Our morning started out cloudy and damp. Because of my back pain, I was riding in the front with Jakob and he kindly brought me a hot water bottle to cushion my back.
This small herd of elephants had two babies that were playing. It was an auspicious start, because at lunch the elephant research project was going to come to speak with us and then spend the afternoon with us in the bush.
There was a break in the clouds and gorgeous light as we found another pride of lions, this time two females and two cubs. And just to clarify, all of our encounters here with lions have been with different groups.
Then on our way to the next encounter, a spotted hyena – the garbage collectors of the plain. This picture shows how well camouflaged they are.
A male and female dikdik, one of the smallest antelopes. The male has very small horns.
Baboons.
We went in search of leopards again, didn’t find any but the scenery was beautiful.
Maasai women gathering firewood.
Headed back to camp to meet the elephant research team and lunch, a pair of crowned cranes.
After a wonderful time learning from the researcher and three interns about their work to identify elephants and to reduce elephant/human conflicts we went out in the field with them. As you can see, we didn’t have to go far from the camp to find a herd.
The researchers were able to use their photo-matching software to identify this guy. They look at the shapes of the tears in the ears and other markings.
The researchers left us then because they had a long drive back to their camp.
We continued on our search for other critters. Here is a Hammerkop.
And what would an evening be without seeing lions? This was a large group of females and cubs in the late-day light.
Tomorrow, travel to the airstrip and our last stop in Tanzania.
3 For the Road 