Safari adventures

Well we should have gone on safari on Sunday, but when we got there, they had a 4Wdrive minibus and 6 people, not a nice comfy toyota landcruiser and 4 people as originally agreed, so we refused to get on board. That was at 9am. At 11am we gave up trying to sort it out and went home, leaving 4 other tourists still sat in the minibus ( and no doubt very annoyed). We saw them in the serengetti two days later and their minibus didn't look too comfortable, but at least they still got there.

So we left on Monday. As the safari company wanted to keep us sweet they ended up sending us on our own private safari in a nice landcruiser for no extra cost. All worked out very well for us. Our guide and cook spolit us rotten.

Had three days driving around the serengeti and one in the Ngorongoro crater and saw, lions (thanks to eagle eye Vicky) two leopards, a cheetah, which refused to move from under the tree, elephants (about 50 in one herd which was amazing), rhino, huge crocodile, wart hogs, three baby leopards, hyena, hippo, hyena eating hippo, zebra, zebra chasing hyena away, buffalo, wilderbeast, vultures, maribou stalk and a partridge in a pear tree.

We also saw a lioness which was quite happily hiding from the sun in a tree. Had probably been there a good few hours and would have remained there most of the day until things got a bit cooler. The safari guides were certainly pleased with the sighting. The way things work in the Serengeti is that one of the guides make a sighting of one of the 'Big 5' and word spreads around the park so all the other guides race over in their vehicles so that their guests get to see the sight too. The guides probably thought this was a safe viewing for the rest of the day. That was until the lioness sensed the presence of an alpha male in the vicinity (phil). This alpha male had already several times marked its territory in the park several times and the lioness must have caught his scent. That may have encouraged it to move by itself however, when alpha male decided to climb on to the top of the 4wd in a position higher than the lioness that was too much for the poor creature. It acknowledged it's inferior status and sloped off out of it's tree scared off by alpha male. Still, not many wives can say their husband scared off a lion!

Heard hyena in the night, which made midnight p trips a little more interesting. thankfully we didn't see them, or any eyes reflecting the torch light back in the darkness.

It was also interesting to see the Masaii tribes in the ngoro crater. The Masaii are a tribe who refuse to give up their traditional way of life which involves leading their cattle to grassy plains and moving their homes accordingly. They have been given special permission to remain in ngoro as they don't threaten the animals there. So, amongst the ngoro there are these tribes who wander around with their cattle. They create a very striking image. They dress in red cloaks (to look like fire to scare off big predators) and the woman wear lots of jewelerry (the older they are the more jewelerry they wear). The men and woman tend to be tall and both shave their heads. All in all, the ngora ia a visually stunning place.