Day 44 (from the bush)

Our final day in the Serengeti was all about the lions.  We were on the road before the sun rose, and came upon a full pack of adults and cubs in our first hundred meters.  

Lions in the earliest morning

Serengeti sunrise

We later saw another family sleeping in the grass, yawning on the side of the road, and teaching their cubs how to stalk.  

The rest of the day was just as flush.  An enormous pod of floating hippos; a ginormous hippo crossing the road.  Hot air balloons drifting just above the horizon.  Another elusive serval.  Jackals sleeping in the shade of tall grasses.  A wary standoff between a hyena and a mother warthog with two pups.  A flock of iridescent green lovebirds, fluttering up from the bush.  Springboks and superb starlings all around.  And two sleepy owls, nestled together on high branches.  

For places perched on the shoulders of tall expectations, the Serengeti stretched even higher.