Monday, 4 March 2013

6 February 2013 - Serian Kakessio Camp, Southwest Serengeti

Woken at 6 with a cuppa, then off in the jeep at 6.30. Our guide here is Baraka and our spotter is a Maasai, Sibul.

We had a morning of bird spotting - eagles, vultures, bee eaters, starlings, weavers, storks, plovers, bustards, kites - we're nearly experts on birds now. We also saw some general game - thousands of wilderbeest, zebra, gazelles. Also a few giraffes, mongoose, one small lizard and a couple of dik diks.





Starling 

Weaver


 Crested barbet

 Love birds

 Tawny hawk

Red shouldered hawk

 Agama lizard

 Wildebeest

 European roller

Wildebeest and calves

 Herd of wildebeest

 Bachelor group of gazelles

 Maribou stork

Hare

 White storks

 Jackal

 Vultures with a wildebeest carcass

 Mongoose

The long and short of it...mongoose

We got back to camp at 12.30, lunch was at 1.30.


There were just the two of us for lunch, with Billie (a girl) who is joint manager of the camp with her boyfriend Alex Walker. This camp is only opened from mid December to mid April then totally packed up and moved to the northern part of the Serengeti from mid June to mid October. Had an interesting conversation with Billie then headed back to our tent for a shower and siesta until 4.

We headed out to Lake Eyansi which is low salt lake. Once the heavy rains come in March the water will fall down the escarpment like a waterfall and fill the currently empty basin. There was some water in the middle but it was very low.


 Lake Eyansi in the distance

Sibul, Terry and Baraka above Lake Eyansi

We then drove to the rock for the sunset with G&T's and a few nibbles. I was helped up the rocks which are quite slippery but it's a wonderful vista once you get to the top. It's not a difficult climb. The sunset was marvelous, Terry took about 40 photos!


 Snapping his shadow




Sundowner drinks on top of the rock











Back to camp for a drink around the campfire and dinner in the mess tent. We had 4 new guests all from Switzerland so we got talking to Felix for most of the night. They have been in another couple of lodges for about a week and are here at Kakessio for 4 nights. He was saying the traffic in the crater was horrendous when they were there a day or so ago so we're pleased we had a more pleasant experience. Felix also had a bit to say about how Switzerland is changing with the number of immigrants arriving in the larger cities. Crime is on the increase and the economy is struggling with the extra social services required by the large number of immigrants. We were surprised. He said immigrants make up 23% of the overall population, so of the 8 million Swiss nearly 2 million are immigrants. It will be interesting to see if we notice these changes when we visit in June this year.

Headed to bed around 10.

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