Kenya and Tanzania - Day 7

This is our last full day in the Central Serengeti.  Tomorrow we will fly back to Arusha and travel to Kenya. The Tanzanians have a saying regarding Mount Kilimanjaro.  They say we have the mountain and the Kenyans have the view.  

Our view of the sunrise over the Serengeti from our balcony.

Our safari started at 7:00 am with the explicit purpose of finding a leopard.  This will be number four of the big five.  We saw a black rhino two days ago but it was so far away it looked like a black dot with a horn. Much too far away to get a photo.  

The washboard roads we travel are really bouncy.  Some of bumps send us airborne.  The drivers refer to the experience as the African deep tissue massage.  We prefer to go poly poly which is Swahili for slowly. It is really bouncy.  

Road signs are not allowed in the Serengeti because they would interfere with the natural beauty of the scenery.  Small hotels have to find creative ways to instruct customers how to find their way.  

To get to our hotel turn right when you see the water buffalo skull at the intersection.

I have to correct an error in the blog. I said Serengeti was Swahili for endless plain.  It is in fact Waa which is the native language of the Maasai.  The Maasai also speak Swahili. 

Today was another good day for animal sitings. We saw several new species.

We can add hyena to our list of new animals.

This is a weaver bird nest. The weaver bird enters and leaves the nest through this hole in the bottom. They are in and out in an instant.

This is the weaver bird.

A mongoose was the next animal we saw.

The Nile crocodile can grow to be sixteen feet long.

The white eagle owl was hard to spot high up in the tree.

We have seen zebras previously but our driver Gasper provided additional information. He advised zebras eat 15 hours a day. During the migration 200,000 zebras die from predators and downing. The vast majority die from downing in the rivers during their mass migration.

Zebras use their stripes as camouflage when they're together in a group to confuse predators by making it harder for predators to pick out individual zebras. 

Zebras cannot be ridden like horse. Their backs are weak and would break.

If a Zebras tale is swinging, everything alright. No predators are nearby.

Just like their horse relatives, zebras are able to sleep standing up by locking the joints in their knees. This helps them quickly awaken from a nap and escape from predators. 

I have kept you in suspense long enough. Yes, our driver Gasper put us on a leopard. We had a great viewing location as the leopard came out of the tall grass and posed for us. There were 30 other Jeeps trying to get a glimpse. It was a real Serengeti traffic jam.

We are getting a little jaded. On our trip back to the hotel several Jeeps pulled over to view a male lion in the tree line. We glimpsed over and since the lion was not within petting distance we moved on. Sawa Sawa.

Here is a painting of the big five. We have seen the elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard. We only need to see a black rhino close up

I mentioned our concern for hurricane Milton. Milton hit the west coast of Florida today. There was much damage on the west coast. Stuart was spared but two tornadoes in the area hit trailer parks in Port Salerno and Port Saint Lucie. There was much more damage in our area from the tornadoes than the hurricane. The electricity in my condo is still on because my security cameras are working. Looking at the Florida Power and Light service map almost all of central Florida is without power including my brother Bill’s condo in Sebastian. I will share more updates on this situation.

Sunset over the Serengeti. View from the Four Seasons hotel. Photo by Gail Anderson.

We have our final game drive at 4:30 pm and depart for Kenya tomorrow.