness of the hyraxes looking for scraps.

Serengeti - Day 3



After a quiet night at a much less crowded campsite, it was up early again and we were first out of camp while it was still dark. We headed up the road to Mwanza, before turning towards the river, spotting a couple of hippos still grazing out on land before heading back to the river.  But as we headed round a bend, we spotted a great sight – 22 lions!

Serengeti - Day 2

Sunrise in the Serengeti

It was an eventful first night at camp.  Hyenas were running around the campsite, doing their whooping call, while lions were roaring close by.  Poor Dru, still struggling with the recovery of malaria, hardly slept at all and was able to tell me in the morning that the lions had killed in the night and had attracted the hyenas coming to grab the kill.  I slept through all of it ;) 

Serengeti - Day1

 

Tawny eagle

 After a good night’s sleep for me, and a bad one for Dru thanks to him still recovering from malaria, we met up with Ali and Chris at 6am before leaving Moshi for the 8 hour trip to the Serengeti gate.  The drive is a tough one – a 4 hour drive on tar until we get to the Ngorongoro Crater gate.

Serengeti NP - Intro

Serengeti NP
26-30 August 2011

Every time we come from the Serengeti, we say that it couldn’t get any better… And again on this trip it was no exception.  Even though the migration is around Kenya right now, we still saw fabulous wildlife and some great action by the predators.  And to think it was touch and go to actually get there…

Waiting...

We've been planning to go to the Serengeti again and we're supposed to be flying out tomorrow afternoon to Arusha and driving into the Serengeti on Friday for 4 nights - coming back on Tuesday.  We've been planning for a while, so all excitement at finally being able to get back into the bush for a while.

But unfortunately Dru fell ill with malaria last night.  He's on the treatment and hopefully we've caught it in time so that it isn't too serious.  He's got another appointment with the clinic tomorrow to see if he's okay to travel and of course all depends if he's up to traveling, so for now we just wait and hope that the malaria doesn't get worse.  Fingers crossed!