Bucket Blog

Day 9 - Wow! Just Wow!

Today was the last full day of our incredible Safari adventure and Wow, what a day it would be. We were greeted once again by this glorious sunrise over central, Tanzanian landscape.

Oh ya, about last night. I had stayed up a bit longer than Kathy to work on the blog and was just dozing off, perhaps 11:15pm, when I thought I heard someone walking outside our tent. I strained to make out the sounds and they began to get louder and sounded like several walking. I could now hear it was running, many running. No this was not human. It was hooves beating the earth, many, many hooves. The sound and vibration of a stampede became loud and clear and I didn't know if I should get up and try to peek outside or not. The deafening roar exploded along the sides of our tent as the heavy canvas material began to move back and forth. I recognized the barking of zebras - they were clearly distraught and running for their lives right through our camp and literally along our tent.

I just prayed one wouldn't trip and come careening into the side of the tent bringing it down. This went on for a good minute which seemed a lot longer at the time and then it was QUIET - like nothing ever happened. Ok bedtime - NOT. The beating of my heart was the only thing I could now hear.

Anyway, I was finally getting to sleep and of course I had to pee. I got up and as I was doing my thing, I had an eerie feeling something was watching me and then I heard a crunching and cracking sound. It sounded like it was in the just behind me. The tents are quite large, as you can see from the pictures, and at night all the inner flaps are closed up except for 2, for ventilation. One of these is in the restroom area and it was through this one I felt like I was being watched. I had heard that crunching and cracking sound before and then I remembered it was that of an elephant breaking limbs on it's tusk and then eating. Yes, there was a huge elephant right outside our bathroom window. Really! I'm sure these thick, canvas, tent walls could easily stop an elephant if it wanted to check things out inside.

Love this coffee time every morning

I'm sorry, even though I've been on Safari for 9 days, this was still a first for me. What if it got sleepy and lay down and then rolled over? I lay there wide-eyed and tried to think rationally about the whole situation. This camp has been here for a long time and thousands of people have stayed here on Safari and elephants are herbivores. I then went peacefully to sleep.

Ok, back to today. Where was I. Yes, today we greeted the zebra and elephant tracks, of last night, with much anticipation, wondering where our land cruiser would take us and what sights we'd behold.

Such a great crew - thanks guys for everything!

Soon after a nice breakfast, Kathy posed with the staff for a quick pic and we boarded our Land Cruiser for the last full day of Safari. We finally got a photo of us in the Land Cruiser as we are on Safari - an awesome way to feel the air with the best visibility.

To this point, Kathy and I have seen everything you could ever ask for on Safari. We've seen the big 5 - Lion,

Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and African Buffalo. We've seen a Zebra being born. Kathy saw her Cheetahs and we actually witnessed 2 significant Wildebeest crossing of the Mara river (remarkable on its own). We have truly been blessed. What's left. Well, if we wanted to be greedy, I guess all that's really left to top a truly incredible Safari would be to witness an actual "hunt and kill" - nature in it's rawest form - the survival of the fittest. Today would be that day - it would come as we were heading back to camp.

Brand new baby giraffe

Enjoy these amazing photos and thank-you again to my wonderful wife. Kathy spent hours behind the lens so we'd have lasting memories and have something to share with others. So here they are in the order we saw them today.

Overlooking part of the large marsh of the Tarangire

Hadada Ibis

Spur Winged Goose

Yellow Billed Storks

African Grey Heron

African Lovebirds

African Fish Eagles

Blacksmith Lapwing

Just monkeying around

We all need a little preening now and then

Hang on kiddo.... here we go

One of the millions of
termite mounds dotting the
African landscape

I'm a bit lost and all alone out here

Mongoose

Hartebeast

These Buffalo did not want to let us pass - quite the stare down

Leopards are lone hunters and drag their kill into a nearby tree and then make that home for a
few days. The kill (Impala) is in the lower left and her highness is in the upper right

These Impala strolled into the area completely unawares the Leopard was hovering above.
Fortunately for them, the Leopard was already full. We watched for 2.5hrs to see if anything
might happen

These guys were definitely on edge but weren't sure why

I'm so sleepy

I think I'll reposition

There, that's better

Male Ostrich in the middle of a mating ritual - check out
those thighs!

This is where the Ku De Ta happened. It was late in the day and then we spotted this lioness and her man (not pictured because he was a lazy, lazy male just laying flat to her left and not moving).

The Predator

They were both asleep but way off in the distance, about 1/2 mile was a herd of Wildebeests and Zebras slowly moving their way. She awoke and started to figure this all out. This is her figuring out a strategy. The pictures following show the hunt briefly. It took about 20 minutes to stealthily move through the grass to the heard. Then the attack took about 15 seconds and the kill took about 20 more minutes.