Our 2nd full day in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, we opted for a long morning safari to get further into Serengeti so Emmanuel got packed breakfast from the lodge on the go. We searched for a lone tree as the backdrop and hoped for some animals, that would be the perfect picture lol we wished too much? We passed by a few giraffes but nowhere near a lone tree or the horizon facing the right direction. The no off-road allowed made it nearly impossible unless you get really lucky. Emmanuel asked if that was a good tree, hum…nope and kept driving.
This one? Nope.
Run was running out, so we picked this one and placed ourselves facing the sun.
After the sunrise, we continued our safari to search for actions and the golden hour was beautiful. We saw a lion far away and that safari truck violated the rule, it was off-road!!!
Emmanuel said other drivers could report you, and you’d be in trouble, so we didn’t take any chances. We kept driving and seemed like headed up or over the mountain. Look at the top of that hill, the views from that lodge must be awesome.
A huge bird on the tree, I am not a bird photographer so I am not good with bird names even when Emmanuel said it.
This one has bright blue feathers, the same ones we saw in Kenya.
This one is colorful, it was the first time I saw this type of bird.
This monkey had a lot of nuts/berries in his mouth, we watched him spit out the seed one by one and it was endless!
As we continued to drive, Brian spotted something and asked Emmanuel to reverse, wow bats!!!! Good eyes Brian!
We pass by a few giraffes up on the side of the mountain, I had no idea how they got up there and why they would want to stay up there! Emmanuel drove up to a lake on top of the mountain and there were picnic tables with umbrellas! It looked like a wonderful place to have our breakfast. Emmanuel got out first to check the surroundings and then gave us the signal that it was safe.
Down by the lake, we saw cranes and flamingos. The flamingos were far away though.
Was that the same lodge we saw when we were driving up?
Breakfast with a view 😀 We got so many breakfast items from the lodge that we couldn’t finish: sausages, grilled mushrooms, sandwich, yogurt, juice, and bread. I was super scared of snake so I had my feet up squatting on the chair LOL!
We were the only ones there so it was peaceful and a great experience having breakfast out in the wild! After breakfast, we continued our safari up on the mountain.
More giraffes! Now this would be a great silhouette for sunrise 😀
Emmanuel said this area is common for elephants. We saw a herd with lots of baby elephants.
I love this backdrop with the boulders covered with brushes.
The elephants got really close to us 😀
The herd on the left side crossed to join the herd on the right side.
A half-red lizard.
The boulders on top of a huge rock.
What creature is that?
The trees grow in between the rocks.
Another tree grew in between the rocks, looked like a nature made hut!
More boulders!
This tree was filled with monkeys!
We saw a brush with many colorful birds and they made wonderful sounds!
It was a long morning drive (6+ hours) but it was very well worth it to see a different landscape of Serengeti up in the mountains.
We got back to the lodge to have lunch; the dishes were good: chicken wings with curry sauce, green beans, and avocado salad.
We took a break in our hut but since there was no wifi, we didn’t stay for long. We went to the reception to connect with civilization until it was time to head out for our afternoon drive.
During our afternoon game drive, Sokunna spotted the lioness hidden under the tree! They were having their afternoon nap. If we came from the opposite direction, we would not have saw them!
The other lioness wasn’t fully asleep and was licking like crazy. Her tongue was very long!
She was staring at us :O
Then, she came out and snacked on the leftover bones, the noise of cracking the bone was loud!
After she was done with the snack, she licked her back. She was literally next to our safari truck.
Then, she got up and walked toward another safari truck.
She crossed the field and chose on this side of the road to continue her nap :O
Her sister (I guess?) joined her and she looked injuried by the way she walked.
More and more safari trucks came to watch them as the golden sun lit the plain.
No action again so we left and tried to find a sunset spot. Vultures again:
As we headed back to the lodge direction, we couldn’t find a lone tree with a clear horizon. This was good enough as we were running out of time:
We continued with our drive toward the lodge and they saw a snake on the road!!!! I did not dare to watch, it would give me nightmares!
We got back to the lodge and had dinner. The surprise of the night was Jason’s early birthday celebration, I emailed the lodge to let them know about Jason’s birthday and they responded. On the other hand, Jason’s birthday day was at Embalakai Ngorongoro and they did not respond to my inquiry! The staff at Acacia Central Camp surprised Jason with singing and dancing and they even made him a “cake” to cut. We appreciate the staff at Acacia Central Camp!
At night around 11 PM, Jason woke up, went to the bathroom, and screamed OMG! I woke up immediately and asked, what?? He said ants all over the bathroom, he ran out and tried to brush the ants off his clothes! He said no wonder he felt something crawling on his body and asked me to check the bed. The ants were making their way into our bed and I used the pillow to brush them off. I told Jason to hand me the walkie talkie, I radio’ed for help! No one answered!!!! I kept trying as I was fighting the ants!!! After 10 minutes, a staff answered! I told him the situation and he said he’ll be right there. He came and saw the ants, he said he’ll be right back. After another 5 minutes or so, he came back with another staff and said they’d need to move us to another tent. We quickly packed our stuff and left the invasion!!! It was such an unbelievable night, Jason joked in the morning that it was sure a memorable birthday night LOL! We did not know what attracted them, we didn’t have any food left open. It was a mystery, Emmanuel guessed the ants were there for water.
