TANZANIA
& KENYA Cheeseman Safari continued
Lobo Area in the Serengeti,
July 28-30
On the 28th we drove to Lobo game driving though the area between
Naabi Hill & Seronera in the Serengeti. One highlight, saw
a Cheetah hunting along side the road, while a Spotted Hyena
followed close behind to steal whatever the cheetah might catch.
Needless to say the cheetah was not thrilled that the hyena was
there. We stopped at Naabi Hill, the official entrance for the
Serengeti and did a short bird walk up the hill, saw the colorful
Rainbow Agamid lizard. In this area there are many kopjes (pronounced
"copies") which are huge ancient granitic rocks. These
outcroppings date from over 600 million years and on them we
saw our first Klipspringers.
That night we stayed at Lobo Lodge which was designed by Paricia Hipple, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and it was awesome. The hotel was nestled in a kopje and it felt as if it was a part of the surrounding landscape with the huge granitic kopje walls inside the hotel. That night I watched a depressing documentry about cheetahs. Very depressing, saw way too many cheetah cubs killed by lions and learned too much about how hard it for a mother to sucessfuly raise her cubs. Only 10% make it to two years old, about the age the mother leaves her grown cubs to go start again. But I must say, kills by big cats didn't seem so savage anymore, I knew those females had cubs to feed.
On the 29th we game drove our way to the Mara River and had lunch with hippopatamuses. Considering these giant animals kill more tourists each year than any other animal we definately kept our distance. We saw our first Eland (very shy and hard to see), Oribi & Coke's Hartebeest. We also saw our first Bat-eared Fox. We stayed a second night in Lobo Lodge.
On July 30 during our game drive we got to cross the Kenyan border for a bit. On the way we saw two huge male lions very close up. At the border there were some outdoor pit toilets we all used, except there were some permanent residents who used them as well. Free-tailed Bats used the large sewage tank underneath for their home and were flying in and out of the hole from the pit toilet. Gail assured us that they wouldn't fly out while we were using them, but of course one decided to make a break for it while I was zipping up my pants. Let's just say everyone heard me scream and got a big kick out of it. The very adventureous Helene had to wait with her camera ready to snap a shot of these guys flying out of the toilet. I skipped that photo opportunity.
We also saw a Ground Hornbill in tree and almost got a piciture of a Pygmy Falcon, but Laurie screamed with excitement at having correctly identified it and it promptly flew away. Of course this provided great teasing material for the remainder of the trip. We spend that third and last night at Lobo Lodge.
Carcus of a wildebeast and vultures
Take me to Seronera & Ngorogoro Crater, July 31- Aug 2