New Year's Eve in the bush

Dec. 31, 2011 - Day 16

This morning I was awoken by the grunting of hippos so loud I ran outside in my underwear to see if they were right outside. I didn’t see anything, but Samson told me later he had heard them tearing the grass by his tent, and he looked out the window in time to see a mamma and baby waddle away.

We’ll be going on our last game drive in about an hour. I have not been so sad to end a vacation since Italy 1998. For me, this is heaven – endless wilderness swarming with abundant wildlife. I haven’t checked Facebook in 16 days and could not care less if I ever see it again.

Today, we started out visiting the lions from yesterday’s ambuscade. No kill, but they had been joined by a young male, probably the one viewed in our camp the night before last. We didn’t stay long as they were most interested in sleeping.

 

 

 

When drinking coffee this morning, we spotted 3 Dik-Diks off the veranda; one was a baby, as if anything could actually BE smaller…

 

 

 

 

 

I had really wanted to see elephants again, but Samson said he didn’t think there were any in the area. I kept thinking about them, though, and lo and behold, we spotted two far off the road amongst the trees. Unfortunately, we were in the Serengeti which does not allow off road travel, but this guy carried the biggest tusks I have seen on the whole trip. Again, you could understand why hunters of yore coveted these things. Samson agreed to take us of road just a bit, though to be caught carries a heavy fine and possible suspension. We never got close enough for the photo I wanted, however I did get ot view them with the field glasses. Spectacular!

We learned that elephants are right of left side dominant like humans, and that is the foot they’ll use to help them knock loose plants, and the tusk on that side will grow bigger. Elephants grow and lose six sets of teeth, and after they lose the last one, they end up starving to death. The high calcium concentration in the volcanic soil nearby contributes to both their large tusks and their long lives, as their teeth last longer.

We also saw a striped hyena, as opposed to the multitudes of spotted hyenas we’ve seen. Samson said he’s only ever seen 3 in all his years of guiding. They live on insects!

We gathered with about 20 other trucks to watch a cheetah on the hunt. Everybody stayed so far back it was hard to distinguish the cat among the grass with the naked eye, but you could see him well with field glasses.

We watched her prowl along after a herd of gazelles, hiding in the grass from the big bucks who would sound the alarm and could conceivably spear the cheetah with their long thin horns. The bucks knew something was up and pranced back and forth pawing the dirt, scampering away, then wandering back.

Eventually, the jig was up and the cheetah rose and strode to a nearby rock as if she were no longer interested in the herd at all. After watching this scene play out for about an hour, we drove on, but we learned from other guests later that the cheetah indeed succeeded in pulling down a young gazelle.

Of course there were other animals, but I can’t remember it all now, being 3am on Jan. 2 in the Kenya airport…

I told Samson at lunch that for our last drive, we wanted to see elephants and giraffes, but he said he didn’t think we’d find those elephants again, and talked about how wide a range elephants had. Also, we hadn’t seen any giraffes in the past two days. Kathryn and I have become very fond of “Twiga” (the Swahili word for giraffes) and we miss them.

Back at our tent, on the patio, I pulled out my telephone and played the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan yell (my ringtone) a couple times, just to get in the mood…

 

We got in the truck, drove out of camp, and BOOM – there was an elephant! No, it wasn’t the one with the giant tusks, but at least it was an elephant and we were able to get close to it. You KNOW it was coming in response to that Tarzan yell, right??? :^D

And what was on the other side of the road? Giraffes – two or three. For the rest of the afternoon, we must have seen 50 giraffes, they were everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

What else did we see on that last drive? We saw 5 or 6 hyena’s bathing in a pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a tree totally covered in vultures – I counted 25 and I couldn’t see the far side of it. We saw jackals, dik-diks, steinbocks. We had to drive by and check on my lions, I kept hoping they would make a kill – but no luck. Some vultures had gathered nearby. Samson said they knew the lions needed to eat within the day so they were getting ready for the leftovers.

 

 

 

We drove down by the lake shore and guess what we saw! A crocodile! Lying totally exposed on a little stone island. What made this so cool is I had wanted to see one more croc since I was never happy with the views we saw of the other 3. I had asked one of the staff about crocs in the lake. She said “I’ve heard there’s one crocodile in the lake, but I’ve never seen it.” Well, we saw it! Samson said he’s been coming here for years and never saw it, and when he told the guides about it, they didn’t believe him!

