[This is post #12 of what will be multiple posts about our 2024 trip to Africa. To go to the first post in the series CLICK HERE.]
It is now the afternoon of Day 6, September 15, of our trip to Africa. We had had an extraordinary morning with lions and then elephants. Then we had an unexpected encounter with multiple rock hyraxes at lunch at Mbuzi Mawe Camp. We were now headed south towards our next camp, Serengeti Sametu Camp.
Our track is shown in magenta on the map below. The total distance was only about 40 miles, but it took over 4 hours because we kept stopping to take pictures of the animals we encountered along the way.
 |
| Day 6 is in magenta. Afternoon trip was from Mbuzi Mawe Camp to Serengeti Sametu Camp. |
Buffalo. We had not gone far before we began to see large numbers of African Buffalo. Those pictured below were well off the road, but some other groups were along or on the road. In the past when we had encountered antelope of various kinds on the road, including wildebeest, Fazal would keep driving and they would scamper out of our way. I could not help but notice that when there were buffalo on the road, Fazal stopped well back and let them pass before we moved forward. They may look a lot like domestic cattle but they are definitely not domesticated. Buffalo are mean and unpredictable. Fazal did not want to antagonize them.
 |
| Herd of African Buffalo |
Vervet monkey. We also caught sight of a lone vervet monkey near the side of the road. We were pleased to finally see one of these. We had expected to see many of them in Arusha at the Coffee Lodge, but our guide there said they had worked hard to drive them away since they had become such a nuisance.
 |
| Vervet monkey |
Baboons. A bit further we spotted a group of baboons in some trees. The pictures below show what seemed to be a family within the group. The adults were preening while the baby crawled around and between the adults. I have no idea how old the little one was, but he seemed awfully small.
Cheetah. We had seen very few if any other vehicles as we worked our way south until all of a sudden there were many parked along the side of the road. Just as in every U.S. national park we had ever visited, a traffic jam usually meant only one thing--an animal was nearby and possibly doing something interesting. Sure enough there was a cheetah a short distance off the road.
 |
| Cheetah at her kill with blood on her face. |
She was still working on a fresh kill.
She was so close it was a great photo-op.
She clearly knew we were there and looked right at us.
However, like most of the other animals we had encountered, she certainly did not consider the safari vehicles a threat and mostly ignored us.
Fortunately she was just far enough away that the whole thing wasn't too gross. According to our guide book, cheetahs have to eat their kill quickly since any of a variety of scavengers (lions, hyenas, jackals, leopards, and vultures) will move in quickly. Being solitary animals, cheetahs cannot defend the kill.
When she looked like she was settling in for a nap, we decided to keep moving since we still had a long way to go.
Dik-diks. Our next encounter was a small group of several tiny antelope known as dik-diks. When fully grown they stand only 12-15 inches high at the shoulder.
 |
| Dik-dik |
 |
| Dik-dik |
Night time predators. By this time it was approaching 6 p.m. and starting to get dark, especially due to the overcast skies. However, the growing darkness also meant the night time predators were starting to appear.
We caught sight of a spotted hyena.
 |
| Spotted hyena |
We needed to get to the camp, since we were not supposed to be moving
around after dark. Being so close to the equator, darkness comes on
quickly with very little dusk. However we made a slight detour to a tree with a vehicle parked nearby. Why? Leopard!!
Leopard. Leopards are described in our guidebook as follows:
"Secretive, solitary, and elusive, leopards are extremely difficult to spot in the wild, spending the daylight hours resting high in the trees. They hunt alone, during the hours of darkness between dusk and dawn. By nature, leopards are extremely dangerous, aggressive and unpredictable." (Tanzania Wildlife and Safari Guide, Diane and Peter Swan)
Fazal was excited. Even though it was getting
late and we were supposed to be off the road, he was not going to pass up this rare opportunity to see a
leopard.
 |
| Leopard resting in the tree |
Once we got close and knew where to look, we could clearly see her. She was sound asleep despite us parked nearby.
Driving to the other side, we could see her head.
Also in the tree was what was left of some type of antelope. Most scavengers cannot climb trees. Therefore, to protect their kill, leopards commonly cache it in a tree. Leopards are extremely strong and can drag kill heavier than they are up into a tree. They may return days later to finish eating.
 |
| Leopard's cached kill |
It really was getting dark now, but we were hopeful that she would wake up, so we waited.
After about 30 more minutes she finally started to stir. But, being a cat, she first had to do important cat things like taking a bath.
Finally she began her descent. Since we were among the few vehicles still there, we hoped we were in a good spot to see her come down.
That was incredible! Although the photography is not nearly as good as the still shots above, below is a video of her descent and exit.
We really did need to get moving now. Fortunately we had only a short distance left to go. It was completely dark when we arrived at Serengeti Sametu Camp, but it had definitely been worth staying out to see the leopard come down from the tree.
Below is yet another fantastic African sunset. This was actually shot earlier when we were waiting for the leopard to wake up, but it seemed like a good way to end. I still cannot believe all the things we had seen on this day. It was truly an entire trip's worth of outstanding experiences, but there was still much more to come.
 |
| Sunset on Day 6 |
No comments:
Post a Comment