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Vultures, vultures, vultures
Wed. 13 Oct. 2004 - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
This morning we woke before sunrise for an early morning game drive. (Two of the people on the tour opted for an early-morning hot air balloon ride. They said they enjoyed it.) On our game drive, we saw some lionesses and cubs feasting on a fresh zebra kill. We were close enough to hear them crunching. Vultures kept watch from nearby trees, waiting for a chance at the scraps. We watched zebras and wildabeests drinking from a river, as a crocodile slithered by on the surface of the water. Some other animals:
Warthogs and zebras:
Vulture:
Banded mongooses:
Hildebrandt's starling:
Hyrax: |
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We visited the Serengeti visitors center just after lunch today, where we picked up two important pieces of information. First, there is a dead hippo in the hippo pool, which makes it a highly undesireably place to vist. Therefore, we scratched the hippo pool off our itinerary. Second, a guide with another tour company somehow got traped in a shower for hours when a female lion walked between his vehicle and the shower building. Reminding us that the animals, really, are the ones in charge here. Our camp, which we were in for a second night tonight, is a dusty pulloff with a few thatch-roofed shelters and space for our tents. There is a "long drop" toilet and a water tank that is a frequent target of elephant vandalism. The sun baked the ground, but the shade was cool, the air was dry, and numerous colorful birds chirped in the trees. |