Tanzania safari report - Day 7
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 10:59PM Today we split into two groups: hot air ballooners and non ballooners. The ballooners were up at 4:45 for their second flight attempt. The day before we had to cancel our flight due to rains, so today was attempt #2. Sometimes the balloon company allows to to join without a fee, however on this occasion there were no available slots.
We headed down towards the Gol kopjes in search of cheetah and lion activity, as well as migratory herds of zebra and wildbeest. We certainly found all of the above.
The Gol kopjes are rock outcroppings out the southeastern plains of the Serengeti. The area has very short grass, which wildebeest love to eat. This grass is nutritionally high, so it will yield good milk for their newborn early in the year. There are also resident thompson gazelle, which means cheetah will not be far away.
We checked in at Naabi hill with the rangers there, then we were on our way. We spent the morning driving in and around the kopjes, and came across a lion sleeping on a nice rock and then a female cheetah in an open field. After some persistence, we arrived at a large kopje which appeared to have 3 female and 1 male lions. The male was splitting his time 'servicing' two of the females, and every 10 minutes was a Barry White moment with cameras clicking away. We sat for 2 hours watching the interaction between the lions, and as we were leaving to go have a picnic a second male lion came out of hiding to join into the action. It was a virtual orgy of lions, acting out in front of our vehicles. I took something like 18 exposures with my pano camera, which wasn't the easiest. With only 3 exposures per roll, I was chaning rolls quite often.
The afternnon brought more rains, and on ourt liesurely game drive we came in and out of the rain quite often. I am glad that it didn't rain at camp, because I was waiting for the camp staff to wash and dry my laundry.
The plains are so green right now, many roads are challenging and the wildlife spread out. We are having great photo ops nonetheless, and some stunning images are coming out of this group of travelers.
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