Here is a close-up of an acacia tree - and if you look closely, you'll see bird nests in its branches.
Another set of acacias.
Here is a shot in the late afternoon of an elephant drinking by a small pond.
And of course, elephants are always near their family. This was taken right next to the drinking elephant - maybe he was the rebellious teenager. (Can you see, there are even more elephants in the top right, in the bushes).
We had fun watching animals from the rooftop of our large Dragoman called Moose (probably just for the fact that it was huge??). Evidently, some folks - like Helen here - had more fun on the roof than others.
Here is a shot of a nearby elephant at dawn (and the common needle trees - whose low-hanging branches we always had to watch for when sitting on the roof.)
No, this isn't a bus or car hit down by an angry elephant... it is the basket of the 4th largest hot air balloon. It sits 16 people at a time... and we started our flight on our backs, as the basket currently stands. It was quite an experience (and a bumpy landing as we hit an unseen termite mound).
I would recommend it to anyone!
Two balloons went up at the same time - so I took advantage of this shot of the other balloon over the serengeti savana.
We are floating here over a small river... and we have guests!
A group of hippos splashing around playfully below us.
Here is a gee-raff, as our tour leader Babs, liked to call them. These are THE most graceful animals of the serengeti... even when they run, they are graceful. I can't ever picture one tripping over itself.
Ok, so it was a little hot that day - here's at least a dozen giraffes enjoying shade under this acacia. Of course, not taking the hint from the animals, we were sitting on the roof of the Moose as we drove by that afternoon -- and still, I barely got a tan!!
It was probably 35-40 degrees celcius and very dry.
Here's a hippo walking off into the forest. These are funny animals - I'd like to see more of them again.
Supposedly, hippos of the most dangerous creatures in Africa, because of their strong maternal instincts (close guard on the kids) and if they are cornered from the river, they will charge you.
Here's an interesting series of shots from the Serengeti region. I call this croc foreplay.
Here's the opening scene, where one croc gets the attention of the other...
She's interested! And so a little playful nibbling takes place!
I don't think it hurts.
Ready for some serious fun, they take off together towards the forest, away from all the watching mates in the water (you can't see them but there was at least four other crocs taking in the show).
And here's four (!!) more crocs coming in from the pond up the street - hoping to get some action themselves.
Crocs are hilarious... they seem to get so hot whenever they do anything that they can barely move for more than a minute (then they have to take a rest break for five). Even during the foreplay, they had to have several intervals of rest once they got started.
I bet they barely get anything done in the day - I'd hate to be a crocodile!!
I love this picture of the buffalo hiding behind the tree. "Can you see me?"
Ok, who can guess what this is? Look closely. One of the figures on the right side will tell you.
Baboons! These critters are everywhere -- they try to take your lunch (thank god for our chef Kaunda who kept them at bay), they bark when near a leopard (we saw one actually - but just barely, the "chewy" (as they are called in Swahili) was just too far away for this lady to see them).
Here's another picture of the baboons in the forest, near the front and all the way to the back.
