Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 3

Heading towards us...

A quick check on the leopard with the kill in the morning (he still hadn’t moved) before seeing what else was around. 

Lion on the veld

We came across 4 lions in the veld, and after some clever anticipation and moving the car around, we had all 4 lionesses heading straight for our car, while the other cars scrabbled behind us to get a good look. 

Giraffe on the plains

Heading to where we’d seen what was left of a buffalo carcass the day before, we were surprised to find a few lions still feeding on it, with some lion cubs hiding in the grass.

Lionesses with their cubs

At lunchtime we spent some time at the visitor’s centre photographing the birds after double checking that our temporary fix on the car was still holding. 

Black-necked weaver

 After the mechanic borrowed our own jack and wheel spanner to undo the wheel, he declared that it would hold so we got the wheel back on, and went to pay for another couple of days camping.  We’d been unsure of the car, but if Kili was okay, we’d stay a bit longer ;)

Slender mongoose slinking around the visitor's centre

It was back to the buffalo carcass for the afternoon, and we were entertained for a while with the jackals trying to chase off the vultures, and one of the lions chasing off the jackals, with a hyena a little distance away – quite a busy carcass! 

Spotted hyena

We had another look at the leopard with the kill – he was nowhere to be seen – but he’d been eating from the kill, so maybe we’d missed our chance catching him…

Finally, patience pays off!

But the patience gods were smiling down on us, and we arrived at the tree on our way back to camp when the leopard appeared, seemed to wait for us to get into position before climbing up the tree, posed for us a moment before climbing up to feed on his kill. 

The carcass was hidden in the branches so we couldn’t get any good photos, but it was awesome to finally get rewarded after our 5 hour wait a couple of days ago!

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