Welcome to the first post of a new weekly segment I’m calling Tanzania Tuesdays! In February/March of 2008, my wife Rachel and I were able to take a trip to Tanzania, Africa for a 10 day private safari with Duma Explorer. It was a trip of a lifetime! We spent the time there traveling to different parks and areas around Tanzania, and I realized that, besides creating a slideshow to show family, no one has really seen a whole lot of the pictures I took on our trip. So what better way to get some of those out there than through my blog! Every Tuesday, I’ll post a new picture I shot on our safari with a little explanation or story to go along with it. So, without further ado…
One of the places we spent some time in is the famous Serengeti. Now, there’s not a whole lot of shade out in the Serengeti as it is mostly wide open plains. Every now and then you’ll come upon a small group of trees, and you have a pretty good chance of seeing something there as it’s the only shade around. So as we were driving one afternoon, our guide thought he saw something at the base of these trees, so we headed over. When we got there, we could see a group of lions and lionesses lounging in the shade of the trees. We got a lot closer than I thought we would! As we circled the trees, we saw this particular lion taking a nap with his head between the tree trunks. As we pulled a little closer, he opened his eyes and just watched us, giving me an awesome opportunity to fire off a few shots.
Now, I have this particular photograph blown up and hanging in our home, and we really didn’t notice this until we got it hung up, but take a look around the ears. At first we thought, “Oh, those must be berries from the trees that fell and landed by his ears.” Wow. We were way off. Those juicy looking morsels are actually blood-filled ticks. Yum. Poor lion. His face is all scratched up, full of flies, and now ticks are feasting on his ears! Such is life in the Serengeti.
by Greg Hoskins
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