August 22 - Serengeti

Today was a full day with two game drives in the western corridor of the Serengeti. The morning drive took us to the Grumeti River, famous for it's many freshwater crocodiles. But along the way we were delayed by an encouter with a newborn Topi which had stumbled into the road. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes old -- the umbilical was still attached and bright red, and it could just barely walk (our guides told us they take 10-15 minutes to learn to run and keep up with Mom). We were pretty worried that the baby would become Hyena chow, because Mom was nowhere to be seen, but there was nothing we could do about it; that's just the way life goes in the wild.

At the river we saw dosens of crocodiles. We even saw one move :p. The crocodiles were large, but some were hiding in the tall grasses of the riverbank, so we had fun competing to spot the most (we topped out at 11). A couple of them look fierce with their mouths open, but it turns they were asleep and that's just how they cool off. We had a real treat when we saw four black and white Colobus monkeys, which our guides told us really only live in that area and tend to be more elusive than they were today. They were beautiful, with shiny black coats, white stripes, and a long black tail with a puffy white end. It was fun to watch them eat and move around the trees.

On our way back to the lodge, we had our eyes peeled searching for the baby Topi, hoping beyond hoe that it hadn't become Hyena chow. Incredibly enough, we saw an adult Topi in the treeline near the road, and baby was right there alongside her! As our cars approached, they trotted away from the road, but we were happy to see that they had been reunited.

We had a nice lunch back at the lodge, and some time to explore the grounds and send a few emails. Yep...satellite internet service deep in the Serengeti.

Our afternoon game drive was all about finding a leopard. One hour forty minutes into the drive, our truck hadn't seen any leopards, but we had seen quite a few elephants, zebras, warthogs, wildebeest, ostrich, buffalo, baboon...the usual but exquisite fare :) Then we heard the radio call from the other driver, and they had found the leopards. We sped along "I-5", the less-bumpy main road of the western Serengeti, until we met the other truck. Then, at 5:41pm (credit to Margaret for writing down times!), our drivers switched and we took off even faster. After 40 more minutes we were at the spot of the leopard sighting, and sure enough a leopard was asleep in a tree branch about 200 meters from the road. Even the bazookas had a hard time getting recognizable pictures. We caught a glimpse of another leopard, long enough to snap off a picture or two, but then it hid from us in a culvert under the road.

So, during the final moments of our final drive, we completed the "big five" animals of safari fame. The term comes from classic hunting safaris (Englishmen with muskets, not assault rifles) and describes the five animals which, if you attack, but don't kill, will without a doubt kill you.

We were maybe just a tad behind schedule after seeing the leopard...so Ndasekoi gave us a really fun, white knuckle, rally-race-winning demonstration of the land cruiser's high-speed dirt road cornering capabilities. The Serengeti rangers are pretty strict about returning to the lodges by nightfall, so we were in a hurry. It was fun to see the animals sort of "heading to bed" along the ride back, and made for a very memorable end to a very memorable week.

Tonight at dinner we had the treat of eating with our guides once again. We learned a little more about their lives and shared some about our own. At one point Ndasekoi was telling us about the way the Maasai hunt lions as retribution for taking the easy kills of Maasai cattle. He was giving a lot of detail about the tactics of hunting. For example, when you are encircling the lioness you have to keep eye contact (stare her down), because if you glance away she will think of you as prey and attack; when you throw your spear, you run immediately behind the person to your right. So Margaret asks him "have you done this?" and he responds with this "yeah, of course!" like it was silly to ask at all -- as if we had asked "Is the sky blue?". We were pretty stunned that this was part of his upbringing as a Maasai warrior.