As usual, time has flown by and it's now July 1, meaning that I'll be leaving on my next journey tomorrow -- North To Alaska II with truck and travel trailer for 5 months on the road. Since I'll be blogging quite a bit on that trip I've decided to put the rest of my Africa trip on one post so I can get caught up. So here are photos with brief captions; "they" say a picture tells a thousand words anyway.
March 29 -- Amboseli National Park was so flooded that parts of the roads disappeared underwater.
Hang on! The safari vehicle rocks back and forth as we go across to the other side of the road.
Gray-headed Kingfisher.
Superb Starling. They're as common as our European Starlings, but much more striking.
Diederik Cuckoo, one of my favorite birds that we saw on our African safari.
Goliath Herons are the world's largest heron.
An African Spoonbill.
An adult Gerenuk, one of the most unusual-looking animals I saw on the safari.
Mt. Kilimanjaro was completely and spectacularly out on our last morning at Ol Tukai Lodge and Amboseli National Park.
On the road to Tanzania and the main safari -- Golden Pipit.
Fire-fronted Bishop. Our guide got quite excited when he saw this as they're common only locally.
On to the main tour and Tanzania's Tarangire National Park...Here's a Dwarf Mongoose on a termite hill along the road.
The awesome and very common Lilac-breasted Roller.
Lions lazing in an Acacia tree.
A beautiful Waterbuck.
An Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill flips a caterpillar into its mouth.
The scene at one of our many "rest", i.e. bathroom, stops. Notice the "Barak Obama" souvenir stand and "Improved Bull Washing Bar" across the street. We found out later it's a laundry soap.
The entrance to Serengeti National Park.
A cute Dikdik.
This Black-backed Jackal was right alongside the road.
A Lion pride, taken with the 500mm lens.
We did see leopards, but they were lazing in trees far away from us. I used my 500mm lens to get a decent closeup.
2 Lilac-breasted Rollers are always better than 1.
We had quite a few encounters with elegant cheetah while in the Serengeti.
The expressive Lappet-faced Vulture.
The view from my room at the lodge where we stayed while at Serengeti National Park.
Just another leopard lazing the afternoon away...
A playful lion cub. I guess he'll grow into those feet..
One of the lioness at the tree with the lion cubs.
The cheetah were so photogenic...
We ended up our safari at Ngorongoro Crater where we visited a traditional Masai village. The Masai don't like to have their picture taken, but our tour operators give the village money for us to be allowed to visit.
The schoolroom at the Masai village.
Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest intact volcanic crater.
Greater Flamingo.
The wildlife in Ngorongoro Crater stretches as far as the eye can see.
Black rhinoceros at Ngorongoro Crater. Seeing them was one of the high points of our African safari.
And tomorrow it's once again back on the road to Alaska; I'd taken the trailer there in 2016.
