The day on the young ones
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
7
18
Trip End
Oct 13, 2008
Serengeti National Park,
Tanzania
Friday, September 12, 2008
Our new driver was showing us all the usual animals: zebras, gizelle, kudu, hyena, jackal and warthog - but again we all wanted to tick off the final 2 on our Big 5 list. Our driver's mobile phone rings and we have a tip off about... we drive to see another 2 vans surrounding a tree to see a lioness and her cub, our driver pulls up directly in front of the tree - it is almost in a shape of the letter Y. I am watching the lioness and say to our truck how cool it would be if they climbed up into the tree, no sooner had the words left my mouth that the mother climbed the trunk and the cub followed. Posing and playing for a good 20 minutes. I think Anthony's finger didn't leave the camera button and he took HEAPS of photos
All the trucks watching the leopards
. All turning our amazing. It was magical. After the lioness settled down for a morning nap, we left with another tip off... via mobile phone again. We head to a rocky outcrop and see about 6 van sitting, staring. We see nothing. They tell us up high there are 2 leopard cubs!!! Finally Big 5 number 4. Tick. They are playing up high and behind some bushes but we could see them through the binoculous. We watch them for probably 15 minutes just hoping they come down so we can see them better. They do, one come crawling down the rocks and the other thinks to follow. Again, Anthony gets from fantastic shots with this new lens and we are all smiling.I asked our guide if the cub's mother would be off hunting to which he replied yes. How wrong he was - the whole time we were watching the young ones, the mother was hiding in a bush only 5 meters from the truck. When her cubs came down the rocks the bush suddenly moved and out so strolled. Complete stealth and muscle - I would not have wanted to be any closer. We all commented on the mother thinking that it would be more scary to see her alone than a lion. I think we probably stayed with the leopard and her cubs for about an hour.
Our morning game drive was done and we went back to camp to have a cooked lunch and pack up our tents. We drove back through the Serengeti to Oldapai Gorge when the oldest fossils have been found.
On our way to the crater for the night we again continued the theme for the day and saw a giraffe and her young crossing the road in front of us.
The Crater edge was freezing that night, so we were all in bed pretty early, due up at 5.30 for another game drive.
