DAY 2:

Serengeti shall not die.

Today full day was to be spent in Serengeti for game sightings. We started at 6:00 am to see animals after their night activities. As the temperatures are still pleasant in early mornings, it is easy to sight them without them receding into deeper grasslands where no mud paths are present.

After about 10 minutes of driving from the lodge we saw a crocodile lying dead still in a stream. It seemed all alone and we tried locating the others but could not find. At all times we were straining our eyes hard to look for another sighting of carnivores. We were just being greedy to sight it every time we went driving around.

We were now driving towards a hippo pool and on way we could see herbivore herds and birds with Topias being a new one. Upon reaching the hippo pool we saw about 50 hippos lying in the water. It was another dream sight to see them in large numbers. We also saw a couple of large crocodiles far away for us to be safe. We spent some time there looking at the red colored water and Ox pecker bird feeding on their bodies.

We headed back to the lodge for a quick breakfast and shower before heading in the opposite grassland direction this time. Our plan was to get lucky to see the Wildbeast migration in part. Wildbeast herds from different parts of West Tanzania move towards the eastern side before crossing the Grumeti River and heading into Maasai Mara via Serengeti Park.

As the sun was rising, the day was getting hot and our chances of seeing the games were reducing. We saw many Ostrich both male and female feeding on road side dried grasslands. Gray Ostrich is a female and black one is a male which attracts the female during the mating season. Thompson and grant gazelles were also seen near the hippo pool and also along the drive with zebras grazing on grass. From a distance we saw a big heard of Wildbeast casually walking towards our way. We stopped at a distance from them and waited for them to cross the road. They started hesitating to come near our vehicle. One more vehicle had come but did not stop and drove slowly towards them trying to get a closer view. The animals went berserk and started running with full speed. That was the moment I had only seen on Nat Geo and Discovery channel. When the Wildbeast migrate they are already pregnant and deliver their babies once they are back in Serengeti grasslands.

The migration is done by Wildbeast and zebras both combined. This is because Wildbeast have good sniffing senses and zebras have good eyesight along with memory to make them all return back to the starting place in Serengeti.
We were back to the lodge by 1:00 pm and head out again at 4:00 pm when the temperature lowers down with animals coming out again in open areas.

Afternoon rest

The afternoon break was good for us to empty our camera cards, recharge the batteries and relax a while. It is not much tiring as all throughout the game driving one can just sit or stand watching the animals around. The roof opening up for 360 degree view is the best thing possible for safari vehicle in this region. Within 45 minutes of our evening game drive, we spotted another leopard sitting silently on a tree. Any Big Five member sighting information spreads like wild fire and many safari vehicle head towards it. It could be by the meaning of different signals which are exchanged by drivers when crossing each other. This time again the leopard was not willing to come down and we waited for quite a while with no luck. We got around the leopard for a better view but just could not make it come down the tree and give us a closer look. We were still happy with second sighting in almost 24hours.

We went ahead with the drive sighting a lion cub at 6:05 pm sitting just next to the road. It was right next to our vehicle and I could not still see it. Only after a careful observation and sighting guidance from the guide, I was able to spot it. It seemed like a cub but once it yawned and we saw the canines, we were quick to realize that it was a grown up one of about 5years. It was sitting behind a rock and giving us good photographic poses. Both of us were watching each other’s activities. We spent a lot of time there with just one more vehicle. There was no sound except by the lion and shutter click from our cameras.

The sun was going down and we could see some tree trunk with no leaves on it. It was being uprooted by a group of wild african elephants. There were around 10 big tusk elephants and the evening sunlight falling on them was adding to their beauty. We watched the elephants play and train their young ones for life. [fact]An elephant takes 22 months to deliver a baby.[/fact] A few more sightings of zebra and Wildbeast were seen before we were brought back to our lodge by 6:30 pm.

Our evening routine in all parks used to be to empty the memory cards and put on batteries for recharging before heading out around lodge to explore the amazing landscape views. But in this lodge it was risky to go around much and they had created a viewing platform which was the top most position in the entire lodge. We could see many miles distance from this place.
A quick dinner and off I retired to bed before preparing for another half day in Serengeti before heading to Ngorongoro crater.

The night was again encountered with hippopotamus but a little late this time at around 3:45 am. We watched the animal activities for a while again and went off to bed to get ready by 7:30 am.

Swahili tutorial

1. Elephant : Tembo
2. Gazelle : Paa
3. Hippopotamus : Kiboko
4. Crocodile : Mamba