Another gorgeous Tanzanian sunrise greeted us as we started off on another day of safari game drives. There is something magical about the early morning here & there will be no sleeping in while we're in the bush!!!
We are heading further north today to what Peter called Hidden Valley. We passed on the same "road" as yesterday and the older male lion that we saw sleeping in the road yesterday was in almost the same location. I was able to get a couple better photos today.
As we got out into the savannah, we saw another Side Striped Jackal, a beautiful creature especially for anyone who loves dogs. I have chuckle because now it seems like we don't stop to take pictures of the giraffes & zebras because they are so abundant...truly special to be in this amazing game preserve & how wonderful that it is being preserved & protected from poachers.
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| One of Africa's Ugly Five, the warthog |
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| Another of the Ugly Five, the hyena |
We stopped for our box breakfast in the grasslands where a herd of zebras was passing by. Afterwards we drove on to the hidden valley but were disappointed that it was vacated...not a single animal that we could see, just a few birds.
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| Mama & baby |
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| Zebra takes a dirt bath.... |
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| More dust bathing ahead |
Heading back towards the woodland area again, we came upon an amazing herd of grazing wildebeest. Peter says this is a very unusual sight at this time of year in this location. I tried to take a 360 degree movie of their vastness. We also saw hyenas, warthogs, mongoose, helmeted guineafowl, giraffe, & herds of zebras.
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| Another mama & baby |
One thing that I find rather amusing is the barking & yipping that is heard from the zebras...you'd swear there was a pack of dogs nearby!
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| Helmeted Guineafowl & a couple mongoose |
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| Young giraffe |
Also, one of the things that I'm really enjoying is the fact that we aren't really heading to a destination on these drives but we are enjoying the process of looking for the animals in their natural habitat...just out for a "Sunday drive" checking the neighborhood & enjoying the natural beauty!
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| Lunch at the lodge- April 15 |
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| Dining room |
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| Bar area |
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| Birds just outside dining room. Lake Ndutu in background. |
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| Several Superb Starlings entertain us |
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| View from our cottage at Ndutu Lodge |
We headed back to the lodge a little after noon & then went back out at 3:30. Our timing wasn't too good today because the afternoon thunderstorm had just started so even with umbrellas, we got pretty wet. All of the roads were mud & running streams. We were quite amused to see a harem of impala absolutely frozen in the rain. Apparently, that's what a lot of the animals do. It looked like an expanse of grass with a couple dozen lawn ornaments...LOL!
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| It was raining & they stood like statues... very funny |
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| Some more impala in the rain |
On our way back to the lodge while we were passing Lake Ndutu, we saw two lost baby wildebeest & we were sad knowing they would probably be lion or cheetah food. Then we noticed them head towards the shallow water of the lake and saw an adult wildebeest running thru the water towards them. One of the babies was hers because as soon as they met, the baby suckled for about ten seconds...the other baby headed towards three other adult wildebeest that were running towards it. None was the mother as there was no suckling but at least this story had a happy ending...at least for today.
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| Genet at Ndutu Lodge |
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