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Thanks for your fantastic trip report! It brings back great memories and makes one want to work harder to get back...

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Hello all who have been following my drama story. We are back from Morocco and sadly, this was not a safari destination. Of course we knew this ahead of time, but I was hoping to see at least a gazelle in the desert. No such luck. We saw plenty of stray dogs and cats, some camels, some raptors, and quite a few storks nesting high up on ruins. Evidently they did have a special kind of lion called a Berber Lion who is said to have been exceptionally large, but I think the last one was killed a while back.

Anyway, back to "the rest of the story."

The last segment talked about five male lions in camp at dawn who played with our camping chair before leaving us and looking for more trouble. We pack up and follow them.

 

When we reach the turn off, we are not alone anymore, two game drivers noticed "our" lions. So now our boys are walking quite fast in the grass along the road. Zebra and thommies stop grazing and follow the lions' every move. Our boys stop and sit down; they get up and two sharpen their claws on a tree; they cross the road between the cars; the sniff around the big lone boulder next to the road; they rub heads with each other; but mostly, they don't seem to have a plan what to do next. We spend probably a half hour more with them before they cross the road again and walk up to where a lot of thommies are running around nervously. Then we lose sight of them in the tall grass.

This is our best EVER lion encounter and we are ecstatic and can't stop talking about it. Wow, wow, wow. All this before breakfast. We LOVE Sero 4 and the Serengeti.

Off we go to look for more sightings. At the lion tree we find.... you guessed it....more lions. There are the same two orangey-looking males accompanied by three females. Not much going on other than "lioning" around, so we make our way to Turner Springs after a nice GD told us about a lion pride on a wildebeest carcass, an area familiar to me from my friend's blog (Thanks, B&B)

Off we go and there is indeed a big pride feasting in a wooded area along a river. We can just make out the carcass and some lions are on it. It's hard to count how many there are, but my DH counts 13, among them some half-grown ones.

By now it's past 10 am and we really need to eat, so we go uphill to check out Turner 3 special campsite. We knew it would be occupied by a mobile operator as I had wanted to stay there when making my route plan. Looks nice looking in, but we do not go close.

We have a relaxed BF, surrounded by herbivores. We drive down the hill to check on the lions and notice a small herd of ellies about to cross the road in the directions of the lions. I have a hunch that when the ellies approach the pride, we might see some action. Turns out my hunch was correct. (Well, not to brag, but after a few safaris, I have learned some things about likely animal behavior).

Some of the ellies approach the sleeping lions who wake up in a hurry and sit alert. Two ellies come very close to them, lifting their trunks and swaying, while some in the pride get up and move away, out of the bushes, towards us. This is what I was hoping for!

At one point, about eight beautiful, healthy, muscular kings of the jungle, don't act quite so regally and hurry out of the woods rather than incurring the wrath of the ellies. This is the most number of grown-up lions we have ever seen together and we are truly enjoying this sight.

After a while, another ellie gets annoyed at the rest of the lions still further in the woods, so he runs up to them, trumpets loudly, and flushes them out into the clearing. Not only are the lions running away, but hyena and vultures who were waiting in the vicinity of the carcass, flee as well.

By now it's almost one o'clock and we have to say good-bye to this marvelous Turner pride, in order to meet with my sister at the visitor center.

We find them at a picnic table and we have a joyful reunion and are glad that everyone is fine; they tell us the story of the bad tent and the nice lodge. We tell them the lion visit story and the Mara crossings. Turns out that even though they spent the night in a lodge close to the Mara river, they were unable to witness a crossing. And they missed out on the lion visit because of faulty equipment. I'm mad at that for them, but they don't seem too bothered.

Nathan has offered to bring them a ground tent, but both of them refuse to sleep on the ground. DH offers to sleep in a ground tent with BIL, so my sister and I could use the RT, but they would rather stay in lodges. Ok.

We spend the next three hours discussing how to mesh our camping and lodging plans and my BIL is calling Nathan's office about lodge bookings. The biggest hang-up is the fact that we have two nights camping in Moru, while they have another night in a lodge in Seronera and Nathan booked them a night in Ndtudu lodge, not in the NCA. How and when are we going to meet to enter the NCA together? We only have ONE set of pre-paid cards and therefore we HAVE to enter the NCA together.

Major inconvenience now because Daniel Staub booked us as 4 people rather than as two couples. BIL is upset about this and I feel he is accusing me of having made this mistake, which I clearly did not.

