Wednesday, July 3, 2024

2024 African Safari Plus: Nasikia Game Drives B (7/2-3/2024)

Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Today was an all-day game drive, leaving at 7:30 after breakfast.
News spread among the guides about a lion kill:
 Two Panthera leo/Lions take their turn feeding
from a Syncerus caffer/Cape Buffalo
Video of lions eating Cape buffalo
In the surrounding trees, Necrosyrtes
monachus
/Hooded Vultures waited
Not much to see in the controlled burn area; it is
thought that many small animals are killed in the fires,
although those that live underground may survive (KSS)
A bridge over a seasonal river (dry unless after the
rainy season) is a rare bit of infrastructure
It is greener along the waterways
Connochaetes taurinus/Blue Wildebeest
Hibiscus cannabinus/Kenaf Hibiscus
We had to ford the stream because floods took out
the road on each end of this bridge (KSS)
Time for a coffee and tea  break
Note the French press for the coffee
Maasai sandals; the soles are usually made from car tires
Serengeti is the British mangling of the Swahili word
seringit, which means "endless plains" or "the
 place where the land runs on forever"
This Agama agama/Rainbow Agama/Rock Lizard
was at a rest stop
The rest stop was at one of the gates
to Serengeti National Park
Erigeron sp/Aster (introduced) and Gomphrena serrata/
Prostate Globe Amaranth
Kent with a Cape buffalo skull
The rest stop picnic area where we had our box lunch (KSS)
Underneath the thatched umbrella (KSS)
Flood washout damage of the road
Controlled burning smoke blown across the road
We could not go through that smoke, but a gap opened up
and we roared through
Then we came upon a miles-long stretch of fire coming towards us,
but Morisho pointed to a gap with no flames, and we hurried right on to burnt ground
Bucorvus leadbeateri/Southern Ground Hornbill
We would also see ostriches, guineafowl, Swainson's spurfowl, crested francolin, coqui francolin, Cape turtle doves, wattled crane, Marabou stork, white-crowned lapwings, African wattled lapwings, white-backed vulture, martial eagle, long-crested eagle, tawny eagle, red-billed hornbill (Zazu in Disney's Lion King), Fischer's lovebird, magpie shrikes, red-billed buffalo weavers, white-headed buffalo weavers, and a white-browed robin chat. 
More of the Great Migration
Kent and the Great Migration
Video of wildebeests
We would also see elephants, vervet monkeys, jackals, banded mongooses, hyenas, zebras, impalas, Defassa waterbuck, Cape buffalos, giraffes, and warthogs. 
Dinner began with bread and carrot soup
Tamarind roasted chicken, cashew rice,
and stir-fried vegetables
Chocolate brownie

Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Most of the staff came out to sing a good-bye song (KSS)
A safari camp on a hillside (KSS)
A last look at the Great Migration
We would also see elephants, baboons, jackals, dwarf mongooses, Cape buffalos, giraffes, and warthogs. 
We would also see ostriches, coqui francolins, Cape turtle doves, white-crowned lapwings, lilac-breasted rollers, speckle-fronted weaver, and Rüppell's glossy starling.
Next: Flight to Lake Manyara.

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