Day 5.
The night was pretty interesting, got up to relieve myself at midnight, and heard a guttural laugh less than 20 metres away when I was walking back to the tent, and it was a hyena
! They took our rubbish bin for a walk too and had to clean up the mess in the morning. Must have been the chicken
. Got up for a quick breakfast at 6am, and then headed off for a game drive across the plains before dusk.
African Sunrise.
Gazelle in the warm early morning light.
African Elephants, and if you look behind the tree...
...you can see the baby elephant
.
A couple of Malibu Storks and a Baboon sharing a tree.
A trio of Impala's having a munch.
A Lioness checking out some potential brunch.
Sometimes you just have to bend down
.
We headed back to the campsite at about 11am, where the cook had made lunch, bacon, cooked cabbage, fried potato, pancakes and fresh pineapple. After a bit of a nap in the shade we then headed out in the truck again at 3pm to do some animal spotting.
Female Ostrich.
A Hyena and a Jackal picking up the scent of...
...a gazelle carcass freshly slaughtered by a coalition of Cheetah's.
The Hyena jumping ahead of the queue over the vultures to get his bite of the gazelle.
Apart from a bit of hissing, the Cheetah's are no match for the hungry Hyena, and decide to disperse.
The Hyena and Jackal share their ill-gotten gains.
The Cheetah's head across the plains into the sunset, looking for another feed.
We got back to the campsite at 6:30pm for dinner, Beefstew, mashed spuds and vege's. After dinner we were around the campfire, when someone shrieked. A big hyena went galloping 10 meters from the tents and into the night, quite a fright
!
Day 6.
Got up at 6am, packed up the tents and had cooked breakfast, then headed off to the southern part of the Serengeti.
Red-billed Hornbill.
White-Crowned Shrike.
Flying leopard
.
And another leopard just hanging out.
African (Cape) Buffalo.
Nom, nom
.
Hippo off for a walk in the long grass.
A croc keeping an eye on lunch.
Smiling back
.
A couple of Hippo's (and friends
) passing each other in the scrub.
Lone Bull.
Mum & Dad on a kopje.
While the kids have a snooze.
One of the cubs having a strerch.
And a close up of Dad.
We then drove further south over bumpy, dirt roads, reaching the southern exit of the park at 12:30pm and stopped for lunch.
Group photo as we exit the Serengeti
.
We then drove to the Ngorongoro crater, over very bumpy, corrugated dirt roads. We even managed to burst a tyre on the truck and had to park up and swap it for the spare.
We also saw some Maasai teenage boys who dressed up in ceremonial clothes after having been circumcised.
Got to the rim of the crater and stopped to check out the view before carrying into the campsite, arriving at 5:30pm. The crater is actually a caldera, formed millions of years ago when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself.
The camp site was at 1900 metres so got cold pretty quickly when the sun went down. It is pretty intimate with the wildlife too, there were Zebras feeding on the grass between the tents when we arrived
! After dinner of chicken and pasta around the camp fire, had an early night to get ready for the big game drive in the crater tomorrow.