Serengeti Day

Walking out the door in the morning a warthog is walking down the path.  At breakfast Rogers takes us through the kitchen to view a herd of elephants between the dining facility and one of the tents.

By seven o'clock, we've just left the property and already seen everything we saw yesterday with the exception of the lion. We've passed a giraffe on the road.

Until we reach the Mara River, we see the same animals. We pass the tail end of a wildebeest and zebra migration. There are thousands of them!

At one point Cyprian spies a lion in the brush.  How he spied it while driving is a mystery.  It took us many long minutes to find it.  Only when later viewing his photographs did CJ notice one could see both the lion AND a cub in the picture.

Giraffe are plentiful.

 

The migration has reached the river.  When one mob decides to cross things get interesting. We observe a wildebeest get snatched by a croc while his surrounding mates go into a mass panic. Later downriver a bit, another croc is dining on a wildebeest.

 

 

The croc and wildebeest crossing is just downriver from a large gathering of hippos.

Following lunch we find elephant herds, water buck

 

Dinner this evening is under the stars.

 

Serengeti Migration Camp

From our arrival, things do not go well.  There is a very long bridge with steps up and steps down to get to the main lodge.  The main lodge sets at the top of the hill and has a sitting area, sunrise deck viewing area and the bar.  It's where the waiters go to fetch the drinks and not a sit down bar.

Below it is a pool and the dining tent.

Some twenty plus deep steps below is the path leading to the tents. It is only at the time of our departure the manager indicated that a golf cart would have been possible. There were more than 200 steps between Neil's tent and the game drive vehicle and most of it was uphill.

The tent is spacious if not a bit noisy with the flapping of the roof and sides.  By day there is ample  windows and by night it is shut up tight.  By night the animals, particularly the nearby hippos can be heard.

 

 

 

 

We are assigned our personal assistant, Ti, for our stay.  With the exception of the female manager with quite an attitude of self importance, the staff are marvelous. If she paid half as much time propping up her staff and paying attention to detail as she did patting herself on the back, this place would run a lot better.

There are great sunsets.

 

To the Serengeti

The ride begins with a climb across the mountains past the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.  The drive is in dense fog or above the clouds. After exceeding 8100 feet we descend into an initial massive plain still in the Ngorongoro Reserve. Here comes the first giraffe.

 

The ride is nearly eight bouncing and filling rattling hours on unimproved roads and one being rebuilt as we drive. It's a "macina" just like in Argentina!

We had low expectations for today.  Were we ever wrong.  Elephant herds, many new animals, a lion fight and a lion eating a warthog.

Ngorongoro Lodge

Our room for the two evenings while visiting Ngorongoro Crater is at the Ngorongoro Lodge.  It is nested in a forested/jungle valley as has 20 log cabins.

The room is spacious and comfortable and a fireplace in both the living area and the bedroom. Each evening you can request they be lit by the staff.

 

The grounds are well done with many beautiful mature plants. There is an infinity pool and hot tub which we never use. At this location they are not too concerned about game.

 

 

 

Bronwyn and Carol were given a guided tour of the grounds with particular attention paid to the vegetable and herb garden.

The staff were brilliant beginning right at the top with an incredible general manager hailing from India. End to end they were welcoming, freely offered personal assistance, and very enthusiastic particularly when organizing a tradition local dance and song for birthday and anniversary celebrations.

Suffering from Ability to Download

It's likely that the next series of blog postings, already written will come in a batch on arrival in Johannesburg.  Most of them are written; just need to get the pictures into them.  Some simple things like lions fighting, lions eating wildebeest, and our favorite a croc taking a wildebeest.

We currently experiencing Internet service which is slow and incapable of picture download.  Additionally, our favorite company Microsoft appears to have either deleted the "compress pictures" function or hidden it sufficiently so that neither Neil or CJ can find it.

Additionally, Neil and CJ are both using Windows 10 and Office 365 and they behave differently.

Thank you Bill and Paul

Ngoronogoro Crater Part 3

If this is the presentation on day 1 of safari, what will the next two weeks bring.

 

 

 

 

 

We climb out of the crater by the exit-only road and are back at the lodge by two.

Ngoronogoro Crater Part 2

The lodge's boxed breakfast is served up in a relaxing, if not a bit windy setting overlooking a small lake full of hippo.

After breakfast we watch a lion stalk two wildebeest and a hippo, watch a flock of flamingos fly as a backdrop to huge herds of wildebeest and zebra, spot a pair of monkeys, come across a female lion who walks up and lays down to pose for us not 30 feet away and come across two male lions and another specie of monkey.