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In which there are more of the Big Five, and some ridiculously cute youngsters.

Just kidding. That's a Genet cat, which came to our lodge every evening. No idea why the species shares the name with a French poet. Now, on to serious business again. "The Big Five" in terms of a safari are: Rhinos, buffalos, elephants, lions and leopards. Rhinos and leopards are the rarest of these, and you can visit for a decade without seeing one. We had already had seen one the last time we were there, so didn't really expect it. However:

That's a young wildebeest the leopard has up there. The leopard in question, btw, was a female, according to our guide. It was singularly unimpressed by the larger and larger audience it had. All the guys pulled out larger and larger teleobjectifs, to the point where I couldn't resist remarking to the one in the car next to us that this reminded me of a very bizarre variation of a "mine's bigger" contest. "Well," he ruefully replied, "the Japanese are going to beat us every time", and pointed to two middle-aged Japanese ladies who pulled out the biggest widest lense known to man. (And Cannon. It looked like a canon, too, seriously.) In fact, we were close enough that my trusty little camera got this:

After all this staring up in trees, it's time for a lack of subtlety. Have some elephants. They, like most species we saw, had their young with them. These particular elephants were in the Serengeti, where it was really dry. In the crater, it at least rained every now and then, but in the rest of Tanzania, despite this being the wet season, they were still waiting for that blessing. So imagine some considerable heat:

Two elephants had the misfortune of getting their trumpets caught in snares of poachers, made of wire. One lost said part of its trumpet completely:

But the other kept it dangling, though nearly cut through, and it was heartrendering to watch, most of all because it made collecting food for the elephant in question incredibly difficult:

One wishes vultures and marabouts on whoever did this. Speaking of:

Meanwhile, the hippos are finding the lack of water in the wet season more and more annoying. However, this did give us a chance to watch them briefly out of the water:

The hippos, too, brought their young along:

And said hello:

When it did rain, the animals quickly came out to use the new small pools to drink from, like this lioness (who thus thankfully provided us with her reflection as well):

But I think my favourite sight was one we made on another very early morning drive, not that far, actually, from the shores of lake Ndutu itself. First we saw the sun rise:

And then we found an entire pride of lions, two males, three females, and a lot of cubs, all enthusiastically playing - the cubs, that is, and one of the lionesses. The lions were just lying around, until one of them got up, and roared for the others to follow him. They didn't listen, so he roared again. Then they reluctantly roared back and followed. So did we, from a distance. So, have some results:

Waving the pride of lions goodbye, I shall conclude my pic spam of the beautiful Tanzania with one more sight, because I can't help myself, I just love my sunsets and sunrises: