The tall and the short of it: The penultimate post..

Apologies for anyone who wanted to see the last two posts, obviously we've been running around a little since we got back and I've sort of forgotten. Anyway, I thought I'd finish the last few weeks for my own records. If you want to look at the photos go ahead. Kili and Zanzibar will follow on shortly.

Following on from the primates of Uganda, we had 4 days viewing the myriad of wildlife living in the Northern Serengeti. The basic format of each day was to wake up early drive around for a few hours, do a bit more in the afternoon before starting to drink at around sunset. As a concept I think it'll catch on one day...

To get there we had another short flight in a Cessna Caravan, something which I think Bec was beginning to really really enjoy. Well that or hate to the point of tears. I forget which.

This plane was destined to be mine. Can't be many people known as Keg around...

Think seeing this next to he pilots chair really helped Bec's confidence

As did airports like this..

Still, it did provide some stunning views

The photos of these expeditions are below. All you have to do is add the soundtrack of a larger than life driver and musically interesting Masaai spotter to get the real sense of being there. The day I hear the Jambo, Jambo Bwana song again will have come to soon.

First up is a pride of lions who hung around the same sort of area most days. In fact the sheer numbers of lions in the region was one of the most surprising things as far as I was concerned. There were big groups of them seemingly wherever we went.

Lion posing #1

Lion posing #2

Lions posing #3/4/5

Later on we came across a mother cheetah and her two cubs with a fresh kill (and one or two vultures).

Two cheetah cubs

Don;y you hate it when your mother cleans stuff off your face?

There's a real art in not giving a shit..

One this guy didn't have, as shortly after this he did a nice mock charge which woke Bec up a little

The first leopard we saw. Shortly after this photo it jumped down the other side and disappeared into the long grass.

We also got a glimpse of a black rhino, something which is apparently very hard to do in the Serengeti nowadays sadly.

After 5 months with Bec it was nice to have someone I could talk eye to eye with.

We didn't swim.

Hiding their children from any attempt at photos appeared to be a popular game among elephants

Not a bad place to start drinking for the night

Or to stop for breakfast

Running hippo. I think Bec wanted to keep it.

Cheetah brothers. Apparently they're really good hunters. Sadly they also seemed to be good at doing absolutely nothing.

One of the many herds dotted around

Hyenas rarely look cute do they?

Just taking lunch to work, no biggie

A better view of a leopard. It had jumped away and hidden earlier but slunk back after all the cars had gone, so we went back and disturbed it a second time...

There really were too many other pictures to put here, so I'll just put 2 I liked:

From the Serengeti we had a short flight to Gibbs Lodge, near the Ngronogoro crater, something I'd wanted to go to since I was very small (smallish?). Before going there though I took a short walk to something called the Elephant Cave, where elephants have made a cave while digging for minerals.
Sadly though the cave collapsed a little while back:

Elephant "Cave"

There was a nice waterfall though

And a bushbaby or two came to dinner

The crater itself was sadly not quite what I hoped it would be, with too many cars allowed in, and as a result the wildlife being more tame than one might expect in a national park. Still, the scenery around the rim is stunning, and there were some beautiful views: