Safari Update – Day 8 (no gallery)

Today was ballooning for most of us and man oh man, what a day.  At 0230 the rains came with a deafening force.   Lasting for about 2 hours, our nearly dry camp turned into a swampy safari camp.  Crazy as this is, it will soon be gone due to the soil conditions.  0545 was the pickup for the balloon.  Enroute to the launch site the ballon truck in front of us became stuck up to the frame which delayed our arrival and launch time.  This turned out to be great because the heavy overcast made for a less than spectacular sunrise.  The overcast was like photographing the Serengeti thru a huge softbox.  The scene from above with the great migration below was impressive. While we were ballooning, the rest of the team found several lions several cheetahs and saw lots of action and some wonderful giraffes.

We returned for a hot lunch at the camp and a short safari break.  Late afternoon, we departed for some bird photography around theLake Ndutu shoreline.  While working the shoreline, Denise captured a pair of flamingos in flight, while Erin caught this giraffe in the seldom photographed drinking position. Rounding out the photos for this post is a photograph of the migration from the balloon flight.

Cheers and happ y photo'ing from the Serengeti.

NOTE:  While at Ndutu I had no data or cell connection.  This resulted in a delay in posting the daily updates. I'm now in the northeastern sector in Tanzania at a camp called Enashiva which will allow me to resume the updates from our Serengeti trip.

Cheers from the Serengeti