Heading Upwards: Day 16 of our Awesome African Adventure.

The early morning surprise. A predawn lift-off in a hot air balloon. 

Takeoff was a little hairy. A trainee pilot who had a permanent fear-stricken expression. Much like most of us in the basket. 

There is a good view up here. Trees and stuff. A dawn sunrise behind a curtain of smoke. 

Here comes the sun, da da da da...

Here's something. Who knew that the giant ball of fire was actually a big smiley face?

After a good look at the tops of trees...

and occasionally even closer, 

we had the usual uncontrolled crash landing. This was more complicated than usual as we had to negotiate the vaste areas of burnt savannah. 

To celebrate still being alive, champagne. (Made in Tanzania…)

So, back to animals... Here are a couple of stripy beasties...

...and a secretary bird after poking her claws into a 240 volt plug.

...and this escapee from our garden...

 There are so many lions here. They seem to be everywhere. They're difficult to avoid tripping over...

...but good grief they can be cute when they're not ripping your throat out...

Next we came to some strange fruit.

Sure, it is not uncommon to see lionesses up in trees. But you NEVER see male lions up there. They are far too bloody lazy.

Oh.

This is something almost NEVER seen. But here he is viciously attacking a stray piece of twig.

This guy truly knows how to relax. 

This tree is often inhabited by a leopard. Looking at this lion's gut, I would suggest that maybe the leopard is still there.

In this western part of the Serengeti there are just soooo many animals of all descriptions.

Soooo many topi. 

Soooo many giraffe.

and sooooo extrapolatingly humungously large numbers of wildebeest...

Time to head back to camp. The sun was finally descending into the red mist once more...

Tomorrow... more animals...

Next episode here

Blog on the Bog: Days 14 & 15 of our Awesome African Adventure

[Well, what do you know? We are in a tent in the west of the Serengeti, and in this tent we have flush toilets and the best WiFi we have had to date! Thus my intention to write this 'blog on the bog'.

Weird huh?]

Bags packed and ready to go, we wondered if our diminishing supplies would get us through this final week. Would the toothpaste last, would our underwear survive and, most importantly, will there be enough Imodium?

Only time and the toilet will tell.

We flew first to Dar es Salaam, then Zanzibar before finally arriving in Arusha to stay one final night with Ian's lovely family. No photos. I slept.

The following day (Day 15) we tootled off to the airport to head west to the Serengeti. This left a few hours to meander gently to out new camp, engagingly called 'Safari Camp number two'...

Here are some pix taken en route.

We then came across our first cheetah of the trip. Normally these guys lie around all day doing next to nothing and claiming all the benefits that they can.

Not these two. A mother and adolescent. 

The youngster decided to put on a show.

She climbed up a tree, something I've never seen a cheetah do before.

She then posed for photographs...

...before heading down to her mother to tell her that dinner was available not far away.

Her mother reluctantly attempted a chase after some gazelle, but she never really had her heart in it and gave up while the gazelles stood there in bemusement.

Benefits should be removed.

Then, as evening was drawing across its curtains, we nearly tripped over a couple of jungle kings.

This particular king did look a little inbred. Erm, just like pretty much all kings I guess...

Although nothing much seemed to be happening, we knew by our in-depth knowledge of wildlife and pure luck that cubs were nearby.

Lo and behold...

A bloody good start. But tomorrow a surprise will bring...

Next episode here

Time to Chill: Day 13 of our Awesome African Adventure.

(Ok, we are now waiting in the airport in Dar es Salaam for our flight to Arusha then, tomorrow, to the Serengeti. I have a signal so will catch you up-to-date with the blogs. Poor you.)

The next morning, our last full day in the Nyerere National Park, was spent winding down from our fabulous day the day before. We were both exhausted from that intense day, from the disturbed nights trying to sleep with hippos, and from an intestinal tract that had decided that foreign food needed rejecting...

We took it slow on the trip back to main camp, stopping occasionally for toilet breaks, and snapping pix.

Giraffes are everywhere here. 

After a relaxed lunch (er, not for me) and a siesta (definitely for me!) we took a late afternoon trip upriver from our camp.

You know, that camp that is kept guard by this chap...

A chance for some more bird photography...

Then pull up on a crocodile infested sand bank...

...for some pix...

and a last drink

But our day wasn't over. Ian took us out for a half-hour night drive after our evening nosh. One of those half hour drives that take about two hours. 

"We're not likely to see much" he said.

Therefore...

Not a bad ending to our stay in the Nyerere National Park. Next; Arusha for a night, then onto the Serengeti for a week. You will be relieved to hear that access to the internet is likely to be zilch...

Next episode here.

Dog Day: Day 12 of our Awesome African Adventure.

The overnight stay in a mosquito net was not the most luxurious night in white satin that I’ve ever had, but it gave us a nearly three hour advantage to get to the most likely road crossing and maybe catch sight of the dogs there.

The best laid plans were however scuppered by our aging truck. It started to shudder and fade, eventually staggering to a halt in an area conveniently lacking in phone coverage. We slowly made our way to the main road where we flagged down some help. A guide came over with a handy pair of pliers and appeared to fix the problem. This worked well for about a hundred meters before grinding to a halt.

We were finished. 

Just at that precise moment another truck passed by. They were returning to camp because of a battery failure when they had been informed that dogs were spotted near their camp! 

DOGS! GO! GO! GO!

And there they were.

A pack of eight Painted Wolves. An alpha female (she da boss), three other adults and four crazy adolescents.

The kids played while the adults dozed.

We were guests on our rescuers truck. They now had a choice, watch the dogs or go for breakfast.

You have to be kidding me! Off we went to their camp....

We had finished our desperate search for the wild dogs, we now had a desperate search for a truck to take us back to the dogs.

A truck was requisitioned and of we went. The dogs were still there!

It was clear that these dogs were here for the day. All (including the adolescents) were flat out.

We again had to change trucks. We went back to the local camp where we awaited our replacement. Our lunch arrived, then soon after our truck. We were off again!

That day we spent about eight hours with the dogs. Phenomenal.

Much of the time they just lazed around, but we knew that, as evening approached, they would start to hunt.

However, waiting for them to start had detrimental effects on our bladders. We drove a short distance away to find a safe bush to pee behind. Annick and I went first to make sure all was safe, then our brave guides did the same.

As they were returning to the truck, A hyena leapt from the 'safe' bush and headed off at a rate of knots.

All hell broke loose.

These beautiful cuddly playful animals totally transformed into violent vicious super-fast killing machines.

The hurtled after the lone hyena engulfing it in a mass of flying bodies made invisible by the dust erupting all around them.

Finally the hyena, now wounded sought shelter in a thorn bush that allowed access from just one side. The dogs circled around but knew that it was too dangerous to enter the trap.

Instead they hung around the cornered hyena, clearly hyped up.

All seemed in the dogs favour. It was simply a waiting game.

But the hyena was not alone. Another appeared and was chased by the dogs.

And then another. And another. A total of six hyenas were now together. One or two hyenas the dogs could kill. But not six. It was now a Mexican stand-off, eight wild dogs against a bigger foe, six big hyenas, 

And herein lies the problem for the dogs. Wild dogs are very effective hunters with about a ninety percent success rate. The hyenas know this. The can and do hunt, but would much rather that someone else does it for them. They will track the dogs then steal their kill.

The dogs went off to hunt as the sun dipped below the horizon.

This was our last sight of them.

Next episode here