Another funny sighting – in the back of the truck, I played the Tarzan yell again, and about two minutes later, we spot something under a tree. We make Samson drive back and what is it? A large, male baboon, the first primate we’ve seen since coming here. There aren’t many trees about; this is not baboon or monkey territory. And he’s all alone. Where’s his troop? Of course I know that – like the elephant – he came in answer to the Lord of the Jungle’s cry! ;^)

Down by the lake we watched the hippos make a big show of displeasure as some staff from our lodge siphoned water into a big tanker truck. We saw some jackals here, too. Our lodge is on the hill above us and we can see the veranda from where we’re parked.

 

 

 

 

Across the river, a massive herd of wildebeests are gathering. Samson says it looks like they are about to cross the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about 1000 or so have bunched themselves on the shore, a few dive in and start swimming, but unfortunately, directly across from them is another safari truck and Samson said this probably scared them off cause they turned back to shore.

So – on our last game drive we saw elephants, giraffes, lions, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, Thompson gazelles, grant gazelles, impalas, elands, jackals, hyenas, storks, buzzards, vultures, eagles, and a crocodile! What a day.

We went to the tent and got cleaned up for New Year’s Eve and had a fabulous dinner of ham and turkey with all the trimmings.

Then we went out on the veranda and danced some swing to a tune on my telephone, and then turned in early to get some rest for our long journey tomorrow.

Lions and leopards and cheetahs, oh my!

Dec. 30, 2011 - Day 15

Today was a day of big cat sightings. We were rolling by 7:30. The sky was ominous with the promise of rain. We saw the normal critters, zebras, wildebeest, impalas, gazelles, but we didn’t even stop. We were hunting leopards.

The drivers pass information both by CB radio and as they pass each other in the vehicles. As Samson said, if we didn’t share, you could drive all day and never see anything.

 

We pass a guy who tells Samson about a leopard. They speak in Swahili, but they don’t call the animals by their Swahili name; we know the word for leopard –chui. Samson says they use the ‘guide word’ cause it’s easier. I suspect it’s so if your guest has no chance to know what you’re looking for, that way if you don’t find it, the guest is not disappointed.

And finding anything is a matter of real luck. You can know the approximate territory of a critter, but thousands of circumstances could influence when and where he chooses to be. So communication between the guides is essential.

Also, though this appears a trackless wilderness to we Mzungu, every trail has a name and the guides pass detailed information. One road was called ’16 kilometers from the red stone’, another was called something like – Mahitamtita. And they know exactly what tiny trail that is, and steer you straight to the animals.

Today’s leopard was high in a tree and we parked about 12 yards from him. He was sprawled across a branch, at one point with all 4 legs dangling over the sides. We sat and watched him for about 1.5 hours. That may seem like an insane amount of time to stare at a cat sleeping in a tree, but he was busy the whole time.

It was raining rather heavily by now, so the leopard was busily bathing himself. Plus, he got up and moved around a number of times, and the play of his muscles under that gorgeous coat was spell-binding. Admittedly, I’m a bit of an animal nut, but Kathryn was just as enthralled, not to mention the dozen or so other vehicles parked around the tree.

We had a fabulous spot, but the light was bad and it was raining so I hope the pictures come out OK.

It was easy to look at this gorgeous creature and just want to cuddle it like a house cat. Then, something in the distance would move, and his eyes would focus with a frightening intensity and you had know doubt you were watching a deadly predator.

When we finally left, we got a tip on some cheetahs, and we went tearing down a tiny, muddy track (the three tree road) slipping and sliding. We pass a vehicle stuck in a river crossing. Kathryn and I decide the guys was an idiot to try this spot, a ridiculously steep nose dive into the river. Samson says we can’t NOT help since next time it could be us. I agree with this philosophy, but wonder what the guy in the truck in front of us thought as he drove by without slowing.

Anyway, Samson determines to push the guy out. We think this is insane as we anticipate merely taking his place in this great hole. But Samson is confident and shoves him quite a distance. We get stuck, but Samson manages to back us out. The other dude is still spinning, but he is halfway up the other hill now. Samson gets out and barks directions at him in Swahili and dude manages to get loose.

We continue on our side of the river till we spot a cheetah WAY in the distance on the far side of the river. Truly he is a mere speck. Several vehicles are clustered and the drivers discuss the situation determining there is no way across.

Not Samson. He drives us back to the place where the other guy was stuck. He gets out of the car and looks around. Kathryn and I are like, oh well, we’ll see cheetahs tomorrow. Samson gets back in and says, “I can make it.”

