Africa: Serengeti, Tanzania

This morning I was not going to let the fact that I was tired from sleeping in a tent for weeks on end and getting up at the crack of dawn get in the way of my excitement. Every safari we went on was amazing and today turned out to be the one filled with the most highlights. Early on in the drive there was a radio message that a leopard had been spotted in a particular area that morning. So off we went to try spot this elusive cat. Parked beside a field of camouflage we sat watching until someone noticed movement.

As you can see in the above photo they are hard to see even when relatively close. You know it is a rare experience to see a leopard when the guides are pushing the tourists out of the way to get a look.

On this day the leopard was in no way shy. It put on a show for us climbing on rocky outcrops and just sitting upon random rocks in the field.

It cleaned itself and just sat there having a gander at us looking at it.

A couple on the tour had organised to go hot air ballooning, which meant we had to stop off at this mega luxury hotel in the middle of the park.

It was built into a rocky outcrop with a pool.

And brightly coloured lizards. The couple got engaged while in the balloon that day.

Jumping back into the vehicles we came across a little dik dik, one of, if not the smallest antelope standing about 30-40cm high at their shoulder.

It was weird to think such a small creature gets around in this land of giants.

Then we found what I liked to call pride rock. Upon this rock slept a mumma lioness and her two cubs.

At first we did not see the cubs but all of a sudden a little face appeared from behind the mum.

The mum wasn't very interested in us but the cubs were.

As we passed by they got up to have a look, it was truly amazing and I played the lion king sound track on my ipod just to add to the moment ;).

Moving along we came across a group of cheetahs laying in a field. Cheetahs are usually solitary animals but it turns out these were almost fully grown cubs and the mum was on the prowl.

There is mum over to the right sussing out what is for dinner.

After a while of observing, the mother decided it was time.

Up they all got, stretching and rolling in the grass.

Somehow the mum communicated what was going to happen without a sound...

and off they went.

By this time a bunch of other safari vehicles had been radioed and collecting behind us.

This did not bother the cheetahs one bit as they moved into position.

They got down low and spread out, it was like being in one of those documentaries I always watched as a kid.

Then BOOM it was on, the cheetahs took off, I couldn't believe it. I got to see the fastest creature on land run, well actually five of them run down and catch a baby zebra.

It is a bit sad to see but at the same time exhilarating.

Yeah watching them eat it was a bit much. But hey I have bbq's all the time.

Later on we were driving around as the sun began to set and we came across a few lone wanderers including a young male lion, a another cheetah and a hyena.

I was looking for a post card to send to my parents, I had an idea that I wanted a sunset with the silhouette of a giraffe. Turns out I never found a post card that came close to the sunset we had this evening.