Sri Lanka - July 2014

Fighting elephants

We headed to Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks in July, to see friends and family. This time we didn't do the trip around the country like the previous year, spending quite a bit of time in Colombo, but we did take some time out to go check out the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, the 2nd capital of Sri Lanka.  We also checked one of the National parks nearby, called Minneriya, which is home to some nice herds of elephants.  This post is just a few photos of the elephants and birds we saw in the area.

Mikumi NP: The lions of the village

After missing our planned trip over Easter thanks to malaria, we were itching to get out to the bush again, so we decided to make use of the May day holiday and make it a long weekend.  Since it would only be 4 days, the only real viable option would be Mikumi. 

Mikumi NP: Mikumi, mud & malaria

Road block

A long weekend, and a quick trip to Mikumi.  We'd started to get cabin fever with the lack of long weekends, not having been to the bush since January.  So we were quite happy that there were a few coming up in April to get our fix of the bush.

Mikumi NP - 1st trip of the new year

Three days after returning from a 9 day camping trip to the Serengeti over Christmas, we were packing up again for Mikumi over the New Years Eve long weekend. Although we were ready to camp, the combination of 7 days camping the week before and the Mikumi camp site, which can get crowded and have dysfunctional toilets, we were hoping to get in to our favorite rest house.

Serengeti Christmas - Day 7 Mkomazi NP

Baglafecht weaver in Karatu

After a good evening meal and just as good a sleep, I woke up a lot earlier than Dru and spent the early morning birding while he slept.  The birding wasn’t bad but it was really the people that were more entertaining.  

Serengeti Christmas - Day 6 A final surprise

Cheetah and cubs

Because we had come into the Serengeti only after lunch, we knew that we would have plenty of time to have a morning game drive before heading out to the gate.  We decided to use the time to take the long way round to the gate, more or less the same way we had come in.  That way we got a nice game drive, and also avoided most of the badly corrugated road from Seronera to Naabi Hill.  

Serengeti Christmas - Day 5 Spending time with lions

The pride on the Serengeti plains

Our last full day in the Serengeti, and we were determined to find the lions from the previous day.  Stopping only to get a few shots of the Serengeti sunrise, we headed straight to where we’d seen the lions the previous evening.  Of course, they had disappeared, so we slowly started driving in each direction to try and pick up their tracks.  We did eventually find spoor, but they weren’t nearby.  

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.