We woke up at sunrise in Kati-Kati, and found two portable bowls of warm water outside our tent – good way to quickly fresh up before breakfast. While my omelette was being made I enjoyed the scenery to the tea – Serengeti is indeed beautiful.

We once again settled up in the car, and since we would spend at least 12 hours in the car all cushioning available where used.

The morning’s game drive presented a slew of lions, they could be sleeping or slacking off but there was in general a low level of activity as the day got warmer and warmer. We have now also learned that the clock in the car is not incorrectly set, but set to Swahili time. Swahili time starts at dawn, or 0600 so 1:34 would correspond to 07:34 – which to be honest makes quite a lot of sense as long as one is not up before 0600.

Giraffes often look well adapted to the Acacia trees while they munch on the high branches, as we saw one giraffe eat from ground vegetation it became apparent this was less well adapted but possible despite a somewhat awkward position.

Most animals we have seen are in smaller families or alone with some exceptions – zebras are larger groups or herds while wildebeest (gnu) seem only to exist larger volumes so far. Due to some weird rain patters migration was still on-going and we were hoping to be able to see a river crossing and thus drove towards Mara River in order to get there before it was too late in the afternoon.

We got there and found a smaller group (a hundred?) about to cross – just when a few gnus in the front checked the water another car came in close and disturbed them. Thanks Obama. Matthew explained that gnus were very into the whole “follow the leader” but interestingly the leader did not have to be another gnu – on the contrary zebras were the favored leaders, since they had great sight and in general seem to make better decisions than gnus – which perhaps isn’t saying that much.

As we headed for the Northern Wilderness Camp we passed a handsome elephant and it’s easy to become blasé of all the animals during a safari but they still have something majestic although sad about their lumbering way. After a bit of searching we got to the camp for the day and had another nice three course dinner. During dinner Matthew pointed no groups had seen a crossing in two days according to the other guides but we crossed our fingers for tomorrow as we went to bed.