Mourning was over in the morning as we drove out into safari country. We had it good - great driver, homemade cookies for snacks, cold pop and beer for lunch, wonderful company. Ngorogoro Crater was first - cape buffalo peering at us from the roadside - rather like a painting David has done, and then zebra and wildebeest and gazelles and warthogs AND 42 lions 4 rhinos, pool full of hippos, hundreds of crown crested cranes, hyena,jackals, and baby wildebeest! it seemed as if every mother had a baby with her. We were in awe. And, there were very few vehicles - we had the lunch spot to ourselves for awhile. Daudi, our driver, said it is due to the ebola scare that there are fewer tourists than usual. It's been great for us.
On to another new experience - Flycatcher's mobile camp. It's a cross between camping and Tarangire permanent tents. The tents are fully enclosed, toilet inside ( some campers would definitely prefer this -:) ) and a shower inside. Everything runs on solar - food is excellent, great staff and the best beds!
And, we were between Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek. So we drove for 5 minutes in the morning to view the lions that roared all night, watched and watched and watched the wildebeast and zebra come to drink from the pool. The whole migration thing was more than I'd ever seen. We kept shaking our heads in wonder at the numbers of animals coming into this area.. So, the wildebeest, zebra and gazelle are in this huge ( 2.3 million - we only saw 1.8 million , i think.) event. Truly a wonder.
We, and 30 other land-rovers, found a BIG leopard in a tree, with a recent kill above it. ( gazelle) we watched for a very long time - marveling at how this animal could carry this other animal up the tree.And we saw more hippos, with new babies - one all pink!
I think you get the idea - it was an amazing safari!
We are winding down - it's gone very fast. Jean's birthday tonight, school for goodbyes tomorrow, hugs for lots of wonderful students and other friends.
We also met with the "starvation kids" more on that soon.
love, mary
On to another new experience - Flycatcher's mobile camp. It's a cross between camping and Tarangire permanent tents. The tents are fully enclosed, toilet inside ( some campers would definitely prefer this -:) ) and a shower inside. Everything runs on solar - food is excellent, great staff and the best beds!
And, we were between Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek. So we drove for 5 minutes in the morning to view the lions that roared all night, watched and watched and watched the wildebeast and zebra come to drink from the pool. The whole migration thing was more than I'd ever seen. We kept shaking our heads in wonder at the numbers of animals coming into this area.. So, the wildebeest, zebra and gazelle are in this huge ( 2.3 million - we only saw 1.8 million , i think.) event. Truly a wonder.
We, and 30 other land-rovers, found a BIG leopard in a tree, with a recent kill above it. ( gazelle) we watched for a very long time - marveling at how this animal could carry this other animal up the tree.And we saw more hippos, with new babies - one all pink!
I think you get the idea - it was an amazing safari!
We are winding down - it's gone very fast. Jean's birthday tonight, school for goodbyes tomorrow, hugs for lots of wonderful students and other friends.
We also met with the "starvation kids" more on that soon.
love, mary