Heard a Lion roar!

My adventure in Africa 2012

Excerpts from my field sketchbook/journal

 

 

Day 4 (Day 3 in Tarangire)

"5:16am -- Heard a Lion roar last night around 2:30am --- NOT too far from my tent?"

Day four started off very early although I don't think I ever fell completely back to sleep after being awoken at 2:30 in the morning of  a loud running sound accompanied with very dramatic rustling and ending with the roar of what I believed to be a lion.

 A fast field sketch of a Crowned Lapwing (Plover).

Drawn in Africa, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa

We explored the west side of the Silale swamp in the morning looking for Leapoards, Lions and Cheetahs, sadly we did not see any but saw plenty of other wildlife. We stopped mid morning at the Silale Pinic area for a pinic breakfast which was great but the landscape was just incredible. After breakfast we did another slow game drive back to Kikoti camp where we had lunch, some much needed down time, I sketched and then we went back out for an afternoon game drive. This time we went on the east side of Silale swamp more up in the acacia forest/scrub where we were able to view some really nice Giraffe, one of which came so close to the Land Cruiser that it could have sat down next to me!

"5pm -- Caught  between two herds of Elephants!"

Day 3's track in the Tarangire park

The track was not used as often in fact ours were the only fresh tracks on the road and the wildlife was a lot more skittish than the other parts of the park that I had been in so far. We couldn't get as close to the animals but I did get to see a different type of behavior, that being the animals alertness was much higher and added to the excitement of the day.