Monday, to Ndutu Lodge

After the best sleep yet, with the wind on my face and unparalleled quiet, we departed at 8:00 for what was to become spectacular day—even for Cryspian!

We headed for the Ndutu area. We passed through here in our way to the Serengeti, but now we are returning to actually go into it. For the most part, it was a return to gigabillions of zebras, wildebeests and gazelles. At one point, the animals, who knows how deep, spread from horizon to horizon. I have crossed the Canadian prairie on the land, three times. It rolls. Here, I was on flat—that's FLAT— land from horizon to horizon and for 360 degree FLAT horizon. That is one part of Ndutu, and from December until February, this is where the bulk of East African animals are.

I ride in heavenly bliss. I have a terrific guide/driver who is very pleasant and knowledgeable and he looks after me very well; he drives us through an ever-changing paradise AND today there is a brisk wind and so the temperature is a lovely 24 degrees or so.

Just before lunch, we passed another safari truck (drivers are constantly doing this and exchanging information about the roads and the animals) and the other driver said there was a cheetah "back there." The truck had come off the plain, not off the road, so Cryspian followed the truck's tracks over the shrubs and grass and soon we could see some other trucks way, way off; we headed there. Just as we arrived, the cheetah took off, running like Daytona, and caught an skilled a gazelle. I saw the while thing, and a lot of it through binoculars. I was profoundly upset, butnot a sound, but Cryspian patted my on the back. "It's the African way," he said. We were so close, I could see what the gazelle had been eating when the cheetah tore open its stomach.


We were with that cheetah for about half an hour, then we headed off for a drive around. But I felt I had seen it all. Seeing a cheetah kill is a rare sight even for Cryspian. But after that, we got the closest I have been to a lion—and not just any lion, but a majestic mature male. After that, we saw a solitary lion on a low hill nearby. Cryspian, of course, the man who can see dust on the moon, saw more lions in the bush near the solitary young male, so we headed up the hill. When we got there, FIVE young lions and we were able to get very close to them.








And then, off we went to Ndutu Safari Lodge.