Serengeti day 1, Lions and Leopard 10/5/18
We stayed at the Njake Campsite last night by mosquito river. Andy got mauled on his feet (that’s why people don’t wear flip flops here), and those bastards even got me through my shoes. The night air cooled and we slept well. 
We headed to the Serengeti by driving up the Great Rift Valley wall and entering Through the Ngorongoro (Maasai word for cow bell) Park. We stopped at the top of the wall for a view. Hawkers came out of the bushes. Andy pushed him off to the other white people saying “go talk to them, they stayed at the nice hotel and have money, we stayed in a tent”. LOL. Along the way, we saw baboons just walking down the road. We find it amusing they pause for 5 seconds to get some sexy time in then carry on down the road. We got some red bananas for the road and were swarmed by sellers. 
The tribe Mbulou is located here and come from more of an Arabic background but most are Christian. The women are known for being more beautiful and have more natural hair. They grow 80% of the onions consumed in Eastern Africa.
The town of Karatu has a plethora of Obama and Hillary shops: electronics, gift shop, hair shop. We stopped for gas and Andy found a shop w cool masks. It’s easier to shop when there aren’t people hounding you. He scored some unique cool masks.
Ngorongoro has a rainforest around the in and outside walls so it’s cool and damp. The crater is where the animals live and is hot and sunny. We just drove around the rim today to get to the Serengeti (although the crater is actually part of it, it’s the only road to get to it). The road is gnar. Andy tightened my bra. The Maasai ate allowed to live on Ngorongoro but not the rest of the Serengeti, boy they sell like crazy. They even brought camels so tourists can take pics (camels aren’t originally from here). 
We arrived at the Serengeti gate, a structure in the middle of nowhere, in a dust bowl from the cars driving by. It was very dry and there weren’t any signs of water or many trees on the plain. The last three hours of the jarring ride was at first funny and turned into almost painful on the body. Although the landscape at the time was dry and flat and not much to see, Zachariah said “simba!”. We were one of the first to see a group of 4 lions just casually walking toward the road. They were walking towards the tree on the side of the road for shade in the hot day’s sun. We got incredibly close, they were just outside our truck and didn’t care. Beautiful beasts. Then not 10 min later, we saw another group of lions! This time we saw the Lion King and his
family, mother, teenage male who just started growing his mane. At first, they were laying, one turned over on his back as cats do. Then one by one they moved 10 feet away to relocate, they cleaned each other a bit, then we saw the Lion King walk over with all his greatness. His mane was a brighter color which made it not look like his own. He yawned and was majestic. We were so close it was the best experience ever. When we moved on, we saw brown lumps on a log. I thought it was something dead but it was 3 lion cubs sunning themselves! They were all laying on each other napping, waiting for their parents to come home. So adorable.
We continued on the safari. Robert took a turn w no signs so Andy and I were perplexed. Turns out he was taking us to the leopard sighting!! There were two but we just saw the one hanging on the branch napping. His legs were straddling the branch just chillin. He was beautiful. They are so hard to find everyone in the Park was on their way. He then sat in the branch and made his way down the tree so we saw his spotted belly. We eventually lost him in the grass. We drove 100 ft to the 2nd leopard spotting. He was gone but his gazelle carcass was hanging from the tree in plain sight. Fascinating. Just like Silence of the Lambs. On our way to our campsite, we saw hippos and alligators. This place is the real deal.
How incredibly fortunate we are to see all the amazing animals we saw today. We’ll never forget their majestic beauty and power. Our campsite was lovely. Out in the open with an amazing view of the plains to watch the sunset. Then a fucking dumbass man and his son decided to go for a stroll at dusk. The ranger yelled at them to come back. You know there’s lions and hyenas out there!! Jackasses. Definitely no peeing outside tonight.