Serengeti Christmas - Day 4 Christmas on the plains

It's rare to see something good on your own, but we were lucky

It was an early start on Christmas day, but we were soon rewarded near the campsite by 4 male lions chilling on a rock watching the sun come up.  We decided to head to where the leopards had been sighted the previous day and were amazed to find the young leopard still there!  He was on a different tree, but only about 30 meters from where we’d seen him in the evening.

Serengeti Christmas - Day 3 A day of spotted cats

Watching us carefully

Since we had gone west the previous day, we decided to head in the opposite direction in the morning.  We were looking for the big pride that we’d seen the first day, so decided to head for Maasai Koppies.  The early morning drive didn’t find them, although we did come across a nice big male lion sitting on the side of the road.  We decided to spend our coffee break with him, and he soon got up and joined his brother, whom we hadn’t even seen hidden in the scrub sleeping. 

Serengeti Christmas - Day 2 Lions & trees

Lion cub in tree

We decided to head straight to Moru Koppies in the morning, because we’d heard that there was a massive herd of wildebeest that were moving through the area chasing the rain.  Because it wasn’t on the plains, we may have better luck photographing them as they’d all be close together.  

Serengeti Christmas - Day 1 Back to the Serengeti

Sunrise in the Serengeti

A few months before Christmas we were trying to decide where to go for the Christmas break.  We weren’t even sure how much leave we would be getting, so bounced around a few places, including Selous,Mikumi, Gombe and Kenya… we didn’t really consider Serengeti because it was the middle of the short rain season, and we’d been there quite a few times before…

Mikumi NP - A long weekend away

Elephants walking in single file

We don't like to waste a long weekend staying in Dar, so even though it was only a couple of weeks before our Serengeti trip, we packed the car and headed out to Mikumi national park, even though Dru had been sick the few days before.  We left a bit later than normal, but luckily the traffic wasn't too bad and we arrived there just at lunch time.

Mikumi NP - Mikumi delivers again

Through the lion's eye

A long weekend in Tanzania, and so we planned to pack up and head off to Mikumi.  So early Saturday morning we left and headed from Dar via Bagamoyo to Mikumi NP.  

Selous GR - Day 4

African skimmer

Our final morning was planned to see if we could catch the hyenas again.  Unfortunately it was not to be and after hanging out and around at the den for a while, we gave up and went to check out what else was around.   

Selous GR - Day 3

Lion and lioness

Again we were up at at the gate by opening time the next morning.  We planned to see if we could find the mating lions, so headed to where we'd seen the pride of males the evening before.  

Selous GR - Day 2

Roadblock!

We were the first in the park the next morning, and with no paperwork to be done other than it being checked, we were straight in for our first full game drive of our trip.  Our plan was to head on the main road straight to Lake Manze to catch the lions with their buffalo kill.  

Selous GR - Day 1

Rufiji river

We arrived at Selous around lunchtime, and had planned to spend the day relaxing and then head to the park first thing in the morning.  The national parks (of which Selous isn’t a member) don’t allow multiple entries during your 24 hour permit, so if we went in the afternoon, we’d still have to pay again for the next morning.