Thomson Airlines Boeing 757 Explorer One (G-OOBF)
The Serengeti, Tanzania
Sunday, February 21, 2010

    After going to bed so early, I was easily awake at 5 am. I forgo calling for a shower this morning and opted for a cold-water sponging-down and cold-water shave. I was then our to get some photos of the camp just before sunrise. That was about as far as I could go, because we are not to wander more that about 20 meters from the tents because of the danger from the wildlife. Breakfast was at 6 am, and we were in the Land Cruiser to start the photo safari by 7:30 am.

    All the Land Cruisers have radios and the various vans communicate with each other and with the Serengeti National Park rangers to help locate special wildlife. One animal that is not hard to find is the wildebeest, though. There are thousands of them everywhere and the great migration is on. Along with the wildebeest are lots of zebras. The zebras and the wildebeest have a lot of juveniles with them, and these are certainly targets for the lions and the cheetahs.

    Our morning safari lasted about five and a half hours and included areas near lakes, riverbeds, light forested areas, and the true flat, treeless Serengeti plains. During the morning, we viewed wildebeest, cape buffalo, dik-dik, Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle, hartebeest, zebra, giraffe, hyena, mongoose, as well as many beautiful superb starlings, rollers, African spoonbill, ibis, eagles, vultures, weavers, guinea fowl, and thousands and thousands of European storks. I commented that the birth rate must be exceptional low in Europe right now. Most of the group eventually got the joke.

    We returned to the camp for a picnic lunch outside in the relatively cool temperatures of the Serengeti. The temperature never gets really high here, partially due to the high 1600+ meter (5300 feet) elevation of the Serengeti. We then rested a couple of hours in our tents and then reloaded the Land Cruisers at 3:30 pm for an afternoon safari. The highlight of the afternoon safari was observing a cheetah enjoying her wildebeest lunch and viewing a pride of lions. There was the adult male lion along with his family of twelve females and juveniles. They were all enjoying just sleeping in the afternoon sun.

    Returning about 6:30 or 7 pm, we quickly washed up and then met at the campfire circle for drinks. The staff collected the coals produced by the campfire to cook dinner. Once again the meal was terrific and I managed to stuff myself. There is just something about camping to generate a voracious appetite.

    It was to be an early bedtime again. Tomorrow morning, we need to be up early to prepare for a short safari on our way back to the airstrip to catch our flights back to Kilimanjaro Airport and our flight to Luxor on Explorer One about 1 pm. This has been way too short a time in the Serengeti for me, but then I knew it would be. I have been treating this expedition as a world sampler to identify those locations that I need to return to for detailed visits. Eastern Africa is certainly one of those places.