Africa: Last Day of The Safari - Tanzania

We packed our bags and had breakfast before getting back in the jeep for one last safari. The plan was to spend the morning in the Serengeti and then head to the lodge at Ngorongoro Crater for the night before catching our flight from Arusha to Mafia Island the next day. We left the Serengeti lodge and soon after saw something sitting in a tree. We assumed it was another leopard but it was actually a lion. While lions aren't really tree climbers some lions have adapted to be able to climb to the lowest branches when necessary.

He had a small mane and didn't seem to have a pride with him. Once males reach a certain age they are kicked out of the pride to go and earn one of their own. They usually remain as bachelors for quite a while before taking over a pride. He wasn't nearly as graceful as a leopard while climbing and soon he scrambled to the side of the tree back to the ground. 

Up the road there was a large herd of elephants with a few young calves playing together. There were also a few zebra and giraffe right across the road.

We followed the herd of elephants for awhile knowing it would be the last time we saw them on the trip. I was feeling really sick so I lied down in the back of the jeep for awhile but the next thing I knew we where parked next to a big pride of lions. They had just had a successful hunt and were now sleeping beneath some bushes. The one cub however was practicing his climbing skills in the bush and would occasionally fall and land on one of the lionesses.

The male lion had just woken up and started playing with the little cub. He would let the cub nip him.
Once the male and cub had fallen back asleep we moved on to look for rhinos one last time. We ran into a huge herd of zebra on the way that looked like a big mess of black and white stripes.

We came across lots of wildebeest herds too.

We kept on the search for rhinos in some of their favourite spots but only found a herd of gazelle, a water buck and a few dik-dik.

We were about to stop for lunch when we spotted another big pride of lions. They were all resting in the shade of one tree. Latow parked the jeep and we watched the lions as we ate our picnic lunch. Latow had a small speaker with him and he played a lion roaring to get their attention. They all looked right at us. Having an entire pride of lions stare you down is one of the most unsettling things ever but it was really cool to see.

Once we finished we had to leave to get to Ngorongoro in time. Sadly, we left the Serengeti and crossed the empty plains. After a couple of hours we were back at the same lodge we had stayed in a few nights ago. Our rooms were literally right across the hall from our old ones. We had a nice dinner and got ready for the hectic flights to Mafia Island.