Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Today was an all-day game drive, leaving at 7:30 after breakfast.
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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
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In the surrounding trees, Necrosyrtes
monachus/Hooded Vultures waited |
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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) |
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A bridge over a seasonal river (dry unless after the
rainy season) is a rare bit of infrastructure |
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| It is greener along the waterways |
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| Connochaetes taurinus/Blue Wildebeest |
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| Hibiscus cannabinus/Kenaf Hibiscus |
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We had to ford the stream because floods took out
the road on each end of this bridge (KSS) |
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| Time for a coffee and tea break |
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| Note the French press for the coffee |
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| Maasai sandals; the soles are usually made from car tires |
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Serengeti is the British mangling of the Swahili word
seringit, which means "endless plains" or "the
place where the land runs on forever" |
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This Agama agama/Rainbow Agama/Rock Lizard
was at a rest stop |
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The rest stop was at one of the gates
to Serengeti National Park |
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Erigeron sp/Aster (introduced) and Gomphrena serrata/
Prostate Globe Amaranth |
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| Kent with a Cape buffalo skull |
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| The rest stop picnic area where we had our box lunch (KSS) |
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| Underneath the thatched umbrella (KSS) |
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| Flood washout damage of the road |
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| Controlled burning smoke blown across the road |
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We could not go through that smoke, but a gap opened up
and we roared through |
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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 |
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| 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.
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| More of the Great Migration |
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| 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.
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| Dinner began with bread and carrot soup |
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Tamarind roasted chicken, cashew rice,
and stir-fried vegetables |
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| Chocolate brownie |
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
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| Most of the staff came out to sing a good-bye song (KSS) |
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| A safari camp on a hillside (KSS) |
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| 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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