Our second day in the Serengeti National Park were as wonderful and full of magical experiences as our first day. We had several close encounters with lions, only this time it was with a couple of different prides that had young cubs in addition to the adult lions and lionesses. We spent a lot of time watching the lions interact, hence we took a lot of photos of the lions on this day. We also had many different moments of watching the great migration as the wildebeest moved in the thousands ever closer towards the border of Kenya. Whether it was the lions, elephants, wildebeest, hippos, and many different antelopes, the various encounters were all extremely fascinating.
When on safari and seeing the wildlife, it is important to understand that the animals go about their lives without any concern that they are being observed by humans. This means that whether they are hunting, eating their kill, mating, or other normal activities, you will likely come across interactions involving those things. Although not everyone may want to see some of those things, it is part of life and death in the Serengeti, so it becomes part of the interactions. One such moment during this day was when we saw a hyena who was finishing off the remnants of an antelope. In addition to getting up and close with the hyena, we had the opportunity to watch the vultures gather and challenge the hyena and then other vultures to finish what was left to eat.
Driving around the Serengeti National Park can be challenging as the roads are very rough and at times they can be quite muddy. Our guide, Shabani, did a wonderful job navigating through these obstacles. At one point, there were three vehicles all moving in unison as we searched for different animals and one of the Land Cruisers got stuck and had to be pulled out by the other vehicles. One could only imagine what would happen if that would have happened when no one was around to assist. Getting out of the vehicle was not something that anyone wanted to do unless absolutely necessary as there are many deadly snakes hidden in the grass in addition to the predators that could be hidden there as well.
There were several times where we literally had to wait for the wildebeest and zebras to cross the road as they sprinted towards their desired destination. We could have moved through and they would have worked they around the vehicle, but it is safer to just let them move through before moving forward. We ended our day by watching the sun set over a hippo pond that had at least twenty to thirty hippos all swimming or playing together. It was just another wonderful way to end a fascinating day in the Serengeti. We were thoroughly exhausted after these amazing days in the Serengeti, but also completely in awe of our safari experiences. The following day we would continue north to cross the Tanzania and Kenya border in order to go to Maasai Mara.
