Serengeti Sopa Lodge Serengeti National Park

... whole debacle all dave could say was "that would never happen in a good british land rover" and sure enough
2 and a half hours later a landi turns up and pulled the jeep out with no problem!! and never mind the cat that had come to try and help
and had managed to get itself stuck as well!! nightmare! anyway we made it out just in time before the park closed, followed by
an upgrade back at the camp as 3 days of not showering had to be remedied!

... in the long grass somewhere but the mother clearly wasn't convinced and was starting to look extremely ****** off with the whole situation. She circled us again then stopped a metre away by the back window of the jeep. Crouching down she started to snarl and show her teeth. Looking like a coiled spring we were convinced the leopard was about to jump in on top of us, looking for her cub The roof can be a pain to close as it’s in three open sections, but with a ...

... and ended up chatting to 3 very nice Germans and exchanged travel plans....a Kilimanjaro beer later, we headed off again to part 2 of our bum-busting ride but already we were marvelling at massive boulders in the middle of plains and a cheetach chilling under a tree, and all sorts of other aMiNals....snap snap snap. I gave up on this form of "capturing the moment" because a lot of them came out like I was drunk and lopsided with fuzzy pics as our rally across ...

... cheetahs that we have seen and we have talked to others on safari and they have yet to see one.

The Serengeti is also tse tse fly central, and our tented camp has many tse tse fly traps around its grounds. And yes, they are royal blue in the middle (to attract the fly) and black on the border (which is a sticky fly adhesive). They are buzzing all over and it is very annoying on the game drive.

The name of the tented camp, Mbuzi Mawe, means ...

... our tents and waited for dinner but after an hour we were told the food supply truck had broken down and would be hours away. Hmmmmm! So no food , but we did get some leftover soup from another group of campers nearby. As we were going to bed around 10pm the truck arrived and those of us still up ate the pasta and meat dish the tour guides had prepared and we went to bed. During the night we heard hyenas close by wailing their cries so it was truly African bush camp.

... them. If they loose the challenge they spend the rest of thier life living and hunting alone. We saw one male lion sleeping on a rock who was all alone. It's a totally different reality than the Lion King :)

We slept in the park and were told that we need to be careful of scorpions because there were a lot in the Park.
Tomorrow morning we head for another game drive and then to the Ngorogoro Crater.
Brett and Robin

... anxiety in the face of a predator (something that is spectacular to see).



That night I camped in the Serengeti. The night air was filled with the sounds of insects and the laughs of hyenas. At first these cries were unsettling, but they later became manageable and even therapeutic. I slept well that night, better than I have in several weeks. When I awoke, my body was sore but my mind was wide awake. We drove around the Serengeti and I tracked the ...

... Grant's and Thomson's varieties. They both have straight horns but the Thomson's variant are smaller and are readily distinguished by a black band running along their sides. Impalas are slightly larger than gazelles and he males have longer horns which curve back and out to the sides. They are often seen as an alpha male with a harem of 10-20 females. Every once in a while, we passed troops of grumpy baboons ...

... than 1km from our bush camp we came across a pack of Lions. There were no less than seven animals in the pack. It was difficult to count and photograph them at first as the sun was yet to rise, but as it did and the colours came out we realised the young Lions looked around 2 years old. Their was one female who appeared to keep her distance. Mothers leave the pride to raise their cubs until they are old enough to fend off attacks from jealous ...