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Friday, December 29, 2000Today is Malaria Pill day. We got up in the dark about 5:30. We got away from camp by 6:00 am and it was just starting to get light. It was very WET from lots of rain last night. We didn’t drive far at all before we found a female lion and a zebra rib cage. She was close to the road and we were able to watch a good while. Three Hyenas were patiently hanging out. At different times during the night I heard lions … and hyena. I didn’t realize Flamingos made so much noise… they were constant during the night and only occasionally would I realize it was quiet. It rained heavily several times during the night. We saw three African Hoopoe birds today. They are one of my favorites. It seemed like all the lions we saw this morning were solitary. We saw two more lone ones on the shade around the lake and now we are stopped looking at our big guy from yesterday afternoon. He is up in a clump of bushes where he was heading during the rain yesterday. He has about half of a wildebeest left that he’s working on. We saw two hyenas in the lakebed dragging a large gazelle. Seems like a lot of hunting went on last night. Vultures here give you a big clue where to look! We got back to camp a little earlier than expected and they were cleaning up the tents and bringing hot water down. There is more blue sky today but it’s not really sunny yet. Ephata was asking us more questions about what American people think of Africa and he was asking questions for information about America as well. At 11:00 we had our box lunches packed and are headed out now for the rest of the day. We had gone early the first time to see if any of the lions had kills. If you don’t go early they are gone and only a grease spot is left to show where anything occurred. We went out on the plains this time instead of around the lake near us. The hyena holes (nests) make driving a job to do carefully. We are seeing lots of Nubian vultures and Maribou stork… they are often chewing on something. There are zebra and white stork all over the plains as far as you can see in every direction. We came upon two female lions and a large zebra kill. The cavity was hollow. They pull out the organs they don’t like… the hyenas will get them later. These two are exhausted. One got up and immediately headed for the other car… they revved the engine and it went to lie down. The other came directly to us. We weren’t sure at first what it might do. It walked to the shade made by our vehicle and laid down!! They are SMART! It is now under our car… all we can see in the rear view mirror is a part of the lion’s rump and its tail. Nearby there are about 35 vultures cooling themselves in the breeze and just hanging out for the lions to go away. They definitely wait for “permission”. We headed on to another group of vultures and found a hyena with them on a gazelle. Hyenas came off the horizon until there were four of them. When we stirred up the vultures we saw two jackals in the middle. One of the new hyenas retrieved the carcass and drug it off. The other two hyenas moved in to eat but he wasn’t eating. One of the jackals took off after the hyena and chased and nipped at him over and over. The hyena is three or four times his size. Gutsy little guy! One of the hyenas is eating now and three are watching. One jackal went home and we are watching the feisty one pick at the hyena. Jackals may be small but they are TOUGH. We drove a long way over the plains today. Six ostrich in one area got SPOOKED and they RAN all around spooking every thing else. Wildebeests are pretty easily spooked and they run fast. Black Headed Heron Rock Kestrel Crowned plover Rufus Necked Lark African Pied Wagtails are plentiful. A flying dung beetle periodically hits folks as we are driving along. Flies in some places are more numerous. We went to Naabi Hill (front gate) for lunch and hiked up the walking path for the view. It’s been a lovely day so far. It’s such a wide expanse and view from the top. We could see the rain coming from the top and it has started sprinkling again and clouding up. We stopped at the check in point and bought a few postcards. We saw five kill today – so we’ve seen the vultures today – one time several were inside a carcass! We saw a little herd of Eland, which you don’t get to look at for long. They don’t like to be watched! The Eland is the biggest antelope and Kirk’s Dik Dik is the smallest. We got back out on the plains into the herd of wildebeest. It’s hard to imagine the number when you see them so far away all the way around you! Something new today was two females and one male ostrich with about 25 babies in a herd. They were fun to watch for a bit. We spotted a couple of hares today. They can be very camouflaged and easy to miss. We got back to camp about 4:45. It is nice to have a little daylight around the campfire etc. The cooks are busy! We have zebra in the back yard. We’re yakking and attempting to journal. On our way back Ben got us back by those two male lions at the ½ eaten zebra. They were flat out pestered by flies and trying to sleep. How in the world he found them again out there in the ENDLESS plains is amazing! The carcass was so gross… but I guess no worse than the zebra hide the vultures were inside! We had flies in the car from them and they came back to camp with us it seems. The cooks must have overheard us last night when we wished for Samosas. They had a basket of big ones delivered them to the campfire. They were a hit! We laughed at what vultures WE have become. They just delivered POPCORN… that seems strange out here. The cooks have figured out real fast what makes this group happy! I wonder if we’ll get more lion stories tonight. Last night we really got our first one (about an Italian couple and their two children). Up until last night Ben said it was too early to tell us any. It seems colder tonight and it is breezy. We saw a little funnel in the clouds this afternoon. Jane Wojecki
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Friday, December 29, 2000 Woke up early before daylight to look for lion kills. Found one not far from the camp. It was a young zebra. It was so small, the lions ate everything. There were some hyenas around but there was nothing left for them. Found one of the large male lions we had seen the afternoon before with a large wildebeest he had killed. There were vultures all around waiting for their turn on the wildebeest.
Went back to the camp for breakfast. Took a shower and headed out again. The way the showers worked was that there was a bag held up in the air. The staff would lower it and fill it with warm water. There was a valve and spray head on the bottom. You just turned it on and off as required. The water temperature was never the same and some days the shower was just right and other days it was on the cold side. After going back out we found what was left of a recent kill that vultures were feeding on. Moved on and found two young male lions with a large zebra they had killed earlier. They had not eaten much, but there was a large gathering of vultures waiting for their chance to eat. We moved on and found another kill, which appeared to be a Grant Gazelle probably, killed by a cheetah. There were hyenas and vultures fighting over what we left. It was real interesting watching the vultures glide in from way up in the sky.
We went to the park entrance and had a picnic. We traveled around the plains and took pictures of the large herds. Saw lots of zebras today, but not many wildebeest. The wildebeest migrate behind the zebra since they like the shorter grass. Returned to the camp and sat around the camp fire prior to dinner. It’s exciting when it gets dark because of all the sounds you hear at night. It’s pretty muddy in the camp. We have been getting rain off and on. Most days we see rainbows because of the rain. It is great to sleep with the windows unzipped. You can see the 1st signs of daylight coming through in the mornings. It is great hearing the night sounds. We can even hear the flamingos from the lake. The meals in the mobile tented camps were the best food we ate while on the safari. The Hazels
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