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July 7, 2005
Our game drive this morning started with viewing a male ostrich chasing a female. It was quite comical and amazing to see how fast they could run. Phebe provided commentary for this event. We thought the male was trying to catch the female to mate with her but apparently the mating ceremony is a very beautiful dance and he was just chasing her to help her ovulate.
We drove a little bit further and found a cheetah in the grass but it was quite a distance away.
Our plan had been to go on a nature walk at the place where we had seen the rock hyrax the day before but when we arrived the pathway was blocked and we were told that a female lion had just given birth to four cubs up on the trail and no visitations were allowed.
Our next adventure was happening across four female lions that had just killed a wildebeest and were beginning their feast. It was interesting to see the vultures up in a tree waiting for their turn.
We parked on a spillway and saw some hippos in the water, which normally at this point of the trip would not be worth mentioning but we learned that they were mating in the water. Definitely worth a photo.
As we were returning to our lodge for lunch we saw the best example of the wildebeest migration to date. We watched in awe as a trail of animals crossed the road in front of us. The trail was at least 3 miles long and when we pulled forward we could see thousands and thousands of them. It was very spectacular.
After lunch we set off on our 93-kilometer journey to our next camp.
We stopped to see gigantic crocodiles and twice for hippos. On Phebe's side of the jeep she was able to see banded mongoose while on my side I was concentrating on smoke from fires in the area that are deliberately set to kill off ticks. These fires seemed to be very close to our new camp and we would see several areas of flames and smoldering logs.
We stopped at an old rickety chain bridge that crossed the crocodile infested water below. Phebe went all the way across but I only crossed halfway.
When we finally arrived at our "luxury tented camp" we were impressed with the "lobby" that had inviting soft chairs and an old gramophone playing oldies. The Kirawira Camp is in Western Serengeti in the Ndabaka Plains. It is located in the national park between the Mbalageti and Grumeti Rivers famous for their enormous crocodiles. Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake is only an hour's drive.
The camp manager gave us an orientation of the amenities and dining facilities. Phebe and I shot each other a glance when he described the whistles in each tent to be blown in the event of an emergency and how we were not to walk back to our tent after dinner unaccompanied by a guard!
Our tent was very remote, one of the furthest from reception. We were extremely impressed. There was a nice veranda with a table and chairs. The inside of our "tent" had hardwood floors and gorgeous furniture. There was mosquito netting around our beds and the bathroom was done in mahogany with marble counters and brass fixtures. This was definitely a 5-star tent and had it had solid walls would have been a 5-star hotel room.
When we went to bed it was rather eerie because the wind was blowing very hard and the sides of the tent were flapping. It was noisy and I was worried that wind would spread those fires to our camp.
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