Tanzania: Serengeti

Serengeti was our final safari day, and definitely lived up to the hype.
Leopard (final five finally) carrying a bird up into a tree to eat it. 

 Lizard.

 Ostrich.

 This elephant was workin' some stuff out in the mud bath.

 Baboon.

 Hippos lurking beneath the water.

 The serengeti is renowned for wide open plains, but there were also fertile habitats around rivers.

 Cheetah (middle right) watching some prey in the rain. This was really our final safari moment, and it was amazing! He made a go for it, but didn't follow through.

 Our hotel, with a pool built into a kopje (rock outcropping)

 Hyrax, who inhabit the kopje and watched you walking around the hotel. While they look like gophers, they are actually most closely related to elephants.

Tanzania: Ndutu, Day 2

OK, opening image for our second day in Ndutu...brutal
The amorous lions again - we saw them in four different places...exhibitionists.

There were 60 vultures gathered around this carcass.

Cheetah!

Cheetahs!

 Husband and cheetah!

Fox

More wildebeest migration.

Tanzania: Ndutu, Day 1

Endallah Tours really recommended we stay in the Ndutu region, between Ngorogoro and the Serengeti plains. It certainly paid off, as the wildebeest (and zebra) migration was rolling through. Scenery was spectacular too.
Giraffes 

Vultures picking apart a wildebeest.

Wildebeests - scenes like this everywhere you turned.

Lion and lioness.

Ooh, lions are feeling a bit amorous. Gentlemen take note, ladies love it when you bite their necks.

But ultimately he was rebuffed.

A pride of 11 lions.

Playing just like housecats.

Cheetah!

And another great lodge after a full day of dusty roads and full sun.

Christmas thorn tree.

The lodge was inhabited by these animals (can't remember name) that looked like a cross of housecat and mongoose.

Tanzania: Ngorogoro Crater

Ngorogoro Crater feels like a contrived Disney safari, which makes it all the more amazing that it is actually natural. Traveling west from Arusha, one slowly starts to climb escarpment into the rift valley, and the magic begins. Ngorogoro is a crater that is basically a giant bowl full of wildlife. Here is our guide John and his son on the rim of the crater, with the opposing rim visible across the back.

Buffalo: ornery. Check one of the big five.

Lion cruising through the crate. 

A wild pig innocently grazed about 100 meters from the lion, and the lion set its eyes on it. Tourist vehicles watched with baited breath for some Nat Geo action, but the lion decided against.

A pod of hippos frolicked in the pond.

And then gets up to cross into another pond. Spectacular.

Hyena

Then a beautiful drive through the countryside to our hotel.

Tanzania: Endallah

After our initiation in Tarangire, we did a two day visit to a local village in Tanzania called Endallah. The town, in partnership with some Belgian entrepreneurs, offers village activities and safaris. The scenery was stunning here, and we got a small taste of village life in Tanzania.
First, look how blue the sky is! Coming from New Delhi, I couldn't get over this. I think Maki probably tired of hearing "its soooooo bluuuue." But it was.

We did three hikes throughout our time there. This was was up a valley to Lambo Hill.

We stayed in a local house in the village. People in Endallah were super friendly.

The river that runs through town. We visited soon after the short rains, but you could tell that this stream becomes a torrent during the long rains in the spring.

A local school.

and the local library.

The shop, where we enjoyed a room temperature beer.

And a hilltop view of Lake Manyara, where we had a "bush dinner" - see below.

Forested valley with banana plantation.

Guard of the banana plantation who keeps the elephants (nighttime) and baboons (daytime) at bay.

and another river.