We were up early and after coffee and biscuits we set off to main camp for breakfast. It was a lovely morning walk albeit John and Alex were off like long dogs - Paul and I took in the scenery and took a few photos as we went - that did we weren't far behind.(today's photo)
Once back we had breakfast, showers and packed for our trip to Kusini, near Ndutu.
We had to drive to the ranger station to book out of the Ngorogoro Conservation area and into the Serengeti National Park. While Benedict was doing the paperwork we took pictures of love birds in a large tree in the car park.
When we set off we saw our first elephant walking across the marsh area - I have never been on a holiday before where I have seen more wild dogs and elephants by this point!
It was now getting hot so we found a big tree to have lunch under. Thunder clouds were massing and it was quite oppressive.
After arriving in camp and settling in we set off for our afternoon drive.
We first saw 2 female lions and 4 medium and 1 really small cub who was roughly regularly played with by his older brothers - but seemed to bounce back. We also found a male and female lounging in some thick grass - not sure if they were mating or not.
We then headed to some granite kopies as we thought their might be more lions - almost immediately we saw one moving on top - there were also lots of hooded vultures in a tree - it was only when the lion left the rock to go to the loo and the vultures massed on the poo that I remembered these vultures look for the blood and undigested meat from the predators to sustain them.
On our way back to camp we had a great view of a Verreauxs eagle owl sitting in the branches of a lone tree.
Dinner was a fun affair as Alex was having an end of season guide training session and had brought in an expert guide Skippy from Arusha, Adrian and Rasheen his managers from Kenya, his office manger from Arusha and a videographer/ photographer who was doing some publicity material for him - as Paul knew them all it made for some entertaining dinner conversation.