Capturing the Moment

  Our safari tents were situated perfectly so the sunrise would stream in. This was our view each morning after the butler delivered coffee and opened the flaps. 14 days, 5 different parks, an elephant orphange, giraffe center, 2 countries, and thousands of pictures later, we have come to the conclusion of our East African Safari. Each day has brought new experiences, from the excitement of seeing our first wild animal from the rooftop pool at the Hilton, to have mating lions a few feet from the vehicle. Everyone soaked up a ton of knowledge from James, Jackson, and Godliving. We were cared for, and led, so well throughout that it was easy to fall into the groove of morning and afternoon game drives, delicious meals, and chatting around the campfires. Yet we were still tired each night, as we lay down on our comfy beds out in the middle of the African wilderness. We listened to bird songs, zebra, elephants, hyrax, and hyena from our beds. After starting with very pleasant overcast ...

  We traveled for a while, soaking in the early morning misty plains of the Serengeti from our extended land cruiser safari vehicle. Our morning reverie was interrupted by a group of vultures fighting a hyena over a freshly killed wildebeest. It was the groups first fresh kill. Not everyone was into the gruesome action. You couldn't even see some of the heads of the vultures since they were neck deep into the carcass. But this is the circle of life. Pretty soon there won't be much more than bleached bones left, thanks to the vultures and hyena. We continued on after the vulture show, and quickly came upon two male lions and a female. As we hung out with them we were surprised to see a third male lion pop up, and then a little later a fourth male lion popped up! The mane male and female were the same mating pair we had spotted two days earlier. She now looked like she was pretty over it, and disengaged from the male every time he attempted anything. The mating pair, and two of b...

  The inquisitive stare of a new baby lion.     Today our group woke up in the most beautiful tents, with the sunrise streaming in as our butler laid out our coffee platter. We were eager to get out and see what else the Serengeti had to offer so we opted to have our breakfast out in the bush during our extra long morning game drive. Our driver/guide, Godliving, yes that was his actual name, took us first to these beautiful rocky outcroppings called kopjees. A brief glimpse at a mama lion with her tiny, month and a half old cub. We only got this glimpse for a second, then they disappeared back into the bush.     The kopjees are a different environment that what we had been in during our Kenya leg of the safari. We found rock hyrax and klipspringer antelopes using the rocks as a habitat. Then we got word that a lion was up ahead. We could just barely see her moving around, catching the flick of a tail here, and the movement of an ear there. I was able to see her ...