We had tea at 6.00am but the shower we thought had arrived hadn't -John stood under it but nothing came out- forcing me to go out of the tent and check there wasn't a kink in the pipe - never fear we were still clean from last nights shower so we finished our tea, dressed and headed out for our 6.30am drive. As we tootled out we saw a porcupine snuffling along - no photo though as he ran so fast - at least 30kph because we couldn't catch him in the jeep -and dived down his burrow!
Next we saw a zebra with a wire around his leg - apparently there is a tribe, living in the area, that poaches for food - a difficult conundrum??
We then saw topi and young, hippos returning to the river, lots of vultures on the ground no doubt resting after gorging themselves on the dead wildebeest in the river, and a beautiful grey kestrel sitting in a tree. Further on we watched as a big balloon came over the hill and landed up right after only a small tilt to the right - unlike our first trip when we landed on our side! It was a very African scene as a herd of wildebeest ran behind the ballon and off into the distance.
Breakfast was overlooking the river - no crossings- then we made tracks and saw hundreds and thousands of wildebeest making their way back to the river - perhaps they will cross back as there is rain forecast and they need water - it's all very well leaving early but they won't make it south if the rains don't reach the mid and south Serengeti as they need water and grass every day. We live in hope of seeing a crossing!
We then had an exciting foray to see two leopards spotted by another vehicle - as we made our way down to the Sand River the guides were concerned that Rangers were on their way to we headed back to the road at great speed, after a conflab between the drivers we tried again - this time we saw a leopard in a tree but there was no time to take photos as again we had to dash back to the road as the 'ranger in the area' call went up. However finally all 4 vehicles went back down to the river and we saw good leopard - not one but two in the tree - the young male came down and slunk off into the undergrowth enabling me to get good photos. When we got back to camp Gerrard said the Rangers were at the air strip so the fear of being caught by the edge of the Sand river, where the Rangers don't like cars were misplaced! Good fun though!
After all the excitement we made our way back to camp but first seeing a very sleepy pride of lions comatose and sensibly in the shade under bushes and out of the hot sun. Back in camp we had lunch and a rest before heading out again at 1630 - the heat was beginning to dissipate which was good news.
We drove across a causeway to the Lemai wedge which is a Tanzanian wedge of land between the Kenyan border and the Mara River - it was iconic savannah grassland with the odd acacia tree. We had a memorable drive - seeing our first ever serval cat - we initially thought it was a cheetah but realised it was too small - it was out hunting for small animals or birds.
It was a lovely animal with great big ears, spots and stripes (today's photo) and is now John's favourite cat. Next we headed to see some, less than one week old, lion cubs - these were not as concealed as the ones in the Mara and I got some good shots of three really lovely little fur balls with eyes barely open. Next we saw a yellow wattled lapwing sitting on her nest - on the ground - she looked very precarious. As we progressed to the obelisk on the border between Kenya and Tanzania the sky darkened - we continued watching giraffe, stretching to eat from tall acacia trees, buffalo, topi, zebra, and a family of elephant in the distance meandering purposefully across the plain. Spots of rain started to hit the windscreen but not too heavy - indeed we made it back to the causeway before the roof had to go back on the jeep - the final leg of our trip back to camp was accompanied by heavy rain. As we were in tent 1 Jeremiah was able to take us straight to our tent,we stopped literally at the front flap, ensuring we hardly got damp.
Our shower which he ordered via the radio arrived not long after enabling us to refresh before another cosmopolitan dinner - the Italians had left and we were joined by two Brits ( living in Northern Cyprus) and two Americans from Boston... The camp is now full @ 16.