Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-minute vacation for April 23rd. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.
To prevent other predators from stealing their kill, leopards take it high into the branches of acacia trees. The tree’s thorns, narrow branches, and height don’t confront these graceful acrobats.
Even though we were still flying high from the balloon ride, it was time to get back down to earth.
After breakfast, we loaded up the Land Cruisers and headed north into the Serengeti National Park. Along the way, a couple of Thompson gazelles challenged us to a race. At 40 kph we were neck and neck and it seemed like they weren’t even trying. How much faster can they run? Rather than show off, they made a hard right turn toward the tree line.
We made it to our next lodge, Serengeti Serena, without any more drag racing.
Our large, comfy room at Serengeti Serena. Of the four lodges we stayed at on this safari, this was the most luxe.
It was also the only one with a pool. Not just a pool, but a pool with a fantastic view of this valley. As inviting as it was, we spent most of our time out on game drives.
Again, luck was with us as we found thousands of migrating animals nearby. Who needs a pool when you can be smack dab in the middle of the Great Migration?
And where there are herd animals, there are predators. Some of them are smaller, like this jackal and hyena, and some of them are larger.
Away from the predator/prey drama of the zebras and lions, a bloat of over a hundred hippos was lounging carefree in a smelly pond. One thing we’ve learned about hippos is that you smell them long before you see them. But they don’t mind the aroma or the fetid water; they’re happy to roll around in it.
For such large animals, hippos have comically tiny feet.
Next time, the rest of the group leaves for the beaches of Zanzibar and we head to a tented safari camp for three more days of game drives. Stay tuned for a look at our tent accommodations, plus lions, leopards, cheetahs and more.
Until then ~
Tschüss!