On Saturday morning we set off from Ndutu Lodge to Serengeti National Park (means endless place), which was about 30 km away. At the park entrance you are able to climb a small hill to look out on the beautiful African Savannah. It honestly is an endless view of grassland and blue sky! Right now the zebras and wildebeests are migrating to Kenya to follow the water sources, so during our stay in the Serengeti we saw literally hundreds of thousands of them slowly making their way North (no exaggeration. Our guide said it was more like millions). The youngest ones are about 3 months old and they are traveling hundreds of miles. These two animals tend to stay together because one has good ears and one has good eyes. This morning we came upon a cheetah crossing the road right in front of our vehicle as we drove along, we saw more lions, and spotted our first leopard in a tree (we have now seen all the "Big 5" animals on our trip). We also have seen numerous families of giraffes, birds, and so many other things. After we checked into our immaculate tented lodge in the middle of the Serengeti (the nicest place we stayed with beautiful beds and bathroom all in a tent), we started our afternoon drive. We saw lots of monkeys and baboons, warthogs, ostriches, vultures, small crocodiles in the river, and then we went to a hippo pool, where we could get out and sit along the river to watch over 75 hippos wallow in the water!
On Sunday we did an all day game drive through the park and saw most of the same animals from the day before but all in new places. This has been a great time of year to be in the Serengeti (after the rainy season, but before the busy safari tourist season). There is still water flowing, flowers blooming in the tall grass, and picturesque scenery. This will change soon as it dries up. However, it does make it a bit more difficult to spot animals walking through the grass, but we have seen so much and we aren't battling a ton of safari vehicles on the road. We always know when there is some good "animal spotting" off in the distance, because there will be a group of safari vehicles gathered. Our guide is great! We call him eagle eyes, because he will spot things far off in the distance or hidden in a tree. I must say the 4 of us tourists have all had really good eyes spotting little things hidden in the rocks and trees, too! We really feel like we are in the "Lion King" because we are hanging out of with all those animals in this beautiful landscape of rocks and the Savannah.
On Monday morning we did our final drive through the Serengeti, which included seeing a group of elephants about 15 yards away, a leopard in a tree with its kill hanging next to it, and more lions. We headed out of the park around noon. Story of the Day: This morning Kate and Randy had arrived to breakfast before us and were sitting at a table, when a baboon unzipped the tent door, jumped onto the table, and grabbed a handful of sugar packets (this is why they give us little locks for our tents - the baboons come in to take things during the day!)
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