Serengeti National Park (West Side)

Today Pat and Gail wanted a real day of leisure so only Chris and I went with Norton to the west side of the park. Our birding skills are nowhere near as expert as theirs but with Norton’s help and a bird book we saw at least 20 different birds.

Seeing so many animals migrating in an orderly fashion was awesome. I mean there were thousands of wildebeasts and zebras running across the road, jumping over the river banks and moving in one huge group.

There is no way that this view can be captured using a cellphone. From the air, there may be a hope of getting a photo of this sight. We were offered the choice of going in a hot air balloon over the Serengeti but for $500 U.S. each for a one hour flight, we quickly shut that down. It was pretty spectacular on the ground.

We stopped at a hippo pool and saw a cluster of hippos in the water and on the rock was a light green crocodile. About 7’ long.

Once again we spotted a couple of well-fed groups of lions sleeping in the shade of trees. Near one of the lion groups, we saw a Maribu crane, tawny eagle and vultures gorging on a dead zebra carcass.

Another group of sleeping lions had giraffes on the lookout. They could smell the lions but couldn’t see them and they were standing as still as trees.

Another wonderful day in the Serengeti.Read more