Tanzania, Day 8

March 1, 2012

Today we packed up and left Lobo lodge early in the morning, and drove to Rhino Lodge where we would be spending the night. 

The one thins I will not miss about Lobo lodge is the smell. It was a mix of wet hyrax fur and baboon poop, with a hint of guano from the fruit bats nesting in the rafters.

On the way out we saw a lot of birds, now that we were past our fascination with giraffes and zebra, and we passed some small pools, brown and dirtied with hippo poop, but on the bank i beheld a special sight; two 8 foot + Nile crocodiles sunning themselves on the muddy banks. 

Already this day was off to a great start. 

When I nearly thought I was going to keel over from hunger and the need to pee, we pulled over for a lunch break. 

As a side note, I could hardly complain for having a late lunch, especially because we had TWO leopard sightings!

Though these large beautiful cats often nap in trees, they aren't always easy to find, and we were fortunate to have seen them! 

Our guide told us that because of the way this cat was laying on the tree, it was most likely female. For a male, this position might be...uncomfortable. 

But I digress, these terribly exciting sightings made us late for lunch, as we didn't mind that the boxed lunch we received was the same thing as it had been, every day. Fried chicken, some sort of bread and butter concoction (we think) fruit juice, a banana and orange, and I think that was usually everything. 

While sitting around in a circle we were met with an unwanted guest; a hyrax came fearlessly ambling into our lunch circle, and attempted to wrestle someones boxed lunch away from them!

Note the lack of fear on its smug rodent face

I had to stand up and kick the thing (gently, I didn't abuse it!) out of our lunch circle. 

After lunch another phenomenal thing happened. We were in the first of four vans, the last two lagging behind for some reason, and we noticed on our right that a small herd of kopi were standing completly still, like statues. 

"What would cause this?" we asked our guide, who was looking around and said "a predator"

Just as he said that, a cheetah crossed the road in front of us. She seemed completely care-free and nonchalant as she strutted across the road, looked right at us, turned around, strut across the road the other way, and then proceeded to roll in the dirt in front of us! 

We suddenly realized in a silent panic (no one dared speak) that one of the girls on the trip who was obsessed with cheetahs and had dreamed of seeing one her whole life was in one of the slow vans. We sent a van back to tell them to hurry up, and the rest of us white knuckled our cameras while we alternated from gazing in wonder at this beautiful feline and anxiously glancing back the road to see if the other vans had come yet.

Just as the cheetah started to walk into the tall grass, the slow vans arrived, and the girl-who-loves-cheetahs got to see the cheetah playfully climb a small bush, before it sat underneath and watched us for a while. 

I can't even begin to explain how fortunate we were to see all three of Tanzania's big cats, because of how allusive they can be and their numbers declining. 

After a long last look, we continued on our journey to Rhino Lodge. We saw a few hyenas on the way, and near Ngorongoro crater the weather grew a bit cold and wet. 

Because of the sudden cold surroundings and the weight of an exciting day, we fell swiftly asleep once our heads touched our pillows. 

At breakfast the next morning we learned that a week before we arrived here, a lion killed a gazelle right here outside the dinning hall. Just when I was forgetting how wild this place can be..

Rhino Lodge