We came across a
kaleidoscope of giraffe, eating in the trees.
There were 11 of them. They were
curious about us. Then we saw a large
elephant eating tree branches and breaking them apart to eat. He then came to a watering hole and drank
half of the water in the small pool.
During this time he spewed from his penis and Godson told us that this
meant he hasn’t mated in quite a while and had high testosterone, so this was
semen that he was leaking. Wow. There was a lot of semen!
This elephant was breaking tree branches, then drank half of the water in this hole.
Don't read the rest of this if you get grossed out easily! Notice he's "dripping" from his private parts!Godson told us that is semen as he hasn't mated in a while and he has too much testerone.
Can't imagine having that problem!!!!
We drove through the bush and saw a kaleidoscope of giraffe, and a topi, a new animal to us. We saw a troop of vervet monkeys. And we saw some secretary birds. We came across some hyenas in their den and one was soaking in a small water pool. One was nursing her young. We went to an area with water and palm trees and saw a raft of hippopotamus soaking in the water. Some of the males were fighting.
A kaleidoscope of giraffe eating trees - day and night!
A topi grazing
We traveled on dirt roads like this through the Serengeti - no pavement at all
A hyena cooling off in a mud puddle
We found the hyena's den - several of them in a hole that they call "home"
A hyena nursing a very large baby!!!! We drove right up to her and they didn't move!
The hippos in the water escaping the hot sun
More hippos resting in the water - they can say under water about 5 minutes
The acacia trees throughout the Serengeti were stunning
Vervet monkeys
Tim's usual pose - spotting from the open roof in our safari vehicle
Then the most spectacular thing of the trip occurred. Godson took us to a large wide
open plain. There were wildebeest lined
up in single file as far as you could see in 2 directions. They converged at a place close to us and we
started following them. We watched them
for over 2 hours.
Beautiful wide open spaces - and then we came across a HUGE herd of wildebeest
It's difficult to see but the entire horizon is filled with a line of wildebeest!
Single file marching across the plains looking for water and better grazing
There were 2 lines of wildebeest as far as we could see - Godson estimated that there were 100,000
The 2 lines converged into 1 and they continued to march single file across the plains
As the lines converged out on the plains
They got to a road close to us and the entire line stopped. It was amazing. Finally after quite a while the lead wildebeest ran across the road and others followed. But they didn’t get far before they stopped, waited a while and then ran back across the road. We looked in the bushes near a tree and there was a lioness up wind from them hiding in the grasses. They smelled her since they were downwind of her and went back - quickly!
The zebra were leading the march of the wildebeests
The zebra led them "across the road" - only to find out that a lioness was there waiting!
Those that had crossed, paused, and then ZOOMED back across the road!
We followed them further and watched for over 2 hours. The videos we took of them running across the road - thousands of them - was amazing!
They started crossing the road in front of us, but the lioness was in the brush at the tree on the left!
They zoomed back across the road to the right to get away from the lioness!
Here was the lioness in the brush next to that tree - we were surprised that she didn't try to get one!
The wildebeest then got to another road and couldn't decide what to do.
The 2 or 3 at the front seemed to have a "committee meeting" and then . . .
The leader made a decision and flew across the road . . .
and in unison the entire herd started running across the road. It was amazing.
They ran like this for about an hour.
The entire herd, as far as we could see, were running to cross this road.
The roads to them are like crossing the rivers with the crocodiles - they know there is danger!
Then they paused and some of them got spooked. The entire line stopped behind them.
The line stopped while those now in the lead thought about what to do.
This was part of the herd that had crossed the road. It was like they didn't know where to go to next!
And then others started to join them again!
The entire procession of wildebeests started running to cross the road again.
We watched for about 2 1/2 hours - it was an amazing sight!
They stopped and started - over and over and over
Until finally many of them were standing in the road as there wasn't room on the other side!
Even with all of the animals that had crossed the road, the line of wildebeests was as far as we could see into the distance
Tim and Godson in the car - I was "checking the tire pressure"!
Impala grazing in the forest
A hawk - she posed for us so nicely
We returned to Serena Lodge Serengeti about 2 and had the buffet lunch. Then I had a delightful massage with a woman from Kenya . It was the best shoulder and leg massage I think I’ve had! This was followed by a very short nap and a much-needed shower.
Godson met us at 4:30 for an afternoon game drive. It started raining which put a different perspective on what we saw. The tse-tse flies were out in droves and were driving us crazy in the vehicle.
The rainbow from the afternoon shower - Godson didn't know about the "pot of gold"!
Uganda birds grazing with the wildebeest herd
We saw 10 elephant grazing. One tried to mount another but didn’t get far. A large one was intimidated by our vehicle at one point and Godson let the vehicle roll backward to get out of their way. We watched a large elephant strip a tree of its greenery. Fascinating.
The elephants playing in the dirt - they would get dirt and spray it on themselves and others.
The baby elephants are rolling in the dirt!
This one challenged our car - he started to charge but Godson backed up out of his way.
We watched this elephant stripping small leaves off of the branches with his trunk
Huge feet! You know what that means!!!
Cape Buffalo - one of the "Big 5" in Tanzania
The whistling acacia tree - lot of thorns - and little sacks on the branches where ants live
A pair of love birds - one flew off before I was able to take the picture!
We found 11 male giraffe (another kaleidoscope!) grazing
amongst the trees. And we found a herd
of wildebeests – not nearly as large as what we saw this morning but maybe
1,000 of them. They were out in a field
where cheetah usually stay but we didn’t see one today.
We came back about 5:30, uploaded pictures and went for a
martini at the bar. It tasted so good.
Then we went to dinner at 7:30 and had our usual table on
the patio outside. It is a full moon on
the Serengeti tonight and it’s beautiful.
We had another good bottle of South African wine – white this time – and buffet selections. Food has been good. Tim found out that the egg yolks are white here because the chickens eat white corn instead of yellow corn. Never knew it would have that effect. But the eggs are good.
We enjoyed our dinner and then decided to skip the xylophone
and dancers tonight – same gig as last night, so we got a security guard to
take us to our room. We caught up on
email, blog, and Facebook and then went to bed.
We had another good bottle of South African wine – white this time – and buffet selections. Food has been good. Tim found out that the egg yolks are white here because the chickens eat white corn instead of yellow corn. Never knew it would have that effect. But the eggs are good.
The experience in the Serengeti today was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. It was truly incredible and memorable.
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