Serengeti National Park Camping Extravaganza

Okay, sorry for taking forever and a half to write this.  But an update on the most incredible camping adventure ever!!!  We went to Serengeti National Park for five days and spent countless hours going on game drives and seeing the coolest animals ever.  We saw leopards, lions, cheetahs, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, and so many more!  However there were two moments that really stuck out in my mind.  

One was the very first day after about 6 hours in the car and waking up at 5 for cook crew we finally arrived at the park gate where we could stand out of the hatches and go on a game drive towards our campsite.  Within twenty minutes of entering park we saw a cheetah which is very rarely seen and as if that weren't cool enough we saw a lion hunting her.  She was pregnant however she used her speed and got away but it was so fascinating to watch and the lion ran right by my car in which there were some not so very nice words exclaimed.  You should already be excited for the video that I will post when I'm home.  

The second thing was that every night if you wanted to stay up late you went into the vehicle (land cruiser) so that you wouldn't keep everybody else at the site.  The last night I decided to stay up late and around 11:30 pm we witnessed our askari Bura (more on him later cuz he is awesome!!!) chase after a hyena full speed to try and get it to let go of our trash can.  Now the trash can is quite large, one you would find in a cafeteria and was full of trash which you can imagine was pretty heavy, however the hyena lugged it like it was nothing.  It was hilarious to watch and yet a little scary at the same time.

Other events of the trip included listening to a graduate student talk about her research for the lion project, bird watching (not a personal favorite but better than I imagined), studying elephants which took 5 hours to find (quite the game drive!) and going to the lodge to swim and rinse the filth off our bodies.  On the last day we also saw a lion hunting warthogs and you would never believe how fast warthogs are.  I thought they had no chance but let me tell you, don't underestimate them!  

But my favorite animal of the whole trip was definitely lions, especially the cubs.  Multiple times they were within two meters of our car and often I didn't even have to use zoom on my camera.  They are absolutely beautiful and I'm highly considering working with them later in life, along with the millions of other things I want to do.  Here are some of my favorite pictures, most of them lions because I'm obsessed, but enjoy!!!!  

pregnant cheetah before being hunted

lions on their honeymoon where they spend 7 days by themselves

Simba? Is that you?

Hey adorable!

Familia

Hyenas and their awkward body structure

baby hyena!!!

playtime

of course, my new sunset obsession

oh hey tourism

baby is so excited

why did the hippo cross the road?

last view of a lion for the trip!

Oh and on a totally different note happy belated 15th birthday to the best little sister in the whole world!  I love you Sierra and hope it was the best one ever!