Hi Michael & Sharon,

I just wanted to let both of you know that John (our guide) is doing an amazing job taking care of us. He is very interesting to talk to and he knows so much about the animals and the serengeti. Thank you for connecting us.

We will send lots of photos your way when we return.

Susan
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Hello friends and family,

Today (January 11th) is the first day I have had access to a computer since I’ve been on safari so thought I would take advantage of the opportunity and say hello.

We have had an unbelievably amazing time while on safari for the past six days. The nice thing about coming this time of the year is everything is green and the animals all look extremely healthy. Most of the females are pregnant, but several are also giving birth.

One of many highlights was that I got to watch a Zebra help her newborn take its first steps. We were sitting right in the middle of the migrating herd where there were literally millions of wildabeasts, gazzelles, zebras, etc. and as we were driving through the herds a Zebra gave birth right next to us. She cleaned the baby and kept nudging it to stand up. When the baby first stood up it fell back down. After about three tries the baby could finally stay up on its own wabbly little legs. So sweet!

We’ve seen several prides of lions and two very big male lions. One pride of lions (6 cats total plus one cub) were at a watering hole following their lunch. They were so tired and full from hunting and eating that they couldn’t be bothered with us being around. As the mother was cleaning up her cub she started roaring and out of the bushes comes daddy running to his pride. It was another awesome sight to see the family reunite. Our guide told us that sometimes the male lion doesn’t see his ‘pride’ for up to 10 days while they are out hunting. Apparently he stays back and let’s them do all the work and then finds them so he can also eat. When he finally catches up with them they are all very happy to see each other and they rub and nudge for several minutes.

We’ve only seen two leopards and they have been in trees off the road.
They are apparently more difficult to find because they hunt at night and sleep during the day.

We had a picnic lunch next to three cheetah brothers the other day.
They were knapping around a tree, in the shade and looked up at us enough times so we could get some really good pictures. They could also care less that we were within feet of them.

At one of our camping sites (luxury camping sites) we listened to the lions roaring to each other during the night while we watched a huge buffalo eat grass right in front of our porch.

The elephants are huge and plentiful and lots of babies following the mommies around. Same with the giraffes. Lots if hippos….which are my least favorite because they are absolutely disgusting.

While going through the various sections of the huge migrating herds we see all of the predators, especially the hyenas. They are my second least liked animal because they pick on the young:-(

We are looking forward to Donnie & Kathy joining us tomorrow (Jan12th) and spending the next four days with us. I’ve sent everyone postcards but I have not a clue as to when those will arrive.

The serengeti is breathtakingly beautiful and the animals are all very trusting of the vehicles because they have learned through the years that they truly are protected from humans harming them. It is so nice to see them in these endless plains of food and water.

Donn has taken lots of pictures which we will enjoy sharing with everyone. Hope all is well on the homefront.

Cheers from the serengeti, Mom/OM/Susan