22 December, Wednesday; Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Ben explained to me before we left about how close we would be able to get to the animals on our game drives. I didn’t really believe him; I thought he was exaggerating a little bit. He was right, though. Today were were less than 10 feet away from a male lion! Normal start time this morning at 8:30am with most of the other folks doing morning game drives. The elusive tree-climbing lion had eluded us in Lake Manyara and despite near-guarantees that I would see lions around every corner in the Serengeti, I still hadn’t spotted a lion, but my luck was about to change in a big way. Our first sighting was a bit disappointing for me because it was so far away and I could barely even see the two lions’ heads shrouded in the trees.
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| Can you spot the lion? | Zoom Zoom |
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| It’s a little easier this time. See the mane? | Our first male lion |
Then elephants on the open plain. Not as close as in Queen Elizabeth, but a beautiful scene nonetheless. Then we come across three cheetahs. That completes our big cat sightings! A few more animals after that. Then we approach a rock outcropping and Ben spots two lions. We’re the only vehicle and we have them all to ourselves….until we get crowded, which won’t take long. I was so excited to get so close to the two lions. Little did I expect to get even closer. Just after leaving the two lions, we drive over to another rocky outcrop and get the chance to pull up to a male lion. We’re just a few feet away and he’s just sitting there. It’s exhilarating! By comparison, our next sighting is tiny. Our driver spotted a dung beetle crossing the road with his, um, prize. 
As if we hadn’t seen enough lions today, we come across even more on the way back to the lodge. We get a great view of about eight sleeping lions. A little later, we spot a mama lion and her two cubs. Unfortunately, the view wasn’t great since they were very far away. I’m hoping that we’ll get another chance to see some cubs up close.