Back at Camp Michelle from our morning balloon ride, after the hard rain shower and a huge hot lunch, we climbed back into the Land Cruiser chanting, "Chui! Chui! Chui!" for one last chance to find some leopards in the Serengeti. And, of course, to see whatever wildlife Mrosso could find for us! He headed generally North, our first time to drive in that direction.

The terrain changed from nearly flat, rolling plains to actual hills (big ones, not just kopjies) with quite a bit of brush and trees. There were a number of rain showers around, clearly visible in most directions as we scanned the horizon. Several times it rained on us lightly, but we avoided the downpours. In the trees and brush the game was a bit harder to spot, but we were rewarded with some good sightings and a few good pictures.

Giraffes like to stay in areas where there are trees, as that's what they eat and as the trees provide cover and camouflage for them. The only way I could ever pick them out among the trees was if their heads were taller than the surrounding foliage. They are such pretty, graceful looking animals!

Famous African two-headed giraffe!

At one spot we began to see impalas, then more impalas, then a LOT more impalas. This species of gazelle is different from most in that only the males have horns, and those horns are long. The females have no defense except speed and jumping ability, which are both considerable!

A threatening sky behind an Impala harem, One lone hartebeest at right (must be lost!)

In an area amid trees but cleared of underbrush we found several pairs of males sparring with each other. They would square off, staring at each other from a few feet apart, snort, lower their heads, and butt their horns together with enough force to produce a loud "Clack!" Sometimes they would stay in that pose for a few seconds, just pushing each other. Occasionally one would get a leverage advantage and manage to push the other one backward. Then they would separate, raise their heads, and stare at each other again. It didn't look like a death struggle, and we never saw much actual damage being done to either participant.

But we did notice one male with one horn broken off at about the mid point. Don't know if that happened during a fight or from other events. There were females all around, but they seemed completely disinterested in the fighting contests. We dubbed this area "the impala gym."

One picture of this sparring (below) shows a typical match in the foreground with another pair going at each other in the distance. In the nearby bout, the combatant on the left actually has his hind feet up in the air from the force of the collision. It was fun to watch!

 
Just like in football, the one whose head is lower usually wins. At right, a shot of the "111" markings.

One of our drivers later pointed out to us the distinctive markings on the rear of the impala. They have a vertical black stripe down each haunch beside the tail, and a third stripe on the tail itself. The driver asked if we knew the meaning of the three vertical stripes in a row. When we admitted we didn't, he told us the markings looked like the number 111, and stood for the rule of, "One hundred and ten females, and one male." While we never actually tried to count, the principle seemed accurate. Most groups of impalas seemed to include one mature male, and his harem of several dozen (at least) females. Les commented that the male had a tough job, tending to that big harem, but SOMEBODY had to do it! From that point on we always referred to impalas as "one-elevens."

Carol spotted one of her favorite animals, a warthog, that had enormous tusks, probably the largest we ever saw during the entire trip. We tried hard to get a picture, but he just wouldn't cooperate. The results are shown below, and although the quality of the shot is bad you can get an idea of the size of the tusks.

 
The biggest warthog tusks we saw on the entire trip. Too bad he was bashful.

Even with thorns, the native plants could be beautiful.

You can't ever count them, because some are always under the surface. There were a lot!

 
"OK, OK, I'll go on a diet soon!" "I didn't get NEARLY enough sleep last night!"

Yes, they have teeth. But all they really need to do for defense is sit or roll on the predator!

We also saw in this area some huge crocodiles but just couldn't get in position to get a good picture of them. (Those will come later, from our travels along the Zambezi River.) The crocs were a lot lighter in color than I had envisioned after being used to seeing dark-colored North American alligators. These African reptiles almost matched the muddy color of the river water with a definite yellow cast, especially on the underside. No, we didn't go up to one and turn it over to see its belly! Those creatures would slide down into the water before they could be approached at all (which was fine with us!) But occasionally we could catch glimpses of their lower parts as they lay in the sun or scuttled down into the water.

We lingered by the hippo pool for probably 45 minutes before deciding it was time to start back towards the camp. The mud around the Land Cruiser was extremely adhesive, sticking in big wads to the soles of our shoes. We tried to clean off what we could before mounting the vehicle, as we hated to smear that goop all over the floor. Driving back we were treated to sightings of topi and hartebeest, along with numerous guinea fowl. We saw guineas in just about every part of Africa we visited, but have very few pictures of them. We even commented once that every box lunch seemed to contain some small pieces of chicken, which might actually be guinea fowl, since they are so ubiquitous.

Lots of guineas! Note the puddle -- it was a rainy day.

   
A slightly out of focus black-headed heron. Then, a black and white hornbill, and a red-billed hornbill.

When we tallied up the days sightings, they included jackals (not yet mentioned) and all the animals in the text above. Among the birds, we saw our first of a very aptly named species; the go-away bird. As time went on and we tried to get close pictures of different ones, we joked that they were ALL "go-away" birds! We did get a fair picture of a real go-away bird at one point: I'll mention it when we get to it! Other birds seen included: guineas, spurfowl, Fischer's love birds, black-headed heron, hoopoe, tawny eagle, brown snake eagle, brown parrots, bare-faced go-away, gray hornbill, red-billed hornbill, kingfisher, magpie shrike, fiscal shrike, red-billed quelas (small birds, almost always found in flocks of hundreds!), Egyptian geese and marabou storks.

Back in camp we all had our cold beer (actually, John, Carol and Les had a beer) and hot shower; a typical huge, delicious dinner; and some relaxing stargazing as the rain clouds broke up and dispersed, allowing the blazingly bright stars to dazzle us again. At dinner I decided now was the time for a little serenade. Carol and I had practiced a bit before leaving Texas, and I told the group it was time for Carol to lead them in some "Wimoweh's." "In WHAT?" Les and Linda wanted to know. Well, if you remember the old (1970's, I think) song done by the Tokens, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," it starts out with a group singing, "a wimoweh, a wimoweh," over and over. Then, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." Well, Carol had Les and Linda doing the "wimoweh's" and I launched into a verse or two before giving up as the wimowehs and my falsetto were getting tangled up. OK, it was terrible, but fun. Mrosso looked bemused. Charlie (table server, remember?) had listened, and commented that it sounded like a South African song. We didn't know what he meant by that, but later in the trip in a restaurant in Zimbabwe a singing group came in and went from table to table singing for tips. One of the songs they sang had "wimoweh's" in the background! Interesting.

We knew that tomorrow we could sleep in if we wanted to, as we didn't have to leave for the airstrip until about 10:00 AM. So, being lazy, we didn't even bother to start packing up, figuring we'd do that after breakfast. We were actually kind of sad to think about leaving our "VERY rustic" camp. It was a totally enjoyable experience.

NEXT: Day 9 -- Back to Kenya and the Masai Mara

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