Another day another 5:45am wake up for a game drive. We were ready by 6:25am when our Askari guardian arrived to take us to breakfast. (The Askari in this part of the world are akin to Masai warriors.) We arrived safely ?
After we finished eating our breakfast we were just sitting there finishing our morning cuppa’s when I heard an oh too familiar sound. The staff came singing and dancing from the kitchen with a birthday cake in hand. They danced all through the dining room a few times before stopping at our table and putting a delicious looking chocolate cake in front of me. They lit the candles and then sang happy birthday to me. I blew out the candles and thanked them all for such a surprise and their amazing singing. I cut the cake and Deb and I had small slice each. I then asked our waiter over and asked him to share it with any staff and guests who would like some, he took it away with a big smile.
This is Deb, Greg is out on Safari, so thought I would add some more to the blog.
Bosco was waiting for us at 7am for our game drive. He showed us a photo of his daughter Serina, she is 21/2 and gorgeous. He told us he won’t see her until November, when he goes home for two weeks, I don’t know how long he has already been away from her. She lives with his parents. You could see he misses her, he talks on the phone to her and occasionally over the Internet.
The only animal we saw today that we haven’t before was a Bush Hyrax, a little bit like a possum. We also saw a few new birds. We have started keeping a log of them. Will be interesting to see how many new creatures we see this holiday. There certainly seems to be far more animals/birds in Africa than in Australia. Ours are certainly different to what you find here.
We saw some Hyenas feasting on a kill, there were lots of vultures nearby waiting to clean up the bones. Vultures keep the Bush clean by stripping all meat off the bones. Bosco told us a lot about vultures, was very interesting. I love how so many different animals seem to live mostly in harmony together. It is a wonder to me seeing them all coexist. They have a very complimentary relationship.
From what we had heard we didn’t think we would see many wildebeast or a river crossing, but today we saw tens of thousands of wildebeast, and a tiny river crossing by a few wildebeast. They would go down to the waters edge and look then return back up the bank. This happenened many times, a few made it across, was good to see.
We also managed to get close to 4 lions, two 25 year old lioness, a lion and a 16 year old lioness. That was a treat.
Aling the way we met up with another vehicle from Lemala where we are staying, they started singing happy birthday to Greg ? it goes on.
I got to do a wee on the Serengeti today, no toilets here! They call it marking your territory ?
Not long after that we had to go through some deep water over the road, it was fun going through it, but unfortunately we got a flat tyre. Bosco got it changed in no time, before he had nearly finished a few other vehicles came by and the guides helped him finish it off. We got out of the vehicle to make it easier, Greg was about to shut the door and Bosco said, leave it open, in case a lion comes you can quickly jump back in. We were safe though, no lions here just about 100 zebras, who slowly wandered off. That was a bit of excitement!
We we’re back at Lemala about 1.30pm, we had lunch which was lovely. The food here has been very good. Then we wandered back to our room. We have room two which is nearly the furtherest from the camp. Seems that when we might come across lions or elephants at night we are just about as far as it is possible to be, like Swala our walk is at least 800 Metres! The last place we stayed we were the second closest to the dining room and there were no lions or elephants! All adds to the adventure ?
We relaxed for a few hours, at 4.30pm Greg went out on an Safari with Bosco. I stayed in our tent! We have a plunge pool here and it is quite warm inside the tent, but the pool is very cold, only got in up to my knees. Then I had a shower in our outside shower over looking the beautiful views of the Serengeti. It was good to have the time to do that as our days are so full. I enjoyed the few hours relaxing.
At 6.15pm I wandered down to the bar before it got dark, to meet Greg when he gets back from Safari.
Greg here again. I got back from my game drive at about 7pm, a bit late and well after sunset. I did see 1 new animal, a rock Hyrax, along with elephants, giraffes, topi and many birds. We had seen a grass one earlier. We spent some time driving around where we had seen the leopard on day 1 here, but no one was home. So we drove off to look at the area it had been seen in the afternoon.
That is where the adventure began. Bosco was driving really cautiously through a muddy/soft area when we started to sink in a little then a rock we had just passed over lodged just behind the front axle, we were stuck. It took around 30 mins working with a high lift jack and using reeds to pack the holes under the wheels (on the Serengeti there are very few trees) to get some traction, and Bosco eventually managed to dig the rock out. Who would have thought getting bogged on the Serengeti within 5 minutes of the last know location of a leopard was going to be part of our adventure! I must say, that during all of this Bosco was calm and made sure we were safe first and foremost.
By the time we got free it eas time to go back, Bosco was so apologetic that we hadn’t got to see the leopard again, I assured him it was OK and I had enjoyed the afternoon adventures. Nothing is ever guaranteed on safari.
The first thing I did when we got back, after thanking Bosco, was to find Deb and reassure I was OK. No communication out here has its drawbacks.
We had a lovely dinner. While we sat there, the Camp manager came past our table, apologised for interupting our meal (he seemed concerned)and asked me how my game drive was, I said it was a great adventure. He said good and moved on. I hope Bosco doesn’t get into any trouble for an unavoidable mishap.
We have an all day game drive tomorrow from 7:30am with a picnic lunch, I am sure we will have more opportunities to mark out our “territory” on the Serengeti.
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