Chaz Sin: One Writer's Sojourn Through An Odd Life
Lobo Lodge was located deep in northern Serengeti, isolated, gorgeous, and completely unoccupied except our group of four and the staff that outnumbered us. But boy oh boy were the views lovely in every direction. As the sun set, we saw the giraffes and elephants amble to the shadows and set down at night. Later on, as we enjoyed cocktails at the outdoor bar by the pool, hyenas yipped and barked. Not a bad evening to go to sleep to.
Tanzania is a nation of 40% national park, all of whom contain some elephants, but the Tarangire National Park is home to the majority of them, some 5000 elephants, 1000 of whom have been photo Id’d by the park service. On a warm and dry sunny day, we watched this group of elephants cluster under the great tree for shade. Note that baby is passed out sleeping on the ground beneath his parents to the left. Heavenly, peaceful, and content.
SAFARI – CENTRAL SERENGETI
There’s a rhythm to your gravel and dirt road drives in the Serengeti that sorta happens after you’ve been looking at great stretches of grass that go on forever, your core working because you’re standing up as the jeep bounces around, and your eyes are straining for that single moving spot that turns out to be a rare animal, to be the one that finds what the rest of us–Wenga, our guide included–doesn’t. Irina was our eagle eyes, and it didn’t seem to matter whether she had the binoculars or not…she could and did spot a bunch of the rare stuff we saw, far more than the rest of us, except Wengapedia and his binoculars.
But this post didn’t require the eagle eyes, because we drove right up and there they were, a pride of lions whom Wenga said had recently mated. It’s mating season anyway…the boys were crashed hard, and so were the girls…all under a pair of shade trees beneath a cloudy sky. Very NatGeo, and who am I to look the gift horse in the mouth? We snapped away. Enjoy the post and the pics!
SAFARI – DEEP IN THE SERENGETI
A long driving day, a full 8 and then some, and as we finally drove up towards the large outcropping of rocks where our lodge awaited, the sun was setting low on the horizon, shining a light on this noble little guy, a klipspringer, who couldn’t have been more than 22-24″ tall at most, standing on his rock gazing over his domain, unmoved by the noise and the dust thrown up by our jeep. Let’s just say he appeared to have no Napoleon complex about his height. The klipspringer is a type of antelope that finds one mate for life, whom Wikipedia describes as having “an agility so extreme on crags and rocks that their most dangerous enemies are eagles and humans”. You go, little klippy, you go!
A Tangled Mind In Motion 