DAY 7 (FRIDAY, MARCH 23) Exploring the Serengeti:

As we drove away from the river, we passed the rocky hill behind the camp and noticed a hyrax, or rock badger, checking us out. Then, almost immediately we spotted impala, then three jackals right outside the camp! Before we had driven on 100 yards, there were a mother and juvenile hartebeest, who posed for us showing off the mother's typical horns that Linda felt looked like they had a rubber band around the base, pinching them together before they flared out. A flash of yellow caused Mrosso to stop again, and we saw one of the prettiest birds we found on the entire trip. Called "Fisher's love birds," they look like a cross between a small parrot and a parakeet. Bright green with some yellow and red markings, they are simply beautiful. Our pictures were all from enough distance that they don't do justice to this gorgeous bird.

About a half-mile farther there were three Cape buffalo right beside the road. They didn't immediately turn away from us and walk or trot off as was usually the case, but appeared to be curious about us. After we had taken a few pictures, Les decided to try communicating with them. He let out a loud "MOOOO," expecting that they would turn and run from the sound. Surprisingly they turned towards us, on full alert! Les did another "MOOOO," and they reacted again, actually moving a little closer to us and raising their noses towards us as if they were trying to catch our scent. If they had started pawing the ground, I was hoping Mrosso would get us out of there! Finally they turned and started away, but stopped in their tracks and turned back when Les tried another "MOOOO!" They were obviously confused. As we drove away and they ambled off, I commented to Les, "You really had them buffaloed!"

"WHAT is making that MOOOOOING sound!?" The one on the right looks ready to take on the Land Cruiser! Note the three different horn patterns, one with a broken horn.

We passed three dik-diks who posed for us (but they weren't in the dik-dik hollow). Then, at a creek crossing we spotted a huge crocodile sunning on the bank. We weren't able to get a good picture because he was partially concealed by the shrubbery, but he was probably well over 12 feet long.

 
Three dik-diks. The one on the right is hard to see under the tree. Francolins; members of the Partridge family. These three are maybe David, Shirley and Susan.

Soon we saw several vehicles stopped together in the distance, a sure sign of something worth seeing, so Mrosso started in that direction.

After only three days of game drives and viewing we had already seen a tremendous variety of animals, but we were anxious to get a better look at a leopard. The only ones we had seen were on the very first day, and they had been pretty far off and had disappeared quickly. Just to be clever, we had all started using the Swahili names for the various animals if we could remember them. Examples: giraffe = "twiga"; elephant = "tembo"; lion = "simba"; rhino = "kifaru." the Swahili name for leopard is "chui," pronounced "chew-ee," (like the Wookie in "Star Wars"). We told Mrosso to find us some "chuis," and he told us he'd try. Les and Linda told us that most often leopards are found in trees, so we scanned every tree we came near for any dark shapes or lumps on the branches.

As we approached the other combies, I could see clearly silhouetted in the crotch of a tree a large cat-like animal. We were sure we'd found our leopard. Wrong!

 
Tree-climbing lions. Note the tell-tale tail, left. At right, lower in the tree, the picture of contentment after a big breakfast.

It turned out to be a lion! What's more, there were three other lions farther up in the same tree. Plus 6 more around the base of the tree, 2 under another nearby tree, and 3 more at the carcass of a fairly recently killed buffalo! There wasn't a lot of meat left on the bones of the buffalo, but the lions still working on their meal were pulling off what there was. Mrosso told us that they had probably just killed it during the night or at dawn, as there were no hyenas or vultures in sight yet. The law of the jungle was depicted clearly in the blood-stained grass.

 
Gnawing the bones. Not much left at this point.

This pride contained 15 lions that we saw, and possibly others lying hidden in the tall grass but most seemed to prefer the shade. This was another bright, sunny day with the temperature probably in the middle 80s. Not bad if the air was moving, but pretty uncomfortable in the sun with no breeze.

Mrosso told us he was taking us next across the plains to some "kopjes" (pronounced like "copies," as in Xerox). These are rocky outcroppings big enough to form actual hills here and there on the plains. If you saw "The Lion King" and remember "Pride Rock," that was a kopje.

To get to the kopjes we found the main road, turned South (back the way we had come from the day before) and drove for several miles to get to another turn-off. While still on the main road, we approached, off to our right, a lone wildebeest and a topi, fairly close together but with no other animals in sight. They were standing about 50 yards away from the road, in the tall grass. Before we drew even with them, Mrosso slowed, then stopped as he saw ahead of us on the other side of the road a female lion moving slowly towards the other animals! She was on full alert, crouching low with ears lowered, moving slowly through the grass. We realized that a drama was getting ready to play out right in front of us!

Someone in the car whispered, "Where's the other lion?" The point being that usually lions hunt in pairs or groups. Sure enough, Mrosso spotted it! Another female beyond the wildebeest and topi, farther off to our right. The lions were working toward each other, with their prey and the road between them. Suddenly the wildebeest and topi became aware of the lion on their side of the road, and started loping away from it, right toward us! As they neared our vehicle, the lion on our left kept pace with them but stayed in the grass, moving parallel to the road. Her prey was being driven right to her for the kill, and it looked like they were all going to come together right at our Land Cruiser!

One of the participants in the hunt, still trying to catch her breath.

As the wildebeest and topi approached the road, they turned and ran down the right side of our vehicle. If they had gone straight across the road ahead of us, one of them would have been lunch! But now they were running full out down the road away from us; and both lions, who were on either side of the road and now behind them, couldn't keep pace. After about a hundred yards of pursuit, the lions gave up, looked disgustedly at each other, and watched their lunch recede into the distance. The lions then strolled to the road, and, still breathing heavily, walked slowly right past our car! The last I saw of the wildebeest, it was still running at full gallop over the horizon and out of sight. The Topi finally stopped over a mile away.

This narrative has probably not come close to giving you the thrill we felt at actually watching the lions stalk and almost catch and kill their prey right in front of us. This was one of the most exciting moments I felt on the entire trip. That scene will probably be clear in my mind for a long time to come. There had been just an instant, and a chance decision, between life and violent death. That is the way of the African wilds!

A picture of concentration. "Look at them go! If only my partner had done her job better I'd be eating now!"

We proceeded South, then turned East on a two-tire-track "road" across the plains. Soon we could begin to see the kopjes ahead. Mrosso told us that he frequently saw cheetahs on or near the kopjes as they like to climb on things above the grass to get a better view of potential prey, so we should keep a close watch on any rocks, termite mounds or hills. One more comment about the high grass: frequently one of us would see a dark shape in the grass and think it was an animal, only to find out it was just a termite mound or leafy weeds. When we were fooled by one of these and found out it was a false alarm, we would shrug and say, "Green ears!" Well, they looked like ears for a second!

A typical kopje. Some had trees, some didn't. Some also had animals, some didn't.