Jun 26, 2012 | Written by Patricia Murphy

Day 18: Serengeti

I’m starting this blog post at a serious disadvantage. Although I’ve backdated the post so it says June 26, which really was our 4^th day of safari, I’m actually writing this post on August 8—roughly 40 days after the experience. And here’s what I have to go on. My notes read a little bit like a Donald Rumsfeld press conference:

Sun grouse doesn’t like the white man
Vo houses mating pair
Ruppels long tailed starling
White crowned shrike
5 elephants grumbling 1 under 1 year old
Thomsons gazelles
Hippo pool
Lunch
Boys and photograph
5 cheetahs
Leopard in tree

So, let me try to piece this one together. We had breakfast in the dining room and then headed towards the trucks. I wasn’t super enthused to get back in that thing because the day before had been such a long one. But in we went, and soon we were out on the road headed towards some of the main Serengeti viewing areas.

The morning light was leaning through the trees and we saw some great packs of zebras with wildebeests, and lots and lots of birds. Kapanya is a talented ornithologist and it was wonderful having him name the birds and tell us about their behaviors. As you can see by my notes, an ornithologist I am not, and though I took a lot of pics, I gave up trying to remember which bird was which.

Soon we happened upon a group of 5 elephants with the cutest little baby you’ve ever seen. I can’t remember what their grumbling sounded like, but I do remember Kapanya telling us that it’s part of how solve conflicts over food.

Next we stopped in the middle of a huge pack of Thomson’s Gazelles. Their coats looked so pretty and shiny in the morning sunlight. Kapanya explained there was one male for about 50 females in the pack we were watching. He said the male rules for about 2 weeks before another male takes over.

We drove through some remote areas until we came to the hippo pool. I have never smelled anything so horrible. Don’t be fooled by the board games. Those hippos stink! And the way they manage conflict is to lift their tails, poo, and spread it throughout the pool. I was tired and ready for lunch.

We ate a box lunch in the shade and as we were preparing to leave, a bus full of school children pulled up. I was sitting next to the truck when a group of boys ran towards me. I could not understand what they were saying. They started speaking in Swahili to our driver Godfrey, who is a stern and serious man. He seemed to shout at them and I thought he was scaring them away, but then Godfrey brought me to the front of the truck and asked me to pose for pictures with each of the boys. I am not sure why we did this, but I am pretty certain the boys thought I was freakier than the hippos.

Right. So next we did another rushing towards something that our guides seemed to understand but we didn’t. The rest of us shrugged at each other, looking out the window as it started to rain. Finally we saw what the fuss was about. A momma cheetah and her 4 cubs were eating a gazelle under a tree. We watched them devour what was left of it, then they started cleaning each other.

After about 15-20 minutes of that, momma spotted another lone gazelle and started the process of stalking it. This might have been one of the most exciting parts of the trip—watching the 5 big cats slinking through the grass towards the lone gazelle. Soon mom took off in a sprint, but the attempt was a little half-hearted since her belly was already full. Still, what a thing to see!

Again, at this point I was tired of being in the truck and thought we might be headed back to the hotel. It was raining again and I was afraid of getting stuck. But we had another jolt of excitement as the radio went nutty. Someone wanted us to see something STAT. We rushed toward something at first along empty roads, but soon we saw about 20-30 trucks and knew it must be good.

And it was. Our second big cat in a tree, this time a leopard. We could not get as close because there were so many trucks around, but we did get a few good pics.

And then we headed back to the hotel, ate a late dinner and crashed into bed.

Zebra mamma and baby in the morning light.

Look at the little one, less then a year old.

Lovely fur.

We were told that hyenas are super mean.

The sausages can be fermented and made into a potent liquor.

This is a beautiful eagle.

I’m not a huge fan of the hippo.

We saw a whole lot of hippos.

To mark their territory, they poop and use their tails to distribute the nastiness. It was not attractive.

We watched a momma cheetah and her 4 sons eat a gazelle, then stalk another.

Time for a bath.

Here she is hunting.

My, your neck is long.

So these 4 giraffes walk into a bar.

We saw a leopard in a tree to match our cheetah in a tree.