Tanzania Day 3

Tuesday May 3, 2011

Happy Birthday Dad!!   We woke up early and got some breakfast at the hotel.  I was able to skype (no video) with Jason for a bit before we left on the morning game drive.  We went to the local Menyara National Park and immediately saw some baboons like the day before. One even climbed on our land cruiser!! It was extremely lush and tropical so spotting animals was a bit hard.  I pointed out the first elephant! We only saw the ears but it counts!  We saw giraffes, hippos, other monkeys, zebras, warthogs, some antelope among other smaller creatures.

At noon we went back to the lodge for another buffet lunch.  We got back on the road for a 6 hour drive to the Serengeti.  We drove over the Ngorongoro Crater and down some crazy dirt roads.  We saw a ton of Masai villages and I cannot wait to go in to one and photograph the people.  The Serengeti is way flatter than what we had seen and became more lush the more we drove. We saw all kinds of antelope, hyenas as well as some more giraffes close up.  I got some amazing photos!  We also some some buffalo and stalked 2 leopards in a far away tree for a bit.  Leopards are the hardest to find/see so I’m stoked we got that done the first day!  Tomorrow I hope to see more elephants and big cats.  We made it to the lodge just after dark.  Its raining off and on here with some crazy lightening in the distance. We cannot walk to and from our rooms without a security guard because of the wild animals in the area!  Scary!  We had a nice dinner and watched a cultural dance show put on by the staff.  Kimberly (one of the girls in our car) got pulled up there by a dancer and showed off some awesome moves!  We retired to the room to rest and look through today’s images. 

Ida and Marcella