It’s hard to describe how deep this crossing is. The ruts must be more than 2 feet deep, added to the depth of the ravine, and it looks impassable. Kathryn and I are not excited.

“Are you scared?” Samson asks.

“Apprehensive,” I reply.

“No problem,” he says and guns the motor. There is a substantial “THUMP”, but Samson crosses the river without even spinning a tire.

Of the half dozen trucks behind us, only two have the fortitude to brave that crossing.

Now, we begin a search for the cheetahs. The three vehicles together cruise cross country across the veldt. The beasts are nowhere in sight, they must be lying down. This feels like a real hunt as we traverse back and forth across the grasslands seeking sign.

Eventually, another vehicle pulls up fresh from the river crossing. He said from the other side, he saw them walking north. We head out the two of us, driving serpentine style, trying to flush the beasts from the high grass.

Finally we spot them, and pull up next to three cheetahs who are so unconcerned with us we stop a mere six yards fro them.

Yesterday, I told Samson I couldn’t tell the difference between a cheetah and a leopard. Now, having seen them both, the differences are obvious.

 

 

 

The cheetah has longer legs, a smaller face, and is slimmer, less powerful looking. In fact, the cheetah is the weakest of the big cats. Also, the coats look nothing alike, with the cheetah having black dots and the leopard has – well, spots. More like a color surrounded by black. The cheetah is built for speed.

 

 

 

 

Male cheetahs hang out together while the female is solitary. With the leopard, both are solitary once reaching adulthood, which adds to the difficulty in finding them. These are three males and they lay about preening, stretching, and just being beautiful.

That was the main gist of the morning. We saw many awesome birds; eagles, buzzards, storks, etc. but I can’t keep track of them, though I ask the name of each one and Samson diligently tells me info on its feeding habits, etc. which I promptly forget.

We also saw another small antelope, bigger than the dikdik, but smaller than the Thompson’s.

We arrive at our new ‘home’ for lunch. This ‘tented lodge’ is unbelievably luxuriant. I thought Entim camp was decadent! This place has a four posted bed and a marble bathtub, plus an outdoor shower. The main lodge opens onto a large veranda overlooking the lake where hippos and flamingos frolic.

 

 

 

 

The food is good, the beer is free, and we enjoy a brief nap before heading out on the afternoon’s adventures.

We are probably less than a mile from camp when we come across 2 lions. One is lying in the open, the other is half hidden in the grass roughly 30-40 yards away. They are facing each other, which Samson explains is to watch for game in either direction. If cat A sees prey coming, he will alert cat B through body language, who will then be first to attack and vice versa.

We watch them for a while then move on past gathering herds of wildebeest, zebra and impala. These are of interest because they clump in small areas amongst the trees , so you have 50 creatures crammed into a space the size of a living room.

We encounter another pride of 8 lions lying about. Their chief attraction is the maned- male lying flat on his back, belly and balls spread to the heavens. It is a comical sight. The others move about periodically, but this male barely stirs beyond a twitch or two of his toe.

A younger male wanders down from a rocky outcropping above and moves through the crowd greeting each lion with a brief nuzzle. He goes into the shade and collapses on top of a 7 month old cub, and they playfully paw and chew on each other’s ears for a while.

Then about half a dozen wildebeest trot by down by the lakes edge, and everybody is suddenly on alert. Samson says the wildebeest are too far off, but that doesn’t keep the lions from sitting up and eyeing them hungrily.

 We depart this scene to view flamingos and storks down at the lakes edge. There are two types of flamingos, greater and lesser, greater being larger and more white, and lesser being bright pink. The storks occupy the lake by the thousands. In the distance, a troop of giraffes nuzzles the treetops.

Someone calls Samson on the radio and tells of some bat-eared foxes. We head off to find these little critters frolicking in some holes in the middle of a field. How Samson gathered this location – what he used for reference – I’ll never know.






 

These critters are smaller than Chihuahuas with ridiculously large ears, beady black eyes and sharply pointed snouts. The young are smaller than bunnies. They are adorable.

We watch them scurry about, chewing grass and being cute, till the shrill cry of mamma alerts them to a swooping Tawny Eagle and everybody dives into the den.








 

The eagle passed on to where another sat gnawing on the remains of a flamingo. The foxes cautiously peer out. The pups went right back to their play, but mamma never took her eye from the fierce birds of prey.

