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. 

Marabou storks

We had decided to head out for one last drive before leaving the park.  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any cats that wanted to say goodbye :( So after a fruitless drive along the river, we headed further down to check for leopards in trees ;) Even they were scarce though…

Warthog

Eventually, after doing a round along the river, we headed towards the main road towards the Naabi Hill gate. Reaching the main gravel road, we dropped the roof of the safari vehicle – after all, it wasn’t like we were going to see more than gazelle on the way out… how wrong we were…


White-browed coucal

Not 200m from when we’d turned onto the main road, Ali suddenly stopped the car, turned round to us and smiled, saying “I’m going to show you something special”…


Lion cub

He reversed about 50m and there, under a scrubby bush, were 2 lionesses feeding on a fresh kill with 3 lion cubs!


2 lion cubs

Unbelievable! And we’d almost missed it… They were obscured by the branches for the most part, but one of the cubs came out and we spent quite a bit of time with them just watching – with even Ali and Chris getting a couple of photos in! An awesome bonus to end our trip to the Serengeti!

Breakfast

We finally left the lions and headed to the Naabi Hill gate.  We had breakfast there while Ali sorted out the paperwork, and before long were heading back on the long journey to Moshi. 

Hildebrand's starling

Another fabulous trip to one of the most iconic national parks in the world.  We finally arrived back in Moshi in the evening, before spending the night and flying out to Dar the following day.  Again Serengeti delivered, and we can’t wait for the next visit – hopefully soon!!!!