Serengeti Sightings

We started the day with an early morning game drive then went back to our campsite for lunch and a few hours of rest in the shade before heading back into the park for another game drive later in the afternoon. The main difference that I noticed between the Serengeti and Masai Mara was that the Masai Mara had more herds of grazing animals (and therefore seemed really full) whereas the Serengeti seemed emptier, but we got to see lots of cats and elephants!

The highlight of the day was seeing a cheetah chase down and capture a gazelle! It was quite a ways away from our vehicle so I couldn't see all the gory details, only a cloud of dust as he made the kill, but it was amazing to see him sprint across the hill in front of us (they run at 120 km/hour). It's one thing to know they go fast and to see it on TV, but to see it in real life was awesome!

We saw some more lions along the side of the road (causing a massive traffic jam), a few leopards sleeping in trees, a serval (another type of cat), and lots of elephants, including a baby.

We had a fire that evening, and it was fun to sit around, telling riddles ... especially when someone tells the riddle and then can't remember the answer! Unfortunately, I didn't feel well that night (why here?), so had to wake up my tent-mate and collect our group leader to walk with us to the bathroom - it was only 25 m from the tents, but we were glad we took him with us. Between us and the bathrooms, we met a large hyena - the top of his head was probably the height of my chest and he was big! (I never realized how big and scary looking they are until then.) We shone our lights in his face and our group leader threw some stones at him, and off he ran.