They were preoccupied though. At the water’s edge one of the mammoth Maribu storks stood devouring another flamingo. One of the eagles swooped over and claimed part of the remains that the stork had abandoned. So all 3 birds were now busily engaged in gorging on pink flamingo.

So ended our afternoon safari. We came back, pausing to photograph some zebras and impalas, then swung past where the two lions had set up their ambuscade. Both lay totally sacked out in the open so we continued home.

We took some beer and bitings out to the veranda and watched the hippos snort and blow. As it got colder, we scooted up to the campfire and exchanged pleasantries with our fellow travelers.

 

Dinner was delicious, lamb and chicken a’la king. We sat with Samson and discussed African politics, scuba diving, and various and sundry thing.

Again, the camp is open to the wild and one must be escorted after dark.

“Last night we had lions,” our guard tells us, pointing his flashlight to a spot about 100 yards from our tent. “A big male; right there.”

No surprise as we have now seen 10 within 2 klicks of our camp.

 

 

The Cradle of Human Evolution

Dec. 29: Day 14

We had another fabulous breakfast. Today, they made our lunch boxes as opposed to yesterday when we made our own. Come to think of it, maybe it the 3 turkey sandwiches I made for myself that led to the switch! :^D

Dinner was included in these two nights and both were more than satisfactory. Again, we had the monkeys on our roof; we must be in their nightly path.

After all the gin and tonics, our bill was only $28 and they threw in a bag of coffee! Alles gut!

We headed back the same way as yesterday, passing the same baboons at the entrance. Today, a heavy mist hung in the air though, and when we arrived at the crater overlook, all one could see was a wall of white. Glad we saw it yesterday.

Our first stop was Olduvai Gorge, site of the famous Leaky finds. This is the so called “cradle of human evolution” where one can trace the rise of hominids from more than 3.6 million years ago.

This place was fascinating and I am sure to do heavy research on the topic. I plan on buying Mary Leaky’s autobiography – Discovering the past.

Here we found the nutcracker skull, a hominid that was almost a gorilla, complete with a ridged skull and a wide jaw. In the same layer of sediment – suggesting co-habitation – was a much more advanced species with an opposable thumb and a brain size that suggests it may have been the species that created the stone tools discovered at the gorge.

In two subsequent layers, two other hominoids were discovered, creating a virtually unbroken chain of human evolution.

But the most amazing thing to me were human footprints, fossilized in the volcanic dust, from 3 upright hominoids dating 3.6 million years ago. The big toe was directly in line with the foot, and the prints are virtually indistinguishable from a modern foot. Did you know the human being is the only creature on earth to have an arch in their foot? This is to support the tremendous pressure of having the entire body supported on only one limb at a time.

The museum featured a cast of the “foot print trail” – the actual site is 45 miles away and has been reburied to preserve it until the government can afford to build a museum around the site and protect the prints from erosion.

They displayed lots of stone tools and extinct animal carcasses, including an elephant-like creature with tusks curving downward out of its lower jaw. Also a mammoth ancestor of the buffalo whose skull and curving horns were about 3 times larger than its modern cousin.

Next, we headed to the Serengeti. Serengeti comes from a Maasai word meaning “land of endless space” and it certainly lives up to the name. It stretches as far as the eye can see in all directions. The savannah makes up 50% of the Serengeti, and yet the animals don’t actually LIVE here. They use it as a crossing ground from the woodlands to the grasslands as dictated by the rains.

For some place that animals don’t abide – the place is crowded with life. Wildebeests and Zebra stretch in vast herds that boggle the imagination. Some 3.5 million wildebeest cross the savannah during the bi-annual migration and I swear I think we saw them all!

It’s hard to describe unless you’ve seen it – the horizon is endless, like being at sea – it’s just flat and goes on forever in all directions. And everywhere you look, as far as you can see – till they become just sand-sized specks in the distance – Wildebeest abound.

We came across more hyenas in one spot than we’ve seen yet. About 5 lay about dozing or sitting up to spy upon the jeeps. Beyond them, another 3 feasted on the carcass of something. Around them, the Thompson gazelles grazed unconcerned, secure in the knowledge that the hyenas were fed and happy. In the distance, another hyena loped along after a young wildebeest.

We stopped for lunch at Naabi hill, the unofficial marker to the “middle Serengeti”.












Here we ate our lunch while a half dozen gerbils raced back and forth between our feet, snatching up crumbs. We took a walk to the top of the rocks and gazed out over the endless grasslands, now strangely empty. We spotted a large black and red lizard, but some kids with sticks chased it off before we got a good look at it.

