Africa, Day 13 Ngorongoro to Serengeti 18 July 2018

We woke st 5:45am, another travel day, new adventures.

Today is my 60th birthday and Deb has put so much effort into making it special. Deb gave me a card and then showed me many pictures of many cards waiting at home for me. A special thank you to our eldest grandson and Deb for putting together an amazing video compilation of my birthday celebrations at Mount Lofty House and messages from all our family. When I logged onto the net there were so many messages on social media as well. So unexpected and very much appreciated, I have so many amazing people in my life, family and friends.

During breakfast the serving staff all wished me a happy birthday, especially a fellow “Greg”, he was so delightful.

After we checked out about a dozen staff sang happy birthday to me again and Zoya gave me a card from our travel company. It keeps going on and the day had just started.

We were on the road just after 7am on our way to Lake Manyara Airport.  The drives here are always interesting. School kids, some very young, 5-6, walking up to 7 or 8km to school, bullock carts, and all the locals getting their day started, so much colour and activity.

On the way into every town/village there are speed bumps (or “Sleeping Policemen” as Zoya calls them) to remind you to slow down to 50km/hr, they aren’t big bumps but are very effective.

Fuel prices here are around 2300 Tanzanian Shillings (around $1.30  Aust ), with their wages being about 1/30th to 1/40th of ours it is not surprising not many locals have cars, but then not many have bicycles either!

We arrived at Lake Manyara Airport, a small country airport with a dirt runway, at 7:50am for our 9am flight.  We said good bye to Zoya, he has been a great guide. He gave us his email so we could keep in touch. Asante our new friend.

Our simple 1hr flight to Lemala Kuria Hills in the Serengeti  took a little longer than expected. Instead of the direct 1hr flight we did a bit of a “mail run” , picking up and dropping off people at Seronera Airstrip then into the Tarime Private Airstrip before flying onto the Kogatende Airstrip in the Serengeti National Park at 10:30 1/2hr late, lucky we took off 1/2hr early.

There we met our guide for the next few days, Bosco, a nice young guy. We were sat down at a picnic table with a red table cloth and all the fancy stuff and had morning tea, biscuits and all, before we headed out for a 2hr game drive as we made our way to the lodge. He took us straight to the Mara River and pointed out a large Nile Crocodile basking on a sandbank near the far shore.  From there we headed into the grasslands of the Senegeti. For a long time all we saw were birds, very interesting colourful birds. Then we came across a herd of Zebra on a hill, they looked like they were sleeping.

Bosco then took us for a drive in and around a cluster of large boulders and trees. He was looking for leopard. We came across a big tree next to a large rock with the Caracas of an impala hanging from a branch. It looked a day or 2 old. Then I spotted a leopard stalking around the back lefthand side of the rock. Happy days, our Big Five was complete. But what an amazing experience the next 30 minutes was. We were less than 5m from this amazing animal. We took so many photos, and just stared and watched the leopard do what leopards do when they are relaxing. So many times it eyeballed us, as curious of us as we were of it. Finally after shifting positions a number of times it moved into the privacy of a bush a bit deeper in. We said our goodbyes and moved on. But what a great experience to be so close such a creature.

From there we headed to the “Camp site” to check in and relax for a couple of hours. On the way back we saw a small herd of elephants, it looked like they were going to cross the track just ahead of us, so Bosco drove just the other side and stopped so we could watch what happened next. But no, they stopped and took turns in scratching themselves on a small tree. It was fun to watch.

We eventually made it to our camp around 2pm, checked in, got the safety briefing, had lunch, which was delicous, and then went to our “tent”. It has a king bed, a sitting room, huge bathroom with a nice big bath, an inside and outside shower and our own private plunge pool. This is camping.

At 4pm we were at reception and ready to go for another 2 hr game drive. We didn’t see any new animals (mamals) but did see lots of new birds. Late in the drive we went to check out the leopard again, but when we got there it was safari central, so many safari cars! We counted at least 5 in a  very small area and more were coming. We gave it a pass and spent the rest of the afternoon cruising around the NP. We came across a small herd of wildebeest, but they looked like Gnu to us. As it turns out, they are one and the same animal, and believe it or both are antelopes. So there you go. Zoya told us a funny story about them. He said that they all seem to be saying, “not me, him him”, as the leader of the herd is usually the first to be eaten by something! If you listen closely you can hear them saying it. ?

The sunset was amazing. The Serengeti,  or parts of it, are on fire. They burn back the grasses after the rainy season every year, but the rains were late this year and everything is running late, including the migration. We got some very nice pics, a blood red sun is something we dont see often.

We arrived back at camp after 6:30, we think Bosco may have got into trouble for getting back late.
We headed to the bar for a cleansing drink before dinner.

Dinner was very special, we had a table set up for us in the middle of the area normally used for a fire pit and nightly get together. The wait staff were very attentive and the food very tasty. The end to a perfect 60th in Africa.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, it really does mean a lot to me to have such good friends from every period of my life, some of you go back over 5 decades and more now. To my family, love you all, I wouldn’t be who I am without you all. And Deb, what can I say. Thank you for making this birthday and every other day so special. Love you big time.

Cheers all.