7 February 2013 - Serian Kakessio Camp, Southwest Serengeti

Up at 6, cuppa and out in the jeep at 6.30. We'd taken a packed breakfast and lunch for our day. There was a lovely sunrise as we headed away from the camp.

Again lots of wildebeest and zebra, quite a large family of giraffe 12 or more, we hadn't seen such a large number of giraffe in the one group before.

 Herds of wildebeest and zebra

 Giraffe

 Herd of wildebeest

 Wildebeest and calves

Hyena looking for a meal..

 Wildebeest spread out across the grassland

Wildebeest calf

Vulture and jackal

A large pack of baboons were playing in a few trees. Terry snapped a great photo of a Martial Eagle as it launched itself off the log it had been perched on.

We drove by gazelles and a large hyena before coming across a family of cheetahs - a mum and 2 cubs. They weren't doing much just playing in the grass under the shade of an acacia tree. The mum was trying to get the cubs to settle down but they weren't taking much notice, it was fun to watch.

 Thomson gazelle

 Hyena

Cheetahs at play

Roller

We had our packed breakfast and then drove to Lake Ndutu to see the pink flamingos. We could get quite close to these ones although we were looking into the sun so it was a little difficult to get photos. These are called "lesser pink flamingos" because they aren't as pink as the others who are called, of course, "greater pink flamingos". Terry wanted to walk to the lakes edge to take a photo but he wasn't allowed; something to do with rangers and which park the lake's in, versus the park we've got a permit to be in, all a bit too bureaucratic. Anyway them's the rules and you can't do much about it.

Lesser pink flamingos

After the flamingos Terry took some photos of a male and female zebra's rump.  The pattern of the stripe on their rump is how you easily tell the gender of the zebra.

 Zebras and eland

Eland

There were a lot of jeeps parked around a tree so we drove over to see what had been found and there was a leopard in the scrub. You could see a bit of him but he was well hidden.

Leopard well hidden in the grass

We left and drove over to the marshes where thousands of wildebeest were moving further south.

Wildebeest on the move

There were a few lions hiding in the marsh waiting to possibly catch a wildebeest but we didn't see any action while we watched. There are so many opportunities for the lions that they don't make much of an effort. Just wait for one of the wildebeest to come too close and they can grab them. These wildebeest seemed a little more alert and were making a wide circle away from the lions.

We went back to the leopard and he had moved from the scrub and climbed up a tree, so more photos, although his face was well hidden by a branch.

Leopard hidden in a tree

There were other lions, a male and 2 females again lazing in the shade of a tree. As mentioned previously the prey is so abundant they don't have to work too hard to get something to eat, however it would be nice to see a lion make a bit of an effort.

Such an exhausting day...

We moved on and drove across some open plains, it was very windy today so the dust was everywhere and the sun was very hot. We were thinking about stopping for lunch when our tracker, Sibul spotted the family of cheetahs again. This time mum was getting ready to hunt. There were no other jeeps around so we followed at a distance. There were two Thompson gazelles about 500m away. The mum made a dash but the gazelles ran away so we thought that was it, however one gazelle didn't go that far away and before you could blink the cheetah had gone from zero to 60km an hour and was on the gazelle even though it had also put on some speed to evade the cheetah. All you could clearly see was the dust and then one of the cheetah cubs dragging the gazelle by the neck into a shady spot. It was an amazing sight and happened so quickly. Only one other jeep arrived as the hunt unfolded. We were very lucky to see this happen. We watched the cubs start to pull the gazelle apart while mum was panting heavily recovering from her dash. Our guide, Baraka believes the gazelle was pregnant as gazelles isolate themselves from their herds when they're close to giving birth and also it was slower in response and running than it should have been. Why it didn't totally clear the area when it first spotted the cheetah is beyond us.

We drove about 250m away to have our own packed lunch. We could see the cheetahs through the binoculars. After we'd finished lunch, about 30 mins later, we went back to the cheetahs. They'd nearly cleaned the carcase, mum was helping one of the cubs pull away the last bit of skin. It was sad but amazing to have witnessed an event like this. We didn't think we would. We headed back to camp arriving about 4, big day out.

 Spider webs

Secretary bird

Nice hot bucket showers on our return to wash away all the dust before a little siesta and drinks in the mess tent around 6ish.

Our bedroom in the tent..

A couple of new guests in camp tonight, a Swiss girl and a Dutch father and son. Quite a boisterous night in the mess tent, many conversations going, but a great way to pass the night. 

We headed to bed around 10.