July 2, 2023 - Serengeti National Park

During the night we could hear animals outside our tent - a couple sounded like the hyrax and lions in the distance. We did NOT go outside to investigate, but it is still EXCITING! This mornning's game drive started at 7:30, just after breakfast. It was sunny, but a bit chilly - especially when you are driving with the top of the vehicle open. Serengeti National Park is the third largest in Tanzania with 14,600 square kilometers. We were out viewing animals until almost 6pm! Leaving our camp, we spotted a spitting black cobra on the road. It had its hood up but I wasn't able to get a shot.

Most of the roads we traveled on are pretty rough but the scenery is amazing. By the end of the day we all felt like we were beaten up!


Candleabra tree below
There were plenty of birds on our drive today. It's hard to see but this is a weaver bird nest with a bird in it.

Egyptian geese

One of my favorites - the lilac breasted roller.
Love birds
Yellow Weaver

You can see how tiny the dik-diks are - only about 18 inches tall.

The highlights of today included seeing hartbeest, elephants, hippos, cheetahs, leopards and lions! Lots and lots of lions!

The hartbeest were with the Thompson gazelles.

We also spotted lots of elephants, hippos, and even a couple jackals!


Giraffes
Check out this guy's tongue!
Hippos, hippos, hippos!



Hyena

Two silver backed jackals
Warthogs - they have the longest manes!

We saw lots of lions today. It was hard not to stay and watch each group, but there was lots of territory to cover.






We even spotted a couple cheetahs today which is not easy! See how well it blends into the grass!

Our first leopard encounter was a bummer! There were lots of vehicles around the tree and we got there in time to see it quickly jump down from the tree and into the bush, never to be spotted again!

Near the end of the day we had the BONUS of leopard sightings! This guy was up in the tree sleeping. We watched and watched and he finally turned a little. Alledin moved our vehicle into a better position and we were able to watch as the leopard got up and climbed down. Once he was down we saw the female in the grass below!


Male and female! She was already in the bush.
I managed to get a video link uploaded so you can check it out here:
https://youtu.be/L6wpcCIicQw This was a great way to end our game drive!

Just when we didn't think things could get better, we got back to camp and had a visitor! Tobey looked out the screen and noticed this giraffe behind the tent. A few minutes later, it was in front of the tent, chewing on the trees! The picture of me is from our tent; the picture of Tobey is looking back at the giraffe.

Tomorrow morning we have another game drive, so that's it for today!