To clarify: whereas in the TANAPA parks you can just show up to pay for your visit with cash or CC, the NCA has a rather obscure and antiquated system of only accepting pre-payed cards. These cards can be gotten by only some of the banks, I believe Exim bank is one of them.

Nathan organized our cards and put enough dollars on one card to cover 4 people for one day and a crater visit. To complicate things further, the second card had TSH on it to pay for the two vehicle fees. The problem was that we only had ONE set of cards for the two parties, which meant we had to enter and leave the NCA together.

After some back and forth, they agree to cancel Ntudu lodge, and stay another night in the Seronera area Kati-Kati lodge and we would meet each other at Nabi Hill exit gate at 2pm two days from now, in order to enter the NCA together. Ok, done, it's a plan.

My sister gives us some steak and hotdogs as well as the TABLE! Yes, we will get off the floor, finally. We say good-bye and see you at Naabi Gate at 2pm after tomorrow.

We do a quick, but unproductive game drive loop but enjoy the splendid savannah scenery in the evening light.

Then back to the Public campground to fill water and shower. NOT! There is no water coming out of the shower head, the only water is coming out of a small tap close to the ground. I'm so disgusted with the bathroom facilities. So I can't wash my hair until the lodge at the crater?

We had gotten permission from the SA couple (the same ones we have met in the Mara) to camp on Sero 4 as this campsite was booked in their name. They, in turn, got permission to stay in the extra special campsite about 7km from Sero 4. So win-win again. We are looking forward to another night at this fantastic campsite.

Physically, I'm a mess: my nose is running, my burnt fingers are hurting, my tsetse bites are itching, and my ribs are sore.... On the plus side, we have now a TABLE! I spread out the white table cloth to celebrate and it looks great.

We did have a great lion day today. Actually, our best ever lion day. Cheers.

The steak my sister gave us is grilled nicely, but it's so tough we can not cut it, let alone chew it. So we try the hotdogs. No good, rather disgusting. So both end up in the garbage bag that is hanging from the Defender. It's cold and windy tonight, BUT, wait, we are on Sero 4 again, everything else really doesn't matter, and we wonder who will be visiting us tonight.

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Turner Pride meet ellie wrathpost-47216-0-06076600-1446862562_thumb.jpgpost-47216-0-85143400-1446862580_thumb.jpgpost-47216-0-98860900-1446862599_thumb.jpg

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Just remembered that we did see monkeys in Morocco. Actually, they had no tails, so they were apes, more specifically, Barbary Apes, the same ones we have seen on the Rock of Gibraltar.

Anyway, on to Moru in the Serengeti. You still with me?

 

August 15 Seronera to Moru

 

I wake up at 3AM from lions roaring and hyena commotion and whining. We open the front flap and sure enough there are at least five hyena close to our car, but we can't see the lions. We take a few pictures and notice that one hyena has half a thommy in its fangs, legs dangling. Oh poorest. Another hyena comes by and grabs the thommy' s head, pulling it off. They both run off with their trophy. We are wondering if they made the kill or stole it from the lions who sound to be really close by. We will never know what goes on at night among those predators.

At first light I wake up because someone is shaking the Defender. What's going on? We open the back flap and look down. There is a hyena right below the roof tent grabbing the metal bar with its teeth and pulling on the..... Oh no, like stupid newbies, we forgot to store our garbage bag in the car last night. The bag is torn open and garbage is lying all over the area. Well. Hope they enjoyed the tough steak and the hotdogs! We have a good laugh about that.

There is not just one, but NINE hyena surrounding us and some are looking up at us, some greet each other, some fight for scraps, in short, it's a hyena early morning party. Well, this could take some time, and we wonder when we will be able to get off the roof tent? We take lots of pics and video and eventually, they all leave.

We pack up, clean up the garbage left-overs and go check out the lion tree. Sure enough, there is activity. Lion sex activity. Whoa, it's mating lions, busily creating the next generation of Serengeti lions. Every 10-15 minutes, there is another round and it's awesome in its fierceness even though the female is very eager to mate.

We fill up fuel at the gas station as we are going south today to the Moru Kopjes area where we will spend two nights on Moru 4 special CS. We fill up water at the other public campsite and there I find a working shower and can finally wash my hair, albeit with cold water. Not pleasant at all. Brrrrrrr. Freezing!

Next, we plan on stopping for breakfast at a nice spot. On the way south, we observe a monitor lizard by a river crossing and then someone makes us aware of a leopard nearby. We certainly have time to go visit with a leopard. Breakfast will have to wait.

