We started the day by seeing a TON of Maribu Storks. What are Maribu Storks you ask? Why they're probably the ugliest bird on the face of the planet.
From there, we drove into lion territory, encountering a lioness sleeping by herself. When we asked our guide why she was alone, he responded that she was most likely too weak to go on with the other lions. Sure enough, when we took a good look at her, she was all skin and bones, breathing quite heavily from the heat. It was so sad to see her like that, knowing that she probably won't make it on her own. And again I had to silently sing "The Circle of Life" to myself...
Not long after, we encountered what we think was the rest of her pride - TWELVE LIONS IN TOTAL!!!! It was AMAZING! They were just hanging out all together, relaxing. Unfortunately, they too looked like they hadn't eaten in a while. We were hoping for a wildebeest to come on through, but alas. The interesting thing about lions is that they are very territorial, so even though there might be food elsewhere, they will continue to rule over their portion of the park instead or roaming to look for food (at least to a certain extent).
After hanging out with the lions for a while, we headed to a river delta (where three rivers meet) and found...a herd of hippos!!
There were SO MANY of them - there was no way to count them! Lots of them would hide under the water, too, so it was pretty impossible to tell. I must admit, before this stop, I HATED hippos. I just thought they were big and ugly and kind of pointless. But after this stop I think they're a lot cuter.
Except when they go to the bathroom. At one point, we saw the GROSSEST thing. One hippo literally pooed all over another hippos face/head!! AND THEN HE SAT THERE WITH IT ON HIS HEAD FOR OVER 10 MINUTES. Didn't move. He didn't seem to care. Apparently spraying their poop is part of some sort of mating ritual! HOW GROSS!!!
Other than that though, the hippos were great lol. We saw lots of babies, a few fights over territory, and a bunch of big yawns. AND we were able to get out of the car, which is always nice, to watch from a cliff overlooking the river.
On our way to lunch we saw a beautiful, bright blue Kingfisher. And then... ELEPHANTS!! TEN FEET from our truck!!
It was SO amazing to see the elephants so close like that! They looked so friendly and cuddly, standing quite close together. Adam told us they were brothers. It was incredible. I just wanted to be friends with them :-p.
Not sure I could be more excited!!
The two of them were both on their feet, moving in the direction of a huntebeest that was SUPER far away. We didn't really have several hours to devote to watching them hunt down the animal, but man we wish we could have stayed with them to watch the hunt!
The next stop was lunch at the gateway to the Serengeti, before a stop at a Masai village for a tour. Since Jon and I had already taken a tour just a few days ago, we decided to skip the tour. While everyone else explored the village, we hung out in the truck - Jon listening to music and relaxing, and me working on our blog. Until a few of the Masai boys who weren't in the village started climbing the tree next to us. I asked if I could take their picture, to which they responded yes, and we began having a broken English conversation. While they were climbing the tree I decided to go out and join them! MAN could they climb high! They were seriously like little monkeys climbing higher and higher! While I didn't go THAT high (maybe 7 feet off the ground) I was still happy that I had decided to join them up in the air :)
Once the tour was over we began our trek to our campsite, at the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. On the way, we passed amazing landscapes and tons of giraffes, zebras, goats, and cows (since there are several Masai villages along the rim as well).
And then we passed...3 more elephants standing right next to the road! Only these guys were HUGE. Adam told us that elephants can live to be about 50 and he wouldn't be surprised if they were about 40! Their tusks were seriously bigger than a human leg - really incredible!
Little did we know that we were only about a 30 second drive from our campsite! And when we arrived...BOY were we surprised by the number of people there!!
At camp, we arranged all our things in our tent before heading to dinner. The dining room was set up with long, family-style tables, with multiple groups at each table. We enjoyed a meal of pasta, ground beef, and vegetables which was pretty delicious. After dinner, Jodi, Julie, Marcus, Jon, and I played a rousing game of "Would You Rather", before packing it in for bed around 9 pm. With a 5:30 am start time tomorrow, I'm thinking 9 is a good time to call it a night :). Off to the crater tomorrow!
Jess' highlight of the day: being 10 feet from brother elephants!
Jon's highlight of the day: the last two lionesses we saw beginning to stalk their prey at the end of our game drive
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