Awesome African Adventure. Day 26 – May 4, 2025

Central Serengeti – car issues = downtime!

Awoke to sunrise through the midgee mesh. Out to our verandah for this shot.
Beautiful over the Serengeti endless plain.
Nice flower
Card from Alphonce the lodge manager
A lovely note and he was true to his written word.
Our front path
Hyrax on the kopje behind our accommodation
Von der Decken’s Hornbill – female 
Rüppell’s Long Tailed Starling. Iridescent in the sunshine.
Hyrax up a tree
Our twin beds were very close here. No issue though.
Bathroom.
Toilet door.
Our verandah with view across the Serengeti
Bronze Mannikin – Little nest builders. This guy was so busy ferrying lengths of grass across to the nest the pair had started to build.
The Troopy sits undergoing repairs.
Alphonce and Phil having a chat.
Bagged lunch on the verandah. Enjoyed a quiet morning, thanks to car troubles. Then we were off. Fingers crossed🤞🏽
Topi
Impala
Grey capped Social Weaver 
A honeymoon couple. He waiting. She giving no signal.
Mmm maybe that’s a signal… nope Not just yet. He was a good specimen
Our own MGM lion.
Just sitting around.
A delivery truck. A lot of religious decorations/slogans on vehicles here
A stunning cheetah…
And her extremely cute 4 month oldCub.
Here’s the cub venturing out of the grass to follow mum.
There he is again
And catching up to mum.
Silver bird
Another Topi – of the gnu family.
Female topi sitting around.
And the topi male.
Clouds are building.
Baboons on a rock. Mum and baby
A male Baboon just sitting around.
Banded mongoose/mongeese?
Northern white crowned shrikeX2
More very cute mongoose in the termite mound.
A whole Bunch of them.
Out Troopy getting a further once over at the mechanics shop. It was rudimentary. They lived in tents.
A fuel top Up. Seemed Most things available here esp grog and smokes n
One mechanic and JB. Another was under the car
Hildebrandt’s Starling 
An acacia tree in the building gloom.
Storm front
Secretary Bird coming in to land.
Secretary Bird. There’s a story here. To be told another day
Two Black Backed Jackals
Typical view. Acacia tree and the hanging thing to the left today is a branch not a tail or leg.
Making his move
A little bit aggressive with a firm grasp on her scruff.
Raaawwww.
Looking pleased with himself
He played to your script this time Keith.
Yellow Acacia
Bateluer Eagle 
White Browed Coucal. 
Coke’s Hartebeests
Impala
Storm clouds over the track.
Doam Palm Flowers
Three banded Plover – a tiny little guy, not much higher than a sparrow

Reflections – Three banded Plover
African Fish Eagle
Black faced waxbill
Some giraffes with Gorgeous young ones probably 2-3 weeks old, they still had umbilical cords. 
How cute is the little guy And you can see the drying umbilical cord.
Just a mini me.
Dessert was a smooth as silk lemon and vanilla panacotta. 

Beautiful sunrise through the midgee mesh. I went out to the veranda to take a few shots. Quintessential African Silhouette sunrise.
Our accommodation for two nights is a tented lodge – so we are sleeping in canvas tents under a roof.

A later start today with breaky at 8 and back in the Troopy at 9.00, with our packed lunch. Plan foiled by a fuel leak from last nights repairs. So we have time. Phil is still concerned about the lack of instruments working in the dash and that there are bare live wires from the incident yesterday morning. (Smoke coming out of the dash)

I went for a little wander between the rooms and to the Kopje Rocks.
Saw the following:
Hyrax on rock and up a tree
Von der Decken’s Hornbill – female
Rüppell’s Long Tailed Starling
Bronze Mannikin – Little nest builders
Golden backed weaver

Suzie did some photo sorting and a little catnap in the room, Mary and I went to the bar/lounge area and blogged/posted. Then also back to the verandah to charge phones in case we are out in the arvo. Robert came to clean the room, having already made up our beds while we were having breaky.
Back into the vehicle after boxed lunch on the lounge deck.
Go Away Bird.
We also have the mechanic on board as we are taking him back to his shop. This morning after the fuel leak, they tried to fix it and decided a mechanic was needed. To go and get the mechanic they needed to drain 3 litres from our vehicle to put in the camp vehicle to go and collect the mechanic and bring him back. Not sure how long it took but JB came over during lunch to let us know we are good to go. So we finished lunch, grabbed our gear and the mechanic and headed out. The plan was to get some more fuel, take the mechanic back and for him to have a look at the vehicle again.
Off we went and before long we were again in the animals:
Topi
Impala
Kop’s Hartebeest
Grey capped Social Weaver
Onto a big old 8+ years old lion and lioness away from a pride on Honeymoon. He was a gorgeous specimen. JB suggested that they would mate. We waited and took shots, he was a big, strong lion with a dark mane. Our own MGM lion. Nothing happened -she was giving no signal.
Then onwards towards the mechanics place and we see a bunch of vehicles pulled over for a Cheetah and her cub (4 months old)
Grey Kestrels
Silver Bird.
Northern white crowned shrike.
Topi Antelope. A male and a group. nb has a gland under each eye which is used to mark territory.
Baboons on a rock.
Two Northern White Crowned Shrike.

Lion mating -we came back to the same couple after loo stop and fuel stop and dropping the mechanic back and getting some further repairs to fuel issue. Still no wipers or instrumentation. Whilst awaiting repairs we had the opportunity to photograph a termite mound which has been occupied by a huge group of Banded Mongoose. They commonly commandeer a termite nest snd move in.
Also saw Hildebrandt’s Starling and a Slate coloured Boubou.
The storm clouds were all around and cool fun to watch. After the repairs it was back to our two Lions, we watched and then saw some Secretary Birds just up the track we advanced on them and took some pics. Then back for the lions with the lioness giving the signal and a very quick mating took place. We then spotted
Two Black Backed Jackals, much better than yesterday.
Bateluer Eagle
White Browed Coucal.
Grey Backed Fiscal
Topi, Coke’s Hartebeests and Impala
Dark Chanting Goshawk
Doam Palm
Maribou Stork and African Fish Eagle
Three banded Plover
Black faced waxbill
Some giraffes with young ones probably 2-3 weeks old, they still had umbilical cords.

We made it home tonight before dark so saw a few new things on the way in.

Saily welcomed us back with cool towels. We are the only guests tonight. (Lucky we weren’t broken down tonight. Not sure who would have rescued us then)
Pre-dinner drinks and review of days photos before a most delicious meal – yet again.
Zucchini soup with warm fresh knot rolls, the most tender lamb in a delicious jus/gravy, served with cauliflower au gratin, carrots and turmeric rice.
Dessert was a smooth as silk lemon and vanilla panacotta.

Forgot the food porn except for dessert.

Off to bed ready for sleep yet again.

Nicola Stuart

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