That one time, when we went on a Safari.

…like, a year and a half ago?  Well I didn’t even quite make it past the second day, so I’m feeling motivation to do it right now and when I’m motivated – I’d better do it.  So, we last left off with us eating lamb for dinner at Dunia Camp in the middle of the Serengeti.  ‘Will we see a cheetah the next day?’ I asked, and in this post, you find out.  But first, here’s what the morning looked like: 
We woke up in our spacious tent to a tray of hot chocolate and cookies which we enjoyed looking out over the morning mists and then headed to the main tent for some delicious breakfast.
We then piled in the Safari cars once again.
The night before, I had asked around if everyone had brought some plaid.  It turns out that most had.  I had a theory that if we all wore plaid the big cats would show.  We drove for a while and soon came upon a pile-up of safari cars.  If there’s a pile-up of cars in the middle of the vast Serengeti, you know something big is going on. 

There’s mama Empey sporting her plaid.  And here’s Nick and I trying to see what everyone else with the binoculars is seeing, also sporting plaid.

Can you spot him?
How about with Papa Empey’s beast of a camera? 
A leopard!  All that plaid was working its magic.  But would we see a cheetah?
Another pile-up!  What would it be this time? 
Lions in the road!
Is this the first time we’ve seen lions?  I think so.  Don’t worry, you’ll see more later. 
We moved on and saw this good looking bird up close and personal.
This bird didn’t stay too long.
And then we met this harmless looking little monkey on the side of the road.

Maybe this little monkey looks familiar to you?  He’s my facebook photo companion:

Oh, but he decided I was so amiable that I was worth sitting next to.  When I didn’t offer him lunch,

he got to looking around on his own.

When he couldn’t find anything he said his goodbyes and headed on out.  Evidently our driver, Eddie, didn’t know that the monkey had come in the car.  When we told him and showed him the pictures he laughed and said he’d never seen that before. 

Later we met this old giraffe you see over my shoulder.  You can tell he’s older because his spots are really dark.  I learned that from Eddie.  Eddie knows things.
Alright, alright so we’re driving.  And all the sudden Eddie slams on the breaks and backs up.  This is why you pay him. Do you see that?
Yeah, none of us did either.  Look closely and you’ll see:

A cheetah!

And she had some wee babes hanging out with her.

Wahoo for plaid, eh?  I would now like to interject that I spent most of my youth crawling around the back yard and then jumping up and sprinting across the lawn pretending I was a cheetah.  I remember begging fairly often at the movie rental store to rent the movie Cheetah.  Seeing one in real life in Africa was, well, SEEING ONE IN REAL LIFE IN AFRICA. 
Next will talk about lunch with the hippos.