Two days in the Serengeti

Today I saw a lion kill a zebra. And now I'm sleeping in a hyena infested camp. The safari was amazing. We saw a bunch of elephants, tons of zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, antelope, all kinds of Serengeti life. One of the guys on the truck spotted a lion, and then we saw another, both female. On the other side of the road were a group of zebra who crossed the street and were headed towards the water. Our guide said that the lion was after the zebra, and we should wait and watch. Sure enough, the lion was watching the zebra and had made up her mind that it was dinner. We could see the lion creeping closer and closer - at first I had to move my binoculars from lion to zebra, but eventually I could see both at once. At that point, the lion gave a burst of speed and was on the zebra, which saw the lion but too late. There was a second female, and the two of them finished killing it and started eating. It was powerful. It was a really strange feeling looking at this beautiful zebra innocently eating, knowing it was about to die. After the zebra went down, the other zebras stood around for a while, paying tribute to their friend or seeing if it would make it out? Then they ran off.

(as far as I know, this zebra is still living)

I loved the elephants the most. There was a family handing out by a river eating. You could see them relating to each other, touching one another with their trunks. It was amazing to see them just hanging out, being elephants, totally free. I don't think I will ever be able to go to the zoo again.

This morning at breakfast there was a monkey on the roof eyeing our breakfast. Africa is awesome.

Except, there are no fences around this campground. Our guide says there will be hyenas tonight looking for food. But they are safe and not to worry. Growth experience.

The hyenas didn't kill me last night, though they did wake me up with laughing, sniffing and rumbling through the trash. Today there are a ton of noisy Italians, so maybe they will stay away.  We started our safari very early, with a 5:30 wake up. This allowed me to watch the sun rise over the Serengeti. It was amazing! Things we saw on safari: lions mating, a family of elephants very close with big moms and little babies, a cheetah, a leopard in a tree, an owl (that brings bad luck if it comes to your home, and for a bit I thought it had cursed me because I saw it first), lion cubs eating a giraffe, two adult lions with two cubs, zebra, giraffes, hippos, all sorts of deer-like animals, jackels, warthogs, vultures, ostriches, and really ugly storks. When the elephant family crossed the street, the biggest ones were looking at the jeeps and acting as guard, with this "don't mess with the babies" kind of attitude. We also saw baby elephants nursing.