Today we headed towards northern Serengeti to see what animals we could find there. We had already ticked off most animals from our list of "must see" so this was a chance to watch some of them at a more leisurely pace. We were not disappointed
with the giraffes, zebras, lions and elephants. But on our way back, Richard took a side road that although interesting took us into bush infested with Tsetse flies. We closed all the hatches, sprayed DEET everywhere and fled but we were bitten - through clothing.
One little bugger would not leave so it ended up squashed on the window - it left a big bloody streak!
Hot air balloons
in the early morning air.
Heading north with our camp in the distance.
River bed with marble outcrops
The dusty, bumpy road...
Giraffes at play
We soon came across a herd of giraffes, grazing on the bushes. The herd appeared to be mostly young adult males who were at play bopping each other with their heads.
Zebras
Even the roads through the Serengeti have a Zebra crossing....(minus the flashing lights...of course!)
A zebra crossing (!)
A hyena trotting along beside the road.
The hyena at rest.
An eagle on the lookout.
Typical view of the Serengeti.
A tented camp nestled against a kopje.
Zebras in the distance...
and closer up.
Lions
Further along the road we came across a group of lions snoozing in the shade of a tree. They did not seen to be bothered by our presence. While we were looking at then Richard asked us to look at another tree a little further away. "can you see anything in it?".
"No, well we will drive closer". The shape of a tail was hangin below a branch, the only indication that the tree was full of lions.
Look at that tree...
It has lions nestling in the branches.
Hippos
We stopped at the Retima picnic site for lunch. Beside the carpark was a mud pool full of hippos, on a bend in the Orangi River. While eating our lunch we were pestered by a group of brightly coloured birds - Superb Starlings. We had seen them in many
other places, but they were particularly pesky here. Later, one of them followed us when we looked at the hippos and sat in a tree singing to us. Still didn't feed him...
Not much water here
Baboons playing at being birds.
The picnic stop for lunch.
"Please feed me..."
"I'm very pretty"
"I'm a superb starling"
Hippos wallowing in the mud...
The superb starling singing for his lunch.
Heading back to our camp at the base of the hill
Short video of typical savannah scene as we drove along.
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