Ian's Tanzania Blog: Serengeti Plains

Serengeti Safari April 3

Up early we looked over the belcony and saw this little creature .. the dik dik a member of the antelope family and size of maybe a baby lamb. After a quick breakfast we left at 8:30 into the Serengeti. Easy drive down onto the plain from our Serengeti Sopa Lodge hut style hotel.

Arrived at the hippo pool about 10 am. .. a pool that Nicholous indicated was as good as hippo watching gets. The rains are just coming (it is thundering and lightning outside as I write this) so about 50 of the 3 ton beasts where in a relatively small pool… 2 crocks lazing by waters edge. I have not smelled anything so nasty. At Mikumi I thought we were told the hippos leave in the evening to graze and defecate once out to the pool. No way that is true… whew!!!

The landscape is absolutely beautiful. The Serengeti is 800,000 square kilometers and extends through the top half of Tanzania and into

Kenya

safaris hold some risk these days given Somolia bad guys.

We had a great day … super even from our guides perspectives. We saw over a dozen lions including females with cubs laying beside a bush to take advantage of the shade. What amazes me both yesterday and today is the volcanic rocks that seem to just lift out of the Serengeti (“endless plain”) where the king of the beasts love to hang out. Honestly it is just like the scene in the lion king.

I managed to spot a leopard on a termite hill off in the distance … which was the second for the trip as Nicholus had spotted one up a tree on day 1. They typically kill their prey then take it up in a tree to eat ... less hassles/competition that way. Later in the day we met the “technician”. Here is this adult male … with 9 safari vehicles in tow waltzing down the safari trail. Vehicles would stop then jockey again with the mechanic actually going under the vehicles … seeming unfazed… but to escape the activity and it seemed to me to tick off the photographers in the group. This all lasted for 15 minutes or so … before he tired and headed out into the savanna.

We had lunch on a rise and given the noon hour heat and nice breeze sat under the shade of our canope for great packed lunch.

We visited an interpretive centre and had a 30 minute guided walk … where the migration of over 1.5 million wildebeest, 1million zebra, followed by hyena’s and other scavengers follow. The path follows a circle around the outside of the country from South to West to North and then East following the rains. This is the time they form up and head West then North … the rains are late so this year is a bit odd … who knows perhaps we will see this happening tomorrow … bit of a hope I suspect.

We headed back to the lodge feeling great about a great viewing day by the guides standards. Of course seeing animals around every bend.

Shaun and I sat out on our balcony, had a Bundaberg, looked out for miles across the serengeti, talked about what we had seen, and watched the start to set.