August 20th, 2016

Day 142: The Serengeti – Day 2

Our second day in the Serengeti was the quietest day of the week – which just goes to show that we have been so spoiled by so many amazing animal sightings in the past month, that we are getting hard to impress! We did see some small migration activity today, but we have high expectations for tomorrow.

 

Sunrise wake-up in the Serengeti from our wilderness tent

 

Before breakfast, Igor runs behind the tent to check out the eco-friendly electrical & plumbing set-up. Each tent has a small 12v solar panel for lighting (there is a separate charging station in the common area for cameras & phones). The water for the sink and shower are both provided by a hanging bucket! The sink is always full of cold water, but if you want to take a shower, you must request a fresh bucket of hot water when you are ready to go.

 

Gray water from the sink and shower dump out into a small ditch behind the tent. And that’s how you do low-impact luxury in the African wilderness!

Heading out for our second game drive in the Serengeti – driving north towards the Mara River

 

It was a bit of a slow day for us in the Serengeti, as this was our only game drive where we didn’t spot any lions – which shows you how spoiled we are getting! – we pass by a small troop of Olive Baboons, a grizzly old Cape Buffalo, and an adorable male Dik-dik and barely take the time to lift our camera

 

Big birds in the Seregeti – a male ostrich and a vulture

 

An underground spring bubbles to the surface in the middle of the grassland, creating an oasis for zebra and warthogs

 

We start to see evidence of kills in the northern grasslands, where the wildebeest herds are grazing in large numbers. We see several pairs of legs dangling from a tree – sure sign that a leopard dragged a kill up there to eat, safe from the harassment of scavenging lions and hyenas. We spot another half dozen wildebeest carcasses around the plains – many of the adults injure themselves during the river crossing, making themselves easy targets for predators

The northern plains of the Serengeti

 

Picnic lunch under a tree before continuing our journey to the river

 

Once we reach the southern bank of the Mara River around 3PM, we keep an eye out for large herds of wildebeest near the river to see if we can witness a crossing

 

The river crossing is extremely dangerous for the wildebeest as the water is teeming with crocodiles. We counted about seven carcasses rotting in the river – we learned that crocs are not content to kill and eat one wildebeest at a time – they will take out 10-12 during a crossing and leave them in the water so they can come back and have plenty of food for later (in fact, this small croc seems to be enjoying a snack of dead wildebeest butt)

 

After waiting about an hour in the shade of a tree a good 500m away from the river, we get lucky and witness a “mini”-crossing of a group of about 50 wildebeest. Not too shabby, but we all agree that we can do better, and resolve to return the day to see if we can find a bigger herd

 

On our way to our next camp, we see a group of about a dozen vehicles surrounding a bush – must be a cat! Sure enough, when we join the fray, we see a sleepy cheetah

 

Whoa – look at the size of that lens! It’s over half the size of the photographer! As her safari vehicle drives around we check out the company – National Geographic Expeditions – that makes sense. Joseph tells us that NG is one of the few companies that pays for an additional “Off Road” permit which allows them track the animals when they leave the road (although, they are still not supposed to go off road if there are other cars present as other companies may mistakenly follow them)

 

We check-in to our second Serengeti Wilderness Camp (Mara River location) and enjoy another fantastic dinner while we plan the next day’s itinerary with Joseph. Afterwards, we return to our tent with the last glass of wine, and make sure the windows and doors are fully unzipped before going to sleep with a view of the stars