Impala, Coke’s Hardebeest, and a Hydrax. Love those impala horns.

Well, it’s nearly 11:00p here, so Happy New Year greetings are appropriate. We’re nestled in our little African bungalow listening to the rain, after enjoying a fabulous thunder and lightning show all through dinner. What a great way to close out the year! Happy New Year, everybody!

A not-so-lucky antelope. Undoubtedly a leopard would have dragged this poor fellow up into the tree. Leopards like to dine alone.

A pile of lions snoozing under (and in) a tree. Actually two lionesses and about 5 cubs - one cub was up and looking for someone to play with. We thought about it but....nah, not a good idea. 😳

Our lodgings in the Serengeti. Also some storks, in their lodging.

Welcome to the Serengeti (“Endless Plain”).

Anyone up for a polony sandwich?

Amazing old skulls from Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus and numerous others, as well as plenty of biographical and historical info about Louis and Mary Leakey.

Olduvai Gorge, at last! Have wanted to come here since I was in college approximately 100 years ago.

A wonderful sweet old man.....and pretty sure we know the function of most any small room which is deliberately located a distance away from the living quarters.

Inside a hut, then a glimpse of Maasai kindergarten, and shepherding the flock. There’s some cute video of the kids in school, I’ll post it when back.

On the drive from Ngorongoro to the Serengeti, we visit a Maasai village, our host Moti shows us around.

In the caldera, a hippo pool party and the ever-present elephants.

The view from our room’s balcony, overlooking the Ngorongoro crater.

Various & sundry

Before we left Amboseli, we spent much of the last day searching for lions, who have specific areas where they hide in the late afternoon. After several hours without luck we headed back to the lodge....

....and about a half mile from home, we spotted 3-4 lion cubs just dozing by themselves.  There were a couple of adults on the other side of the road.  Eventually Mama lioness came back within sight of the cubs, they saw her and raced to her side, and they all headed off together.  I have a bit of video but cannot possibly post it here until better wifi is available - in the lodges, photos like these below can take an hour to upload, video would take days.  Remind me when I’m home.

Greetings from Tanzania. Our first stop is tiny village Mto Wa Mbu, we wandered the food and vegetable markets, saw them making Maasai sandals out of old tires, etc.

Circle of Life.

Our land cruisers. The top opens up so everyone can stand inside & have a 360° view. It’s hot and dusty every day, with the occasional “willy willy”.

Nice ride y’got there, dude.