Safari!!! Serengeti

February 5

Another early morning and off to the Serengeti. Serengeti is a Masai word that means “endless plain” and that is an understatement as you look at the view.

We started the day with this bird (no clue what it is but look at the thorns on that tree!)

Zebras and Wildebeest!!!

Mount Kenya Hartebeest – easy to remember because their horns are kind of in the shape of a heart

Hyena!

White Bellied Corabaster

Mongoose (is the plural mongeese?) in the plural form eat black mambas which you can find in the Serengeti but we did not see.

Guenther’s dik-dik aka the cutest animal in Tanzania:

Hippos!

So many hippos!!!

We saw two male lions far away before seeing a solo male (shown here). I am going to write more about this guy in a separate post. It’s a little too “circle of life” to post without a clear warning for the kiddos and parents.

We also saw these lionesses with some cubs:

Silverback Jackal

A Superb Starline:

Mwanza flat-headed agama that we saw at a lookout that we hiked up to (with some boring lizard):

Grant gazelle

Fun fact – the all black ostriches are males. So these are female:

Marabou Stork – look at how big those guys are!!

This is our camp for tonight and tomorrow night. Super fancy tents – showers and toilets inside our tent!

Michael got a few beers to enjoy with the sunset and we ended up talking a kid named Golisen (no clue if that is correct – he told us just to call him Max, which is his father’s name). Max was very excited to hear that we are from the US. He has a really high opinion of people from the US specifically because there is a lot of things in Tanzania which are supported by people from the US (and have signage so they know “Support from the People of the United States of America” apparently). He was optimistic about the future of both Tanzania and the world although he was concerned about Trump. He is 21 years old and working in the camp for a few months but will go back to school when he is done.

He also told us that safari is Swahili meaning to travel or to visit.

Our sunset while sitting outside our tent:

Something incredible.