On Safari!

On Safari!
Greetings!  We are completing our survey of African animal populations...and we have concluded that seeing these animals in their natural habitat is extraordinary.  Our Safari began in Arusha, where we boarded specially modified Land Cruisers and headed out for Tarangire National Park.  This park has huge populations of animals.  Here we saw elephants, hippos, cheetahs, gazelle, did diks, warhogs, a million birds, and a lioness sleeping near its kill---a cape buffalo.  Our guide is Bakari, whose English is tempered with unique phrases such as "don't make loud", "he rolls in the muddy", "endangered speesh", and "hire arc". Our lodge at Tarangiri is the Sopa Lodge, which is a chain of lodges nestled in the landscape.  Bushbuck Safaris is the operator; their slogan is "It's rough, it's dusty, but it's an adventure".  After Tarangiri we go to the Serengeti, driving hours on bumpy dirt roads through a landscape that looks like the West Texas plains, puncuated by the occasional Masai village.  As we sail across the Serengeti, kopi, which are rock outcroppings, shimmer in the distance.  We leave the main road and drive up to one.  On the top is a lioness, surveying her domain---just like in The Lion King.  At the Serengeti Sopa Lodge, we enter our room and right outside our balcony is a Cape Buffalo and 3 gazelles.  After dinner we are escorted back to our room by an armed guard to prevent any dangerous animal encounters.  In both the Tarangire and Serengeti lodges there are mosquito nets around the beds----we feel it is something out of "out of Africa".  By the time we arrive at the NgoroNgoro crater Sopa Lodge, we have seen every major animal except for the rhino.  The best odds of seeing a rhino is in the crater.  There are approx 35 rhinos in the crater.  This sounds like a lot but because the land inside the crater is so  huge, it is difficult to see a rhino.  Although we did not end up seeing a rhino, our timing was perfect to see the courtship and mating ritual of the lions---up close, no more than 15 feet away,  and very personal.   It was so interesting to see the affection between the male and female.  As the male lion concludes his enthusiastic activities, and collapses next to her, she puts her paw up on his flank, and Bakari comments:  "She say, 'Oh baby, I love you baby'..."  Everyone laughs, but Bakari insists:  "No laugh, because she piiiick him---she loooove him.  Humans do for thrill, but the lion he do to make beby".  And another day ends on the savanah...
A Safari is a must on the vacation bucket list!