Friday, October 10, 2014 - Serengeti - Day 16

Slept generally well, but there were some wonderful sounds during the night.  The hippo roaring, birds, and other animals.  The hyrax were running on the top of our tented room.  They are a cross between a rat and a beaver with no tail.  They travel in large groups and don’t seem to mind people.  They are all over the camp.

These hyrax were busy running on the tent roof during the night.

The moon setting in the west as the sun rises over the Serengeti

Today is our last full safari day.  Today our mission is to see “the migration” crossing the river with the crocodiles.  Godson was doing some research to see if we can see this close by or if we have to travel north to the Kenyan border to the Mara River.

We got up at 6:30, had breakfast at 7 and met Godson at 7:30.  I asked Godson if we could extend the safari by a day and stay here at Migration Camp.  He left word at the office to see what is possible and we’ll find out this afternoon.

We headed north generally.  We saw fewer animals for the most part as they have already gone south as a part of the migration.  So we are seeing the stragglers.   A few large groups of wildebeests, some large groups of elephants, and large groups of giraffe.  The elephants have done a number on the trees in the area – stripping off the bark and knocking down many of the trees.

Two more lines of wildebeest roaming across the plains - not as many as the other day but a lot

A tortoise in the Serengeti

Beautiful vistas of the plains as we traveled north

A warthog mom and her piglets - we called them "wartlets"!

Impala grazing and running - they are so graceful when they jump

A topi resting on the plains

Topi and impala

A vulture waiting for a meal - they clean the carcasses

A zebra carcass left on the plains

 

 We saw topi again and waterbuck which we hadn’t seen before.  We looked in the same area where the cheetah was seen yesterday but she wasn’t there

A waterbuck - a new animal added to our sighting list

A wildebeest that had most likely been killed the night before

Beautiful plains with wildebeest grazing near the Kenyan border

I took the back seat with my feet up all day - feeling a bit better

We drove around on very bumpy roads and stopped for lunch under a tree in the shade by a stream.  The Migration Camp had done a beautiful job with tablecloth and platters of food – potato salad, cucumbers, chicken legs, a beef pasta dish, with rolls and quiche.  Mango juice was provided and water. It was delicious. 

It was very windy out during the morning and lunch but this settled down as the afternoon came.  We drove around and I sat in the back most of the time with my feet elevated as my feet and legs are still somewhat swollen.  The flies that congregated in the back of the vehicle was a real nuisance.  I must have killed a dozen but they kept coming.

As we drove back, Tim was standing up in the vehicle spotting.  No leopards and no cheetahs today.  But then Godson spotted a lioness with a fresh kill – a baby warthog.  We was walking slowly back to the hills, most likely to share it with her cubs.  We watched her for a while until she disappeared into the hills.

The lioness with her wartlet kill - slowly walking back to the pride with her afternoon kill

A huge herd of elephant stripping back and branches from the trees

We got back to camp.  Godson found out that while our flights could be changed for a fee, there was considerable cost to change our itinerary so we opted to stay with the original itinerary and return to Arusha tomorrow.

We showered, took a nap and went to “Sundowner” on the upper deck again.  A fire was burning in the fire pit.  Lauren, who manages the property with her husband Ryan, left us a bottle of champagne in our room which we had.  We enjoyed the beautiful African sunset over the Serengeti.

A bottle of champagne from Migration Lodge to celebrate our wedding this year!  Nice!

Our seating area with the champagne chilling and a bottle of sherry

Afternoon walk around our deck at our tent with our champagne - FUN!

Our solar water heater

The sun is going . . .

going . . .

Gone - Beautiful colors in the sky over the Serengeti

One last panorama of the Serengeti at sunset - so beautiful - words can't describe.

Emanuel served us dinner outside on the lawn tonight – it was very still and beautiful.  There weren’t too many stars in the sky as the full moon was last night.  We could see the milky-way last night a bit but not tonight.  Dinner was great.  We talked to Lauren a bit at the lodge and then were escorted back to our room by one of the security guards.  Guests are forbidden to roam around on the property when it is dark.  We were glad to have the security guard escort us.

We had a glass of sherry in our room as a nightcap and then went to bed.  What sounds await us tonight in Migration Camp?  This is an absolutely beautiful, hospitable, and very memorable property in the heart of the Serengeti.  We may have to return here one day.