There she is, lounging on a low branch of a sausage tree along the river. It's a challenge to take good pictures since she is lying in the shade and not so close by. She looks up a few times and changes positions and shows us her alert face. Just gorgeous. As we observe her, I prepare peanut butter sandwiches (Skippy from home) on matza (from home), part of our emergency food kept in a cooler bag nearby so I can reach it without having to leave the car. (My original plan was to freeze a few bottles of water every night and then use those in the insulated cooler bag we brought along in order to keep the drinks cool as well as fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. Well, "the best-laid plans of mice and men..."did not happen as Nathan's cool box never froze anything and barely cooled at all. Remember the spoiled meat?)

We arrive at Moru Kopjes close to lunch and immediately like the area. It's so pretty here with small Lake Magadi, where flamingos hang out, hills where giraffe are browsing, river valleys where ellies are feeding among the many huge fever trees. The landscape is greenish with tall grass, boulders, and acacia trees dotted throughout.

We find Moru 4 special campsite easily, as it is well marked, just south of Lake Magadi. Judging from the overgrown track, there has not been a vehicle there in quite some time. The site is actually located on a kopje and we are surprised to see that we will be camping between the boulders. I recognize the flat rock area and the view from pictures shared by two friends and I'm so happy to be here myself now! Thanks, friends, for the inspiration!

We park in the shade of the giant Candelabra tree and prepare some lunch, on a TABLE! what luxury. DH climbs the rocks and I'm all worried about him, remembering how my friend almost got in trouble there encountering a lioness. No lions around today that we can see.

Late afternoon and evening is spent game driving the tracks around Moru kopjes. We like Lake Magadi and spend some time there observing flamingos and buffalo. Among the fever trees along the river are a lot of tsetse flies and both of us get stung multiple times. There are many giraffe, waterbuck, ellies and vervet monkeys and I can see that the tsetses are after them as well. Shy Dik-Dik and a quick glimpse of an elusive leopard in tall grass conclude the evening. (leopard number 3 and second of the day) We try very hard to find a rhino to make it a Big Five Day, but it was not to be. We notice the absence of the large herds of herbies, as I call them. Much less game here than we have seen around Seronera.

We had planned on camping on the flat rock area, but the wind is so fierce that we park under the Candelabra tree and its trunk gives us some protection so we can use the gas stove easier. It's a very quiet evening and DH spends a lot of time setting up the camera to take star trails pictures.

At night we hear lions and hyena. Hope to see them in the morning.

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Moru area of the Serengeti

 

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The lake looks beautiful and those hyena! You were so lucky with your sightings and love the star trails. Pen

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The lake looks beautiful and those hyena! You were so lucky with your sightings and love the star trails. Pen

Thanks, I don't know if we were lucky with our sightings. We spend a lot of time out there and the Serengeti is just chuck full of animals. But then again, timing is everything as you well know. I always wonder for all the leopards we have seen, how many did we miss by just driving past them?

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August 16 Moru area

 

We wake up after 6, which feels like sleeping in. Our camp visitor is a lonely Dik-Dik. We enjoy the sunrise over the savannah below and pack up to go find lions on rocks. Not today, "the cats stayed in their baskets" as another friend likes to say. We only see hyraxes on top of the kopjes. We encounter a flock of love birds and try, then finally succeed, to get some pictures of these elusive creatures.

At the end of Lake Magadi we see a lot of thommies reflecting nicely in the pools. Flamingos are flying and reflecting in the lake as a lonely pelican is surveying the area. A herd of ellies is feeding peacefully on a slope and many giraffe are browsing high up around the top of kopjes. All very serene and beautiful, but no cats.

Because of a profound absence of zebra and wildebeest, and therefore cats, we make a big decision. We would drive up to Seronera again, maybe go as far as the Grumeti River, forgo our Moru 4 booking, and camp at the public campsite in Seronera instead. No one has checked our permit in Seronera and why should they care anyway. Ok, it's a plan. BTW, in all of our time in the Serengeti, we have seen exactly ONE ranger patrolling!

Close to Seronera, we find huge herds of zebra and a lonely hyena. Much better. We continue westward and come across a few hippo out of water and then....4 male lions. They seem to be youngish as they sport Mohawks and some mane is beginning to sprout. Peach fuzz. They are lounging around in tall golden grass and sometimes just disappear. As always, we marvel at how lions can just fade away in tall grass, totally camouflaged. We are well entertained by them for 2 hours, before they all walk to the river and disappear.

