Dave & Marilyn Binkley's Travel Homepage Binkley/Crosby's to Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda

We've pretty much outrun the migration Jul 15, 2009

The excitement had dimmed somewhat for going on a game drive, especially since we had to again traverse the world’s worst “road” over volcanic rock/boulders through the local Maasai village. We had “African Massages” both going from and coming back to camp. Nevertheless, today was again like being at the filming of a “National Geographic” special.

The Mara had just the very beginning of the zebra and wildebeest migration from the Serengeti, but we did see a huge line of wildebeest at a relaxed gallop crossing a road in the Mara conservancy area. We also had waterhole stops with many of the now-familiar animals. One lion pride today and a short look at a cheetah walking away. The dry grass was so tall here, which made spotting of the cats very difficult. We had a few new birds and added a “new”/third mongoose species.

The “aww, gee” beginning to the day was Marilyn and Louise bottle feeding an orphan three-week old baby Thomson’s gazelle. The comedic ending to the day was a one-year old baby elephant suddenly deciding to chase off the nearby zebras. Dinner again to the snorts of hippos!

Critter list:

Banded Mongoose (new)

Cape Buffalo

Cheetah

Kirk’s Dik Dik

Eland

African Elephant

Grant’s and Thomson’s Gazelle

Maasai Giraffe

Hippopotamus

Impala

Black-backed Jackal

Lion

Slender Mongoose

Black-faced Vervet Monkey

Topi

Warthog

Common and Defassa Waterbuck

Blue Wildebeest

Common Zebra

Ostrich

Nile Crocodile

Agama Lizard

Bird Highlight:

Black-bellied Bustard heaving his entire body to make his croaking mating call (sorry, no picture)