I couldn't sleep last night knowing that I am in the middle of one of the best game parks and that I'll get a chance to see all of the animals that I have been obsessed with since it was little. Driving out of our hotel to the main roads of the parks we saw the usual grazers of impala, gazelle and zebra. However, one awesome sight before we made our first turn was a herd of elephant. There were 11 adult females with 7 calves. One was small enough to walk underneath her mother's belly. They were marching just like the Jungle Book across the road about 6 feet from the front of our jeep. There massive bodies gave me chills, thankfully they're grazers too.
There was an awesome herd of Zebra that had been at the watering hole and were walking to the shade. They had to cross the path in front of us and they got spooked and started a mini stampede. Listening to their barks and hoofs thundering was straight off of Planet Earth.
A fun giraffe moment was watching it drink. He had to bend awkwardly to get far enough to get to the water. This is really rare because the giraffe are so vulnerable with their head down. Around that same watering hole were two female lions lounging in a dead tree for the morning. Just cat napping.
We went to another pond and saw the most disguting hippo pond ever. We could only stand the smell for about 3 minutes then we left to see the biggest croc I've ever seen. It had just finished eating a junvenile hippo so it's belly was huge too.
Ther mission for the day was to find lions close up, cheetah, and leopard. Well we were lucky enough to see those two lionesses at the water, then two more walking and lying in a bush, and one more watching a herd of very nervous zebra. After 5 lionesses we were ready to see the real simba. Wouldn't you know it, our driver, Madil was able to happen upon a lioness and her accompanying male. We saw another pair relaxing together too. In the heat of the day all these guys do is nap. But I would too if I only ate once or twice a week. The huge male with his beautiful flowing mane demanded repsect and awe. It was so great! The cutest picture that I got today was anothe lioness sleeping in a tree. She was hugging the branch with her face smashed against it too. I just wanted to climb up there and lay with her. When we came into this park we were so excited for lions and so happy to see as manuy as we did. We continued to drive around looking for the other cats, and ended up seeing another lioness resting on a huge rock, and two juvenile males that were celebrating after they just brought down a wildebeast. They were tackling each other in the grass and prancing around with mud all over them, too cute.
The cheetah and leopard eluded us even on our drive back to the lodge. This was doubly frustrating because one car of people in our group had seen 5 cheetah the first night. It was the car with my fav driver, madil and it was the only day I hadn't ridden with him. I made him promise we would see one and that I could get a cub to take home. His response "if you can catch it, you can keep it" I'm up for the challenge.
We made it all the way back to the lodge and saw some awesome hyenas, giraffe, and elephants, but the cats were nowhere to be found. Tomorrow's our last chance.
We ate a great dinner and celebrated having Heinz ketchup. I was lucky enough to get some cell service and got to hear some much needed voices. Sometime I think that may make me more home sick, but only two more weeks until I'm stateside!
This was by far my favorite day of the trip. There are enough positive words to explain all of the emotions of the day. I have dreamed about seeing these things for almost 20 years and I'm so happy and thankful for this experience.
We have a 6am drive tomorrow and the animals are normally more active at sunrise, so I'm off to bed. Until tomorrow's 10 hour car ride back to Moshi.
I miss you all, Britt
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