Color plays an important role in the animal kingdom. Red is bad, and serves as a warning to predators not to eat it. For instance, there is a poisonous plant whose leaves exude a milky substance that will strike a man blind. Insects that eat from its pollen turn red, indicating to birds that they are now toxic. However, said lizard can devour those insects, becoming toxic in turn, and turning red as well, warning the larger birds of prey not to eat him.

The bizarre rock formations that dot this section of the Serengeti like stone islands in the sea of grass were formed by expanding bubbles of molten lava millions of years ago.

After lunch, Samson got a tip on some leopards, and we sped off down kilometers of trail till we spotted a large female sitting on a grassy knoll surveying the countryside.

Just as we approached, an elephant came thudding by, and I captured one of my favorite images of the entire trip.

We were some distance off, but Samson, a guide for 17 years said he’s only been this close 2 times. (I don’t know if you can trust these guides though – later on in the trip we get much closer and he did not seem overly excited.) We watched her for some time, a truly beautiful beast – one could see why their coats were coveted. Then she slunk into the high grass and we followed her path as best we could.

When we lost sight of her, we drove on about half a kilometer and spotted another sleeping in a tree. Samson said he knew this family and this was the male offspring of that female we had just seen, and the boy was not quite a year old. He said there was a brother as well, but we never saw him. This cat never stirred, but we watched him through the field glasses for some time, marveling at his majestic beauty.

We turned back and spotted the mother again, now high in another tree. They are much more heavily muscled than the cheetah.

Now, we headed back to our camp. We stumbled upon 10 elephants close to the road, three of them halfway up a wooded kopie; very picturesque.

 

About half a mile from our camp we encountered a pride of young lions, ages varying from 3 months to 1.5 years, not stirring much and regarding the vehicles with bored disdain.
 

 When we arrived at our camp, the first thing we noticed were the HUGE nests in all the trees. Then, just back of the nearest tent, we saw at least a dozen Maribu storks, huge birds more than 4 feet tall with gargantuan wingspans. In fact, the camp is crawling with birds and we must have seen 8 different species while drinking a beer outside our tent.

This camp site is much more primitive than Entim. It’s more like real camping, although we still have a toilet and shower in the tent, and a sink with running water.

But here, if you want a shower you have to tell them ahead of time and they’ll boil some water and bring it to your tent and fill up a big bucket outside. Then you turn on your shower and the water runs down.

While in the shower, I spotted a palm sized spider scuttle under the toilet, and later we caught a 2 inch long beatle trying to crawl into the door.

This is a mobile camp, which moves periodically with the migration. One of the workers told me it took 4 days to set up the camp.

There’s maybe 20 people in the camp, and we all gathered around the campfire and had drinks and freshly roasted cashews – still hot!

Supper was good and plentiful. They escort you everywhere after dark as there is nothing between us and the animals. Walking back to our tent after supper, our flashlights illuminated a dozen Thompson gazelle just off the trail.

 

Can the lions we viewed earlier be far behind? ;^)

A day in the Ngorongoro Crater

Dec. 28 - Day 13

At the entrance to the Ngorongoro conservation area, a few baboons sat in the road, hoping no doubt from handouts from tourists.

 

While Samson went to get our park permits, I got out and wandered over to where another half dozen were feeding around a large tree. Again, I am so close I could touch them, and when a large female clambers down the tree and leaps to the ground, she practically lands on my foot.

This place is also heavily forested, and again looks like the backdrop of a Tarzan movie. We are driving up the side of a dormant volcano, and the valley to our left is absolutely jungle-like; thick foliage, towering trees, twisting vines.

On the right side, we spot a few holes dug into the mountainside. Samson says they are made by elephants seeking the minerals available in the volcanic soil. He said due to the availability of the minerals, the elephants in the crater live longer than others.

Not much further on, we spot two elephants, half hidden in the thick verdure

After a good 45 minutes, we arrive on the edge of the crater. Holy crap! This was once a volcano whose rim collapsed, creating a crater within that is home to its own eco-system. Kinda like ‘The land that time forgot!’

 

The rim is around 2500 meters high, and the level of the crater is, I think, 800. That’s a deep hole. The view from the top is spectacular. Two lakes are visible, and the entirety of the surrounding walls. The crater is 18 kilometers by 20 kilometers.

 

We are not long on the bottom before a major traffic jam indicates the presence of something exciting. A full 23 Safari vehicles crammed with people have encircled a group of seven lions.