We then make our way to Sonare Picnic site where there are tables with benches, toilets, and many starlings waiting for scraps. We prepare our own lunch while the other Safari-goers just open up a boxed lunch. We hear a lot of Italian and we are amazed to hear how many Tanzanian game drivers are fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, and French. Throughout our trip we have met the nicest game drivers who seem to have respect for us self-drivers and after some "jambo" and "How are you" are more than willing to share good sightings information and many times would ask US if we had seen anything interesting. And of course we would share with them as well. Some even recognize us and will say, "I saw you in the Mara." Today is no different, as we get good information about a leopard sighting and off we go.

We can't believe it, but the leopard is in the same tree as yesterday. But wait, it's not one leopard, but THREE of them. Once our eyes focus, we see a young leopard chewing on a kill at exactly the same spot in the tree where we saw the female leopard yesterday. Above him is another young one snoozing and on the other side of the V shaped trunk is the biggest one sleeping, presumably the mother. So it stands to reason that we saw the mother yesterday.

When chatting with a game driver, he reveals that he has seen those cubs back in February when they were just little kittens and this particular sausage tree is their favorite hang-out.

Wow, three leopards, in a tree, not too far, with a kill! It doesn't get much better than this!

We watch as the cub is feeding and the legs of the carcass are swaying below the branch. It is an antelope with long straight horns, unknown to us. The sleeping cub has a huge belly and I guess he had first dibs. Mother keeps snoozing.

At one point the feeding cub is dragging the carcass and has to struggle and pull on it hard in order not to let it drop. Eventually, the cub drags it to the fork in the trunk and meows for help, or so it seems. The other cub wakes up and moves closer to mom where he plops down. Then the mother wakes up, surveys the situation, and notices the new location of their kill. She grabs hold of the carcass and - displaying her awesome neck muscle strength - walks with it high up into the tree and places it under the leaves where we can't see it anymore.

The mother then makes herself comfortable on a branch below the kill, while the cub joins its sibling and the whole family is back to snoozing, tails swaying gently in the breeze. What a wonderful sighting.

After that we see a herd of buffalo and all we need now is a rhino to make Big Five. It was not to happen in TZ, whereas in Kruger Park, we bagged Big Five many times even before lunch!

Then we decide to go check out the Turner Springs area all the way to the end. What a beautiful landscape of gently rolling hills, green river valley and herds and herds of animals. We were amazed at the sheer number of thommies, Grant gazelles, wildebeest, zebra, ellies, and buffalo. Turner 1 special campsite would have been glorious, were it not for the pump house, pipes, tires, and other industrial junk lying around. So we decide not to stay the night there.

Then we have the idea to check out Sero 4. In case no one is occupying it tonight, we could surely camp there again, we reason. Just after sunset, by the turnoff, we encounter three Cheetah on the prowl. Probably the brothers again!? Beautiful, all three big cats in one glorious day. Love the Serengeti!

No one is on Sero 4, but just to be certain not to impose, we wait till after seven, but no one shows. We set up camp, happy to be back on our fantastic campsite for a third night.

By 8:30 we have 9 hyena circling around us, probably hoping those silly campers would leave their garbage out again. Sorry guys, not tonight.

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Five lions hiding in tall grass! Perfectly camouflaged.

 

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Whaddya lookin at? Selfie crazed Spaniards.

 

 

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Three leopards in a sausage tree, but hard to see!

 

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Sero 4 one last night.

 

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Selfie crazed people ... I just can't understand them. They are looking their own faces whenever taking any photo. When they come home, it is like: "This is me and that tail belongs to the lion". "This is me in front of Eiffel tower, you can see the antenna on top" "See all the mist around my face?? That is Victoria falls". Crazy!!

 

And, @@KaliCA , also you should post your photos in bigger size, as they truly deserve more than those merger 640 pix !! Plus, could you share the tech specs behind the star trails photo?

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Selfie crazed people ... I just can't understand them. They are looking their own faces whenever taking any photo. When they come home, it is like: "This is me and that tail belongs to the lion". "This is me in front of Eiffel tower, you can see the antenna on top" "See all the mist around my face?? That is Victoria falls". Crazy!!

 

And, @@KaliCA , also you should post your photos in bigger size, as they truly deserve more than those merger 640 pix !! Plus, could you share the tech specs behind the star trails photo?[/

 

My DH says he took the star trail pic at ISO 100, widest F-stop, shutter open for 1 hour.

Again, I don't know how to post pics in bigger format, nor do I know how to insert pics in text, which would make the pics more relevant to the text. Anyone?

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