Safari Part 5 - Serengeti

 Day 7

Today we had breakfast at 6.30 and left the camp just after 7.15. Just down the road from the camp we saw a large group of elephants in the distance. We stayed and watched for about 45 minutes as they gradually walked closer and closer eventually crossing the road both in front and behind us. During all this time we were the only car watching.

You can actually see our camp in the background as the elephants walk off.

This mornings sightings continued with some hyenas, a huge herd of impala, some more elephants and some giraffe.

We then spent quite a long time trying to get some decent photos of 2 different types of Whydah birds that we had not seen before. Unfortunately they were not very co-operative as you will see from the photos below.

Eventually we moved on. Our next major sighting was the hippos at the hippo pools where we stopped for a while. It is nice here as you can get out of the car and stretch your legs. We were quite surprised as these hippos were not nearly as smelly as those we had seen previously. Maybe there is a better flow of water here.

After this we saw another group of lions which included a male who was very keen to mate with a female….she however was not too keen. He eventually got the message and went to sleep in a bush!!

Our final sightings of the morning included some warthogs, crocodiles, some waterbuck, and buffalo. I had also mentioned to Alladin earlier in the morning that we hadn’t seen any hornbills this trip. Unbeknown to me he then spent the next couple of hours looking for one. He was very happy when he found one!! He said he usually feels some “pressure” to find a cheetah or a leopard….but for the first time today it was a hornbill. He said this would make his fellow guides laugh…..it made all of us laugh too 🤣.

We now headed back to camp for lunch. When we arrived we found that Alex, our waiter had set up a table outside for us which was lovely. We were the only guests in camp for lunch so it felt very special.

We had a lovely lunch and a long chat with Alex. He was very excited to find out that we knew Mwanza as that was where he was born, and Geita where he now lived with his family. It was interesting as he had worked in the hotel we are staying at in Mwanza and he knew some of the schools we will be supporting in Geita…..sometimes its a small world!

After lunch we did some packing and then met up with Alladin at 4.30 for a game drive. It rained a bit again. This seemed to be a pattern that it rained in the late afternoon. Things of note this afternoon were giraffe, birds, some cute dwarf mongeese and a cheetah on a termite mound. We noted that the giraffe were all bending down to eat from bushes rather than reaching high up into trees, as we usually see. We also saw 2 rainbows at the same time. One was much clearer than the other. Interestingly the colours were reversed in the second one.

Back at camp this evening, we had our final dinner after which we were treated to the staff singing the Jambo song and dancing. They then gave us a Kwaheri cake. We have heard this song many times but its always a bit of fun. We then shared the cake with the staff and other guests.