The lions are totally blasé about the trucks, and several actually get up to move into the shade provided by the vehicles. It is relatively comical. In front of one jeep, with two lionesses hogging the shade, a young male walks up and just sits on top of the others, claiming his portion of coolness.

 

Wildebeests and Zebra are here in abundance. The beasts within the crater don’t join in the annual migration, but interestingly enough, during the same time, they DO migrate within the crater. We witness some very cute Zebra behavior as they stand side to side and apparently groom each other.  They also frequently stand head to butt without any of the chewing, and it made me think of the phrase “I’ll watch your back and you watch mine.”

Everywhere you see Thompson gazelles, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, and warthogs. These are so numerous as to become almost ordinary. We also saw jackals, hyenas, and hippos, and a few elephants in the distance. There are no giraffe within the crater.

 

 

 

 

Also saw the Eland, that massive creature that appears to be part cow, part deer. (but did not get a good photo) And actually, warthogs never become ordinary as they are so ridiculously cute, in an ugly sort of way.

 

 

 

 

 

We picnicked near one of the lakes where large hawk-like birds would swoop down and pluck food from people's hands. Also, we saw pelicans here, a whole group of them swimming together with their ludicrously large bills. The lake was teaming with flamingo though we did not get close enough to view them individually, only a long wall of shimmering pink.

 

All day, we were searching for Rhino without success – in fact, Samson asked every driver we passed and no one had seen any. Finally near the end of the day, we spot three! They are quite the distance away, and the pictures will never match the close-ups we lost, but we could see them well with the field glasses; a male, female, and young.

Then Samson said he wanted to drive us through the forest. The crater is mostly one vast plain with a couple of high alkaline lakes, but there was one section with rich forest.

As we neared it, we spotted a family of black-faced monkeys in the field and as I never get tired of viewing primates, I directed Samson to stop. There was a VERY young baby, almost hairless, clinging to his mommy’s belly, and while I tried to get the perfect picture, another vehicle pulled up behind us. This car had a bunch of bananas on the dashboard.

WHAM! A couple monkeys leapt on the hood, grasping for the food, totally baffled by the glass. One gripped the windshield wiper and tried to use the end to dig through the window. No good.

The largest of the 3 assaulting the jeep, a mother with a young clinging to her belly, now vaulted across to our vehicle. We were snapping photos with her face about a foot away when she suddenly crawled onto the roof.

Now we are standing on the back seats of a land rover, our bodies jutting out about waist high through the open roof. The monkey is inches away from dropping into the vehicle. It has crossed away from me to Kathryn’s side.

“Don’t let it in the car,” I hiss. Gamely, Kathryn extends her left forearm as if she bears a shield, her water bottle coming into guard position as she hefts her “sword.”

Samson starts the car and we begin to move, and between all this stimuli the monkey opts to depart.

The funniest part about this little adventure came back at our lodge. Understand there are about 300 vehicles within the crater on any given day, so this seemed like a remarkable coincidence to me. We are sitting on the veranda enjoying our gin and tonics when we hear some people excitedly relating their day’s adventure to some other travelers.

“…and on the car in front of us, this monkey jumped up and walked right up to these people, and they didn’t even move! We were freaking out and they just STOOD there like nothing was happening!”

I looked over and said, “Did you have bananas on your windshield?”

The woman says yes, then looks at me closer and says, “Oh my god was that you???”

We affirmed it was and later even viewed the video their boy Logan shot of the monkey on our truck, who, unbeknownst to us, had paused to poop on our spare tire before clambering to the roof. They have promised to send us a copy.

Here's the video from inside the truck. You can see Kathryn and I through their windshield.

After the monkey incident, we cruised through the forest which is just gorgeous scenery with fabulous trees that just scream “Africa!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as we come out onto the plains again, there in the distance is a cheetah!

Again, it is so far off that undoubtedly our pictures will suck (Cropping does wonders!) but we can see it clearly with field glasses. It’s just sitting there about 200 yards off. We watch it for awhile, marveling at its beauty then it rises and strolls away. We get to watch the play of its muscles underneath its coat as it moves off to about 300 yards then plops down for a nap, virtually vanishing from view.

So, in one spot, we saw 4 of the Big 5, and 6 of the Big 8 – all we needed was a leopard and a giraffe. (No giraffes in the crater.) We have yet to see a leopard, but the Serengeti beckons tomorrow.