Day 23, 27 July 2012, Karatu to Serengeti N.P. via Ngorongoro Conservation Area ("NCA") - Africa is amazing. Africa is frustrating. Africa can be and often is amazingly frustrating. In a state of high excitement we left Kudu Lodge with our driver in our very own game truck and headed to the gate of the NCA. There is a fee for entering, quite rightly. There are at any time 50 or more drivers semi-queueing in a small room trying to pay the fee. And that's where the system is felled by a tranquilliser gun and African time kicks in. We took 45 odd minutes to get in and then drove up the crater rim and looked down into the Ngorongoro crater (to be explored in 2 days time). We then proceeded through the NCA where the Masai are permitted to live along with their herds. Eventually we reach the official gate to the Serengeti N.P. where the number of drivers seeking to pay park fees triples, the size of the room in which to pay halves and time starts moving in reverse - at roughly 3 pm we make it into the park and about an hour after that we reach the game viewing area - and the soundtrack for today is.... "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lions sleep tonight, hey hey!" 3 massive lions sprawled on top of a rock digesting a buffalo. How do I know it was buffalo you may ask... well, just down the road the hyenas were scoping seconds and the vultures were circling. Now before you start thinking wow - big tough lions, dragging down a buffalo - au contraire, mon cher. It is the lionesses who spend all day ripping around the Serengeti plains, doing the marketing in the fresh meat department and then the lions turn up for the lion's share.... Speaking of hard working lionesses, that was what we saw next - 3 lionesses and 8 cubs near a water hole. Kids lolling near the pool, mums on the lookout for dessert. It was a sweet day for big cats in the park as our next close encounter was a leopard spied amongst some rocks. Photos will follow in due course and bear with us on quality.... We are not carrying a camera with a 2 foot lense unlike many safari-philes in the park today. As we looped back towards the lodge for the night it became the Day of the Jackal (in the middle of the road) which was pretty out there - however, after another 12 hour day it was time to get out of "out there" and we checked in to the Serengeti's oldest Lodge - Seronera. Built in and around massive natural boulders, none of which could be moved or damaged during construction, it is the quintessential African lodge. Even the windows were cut to fit into the boulders and the swimming pool is a natural rock pool on a platform overlooking the plains. With hippos honking outside our room and a hot dinner and hot shower accomplished, it was once more early to bed - 5.30 am pick up for tomorrow's adventure... stay tuned.