Quicker than the click!

It’s always like that! You see something spectacular but you haven’t got it on camera. And so here too! However, the remaining result is still very much worth showing.

As the fabulous Hamer kop or Hammerhead (...now that needs no explanation does it?) choose a boulder on the banks of the river Mara to fish from, we wondered ourselves how this birds managed to keep grip in the moving water.

And as we were wondering it struck! Bang! A tiny little fish was caught & eaten before we could even click our camera...

Sitting on the banks of this mighty river is such a joy. Not once have we not seen interesting things!

Seeing is believing!

Some things you have to indeed see in order to believe it. So let me take you back in time a little, to December 4th, 2011 to be precise.

With the Festive season on the horizon, a group of four guest made it to camp. Introduced as Kevin, Kathy, Aaron and Monica we quickly figured out they had the most awesome safari already. And they had only made their way to Lamai Serengeti from the airstrip...!

Seeing leopard on most of their game drives, they had a thrilling experience. As most leopards are shy and elusive, some of them can be pretty investigating too. When they told us the story of the leopard cub approaching their vehicle we surely thought it wasn't THAT close. Wow!

And what about this one? A leopard observing the Lamai Serengeti rooms from his rock.

So sometimes you just have to wait with blogging! Would anyone have believed this?

To Kevin, Kathy, Aaron and Monica many thanks to all four of you of sending these great pictures. And sharing these great dinners together! 

Safari Tip nr 1

What do you do when you are on amazing drive in the northern Serengeti and you spot this magical leopard sitting on top of a rock - ...and then your camera battery gives up?!

You make the very best of it and become creative!

And so Paul & Cathy Kalenian thought for a minute. Took out their I pad and made a shot using its camera.



Looking at the result, this is were inventiveness kicked in!


Paul grabbed their binoculars added and connected it to the Ipad with an empty toilet paper roll!

And see the amazing difference of this ingenuity!!

A 180 C degrees view

The Lamai Wegde, a 40 minute drive from Lamai Serengeti, yesterday late afternoon. When the sun sunk away ever further into the west, we stopped the car, stuck our heads out of the vehicle and simply gazed at the thriving activity in the plains. Left, right, so many things were happening. 

Have a look from left to right...

So what is it that happens to you when you gaze at this magical wilderness?

Is it the sense of another world? One we don’t rule in?

Whatever it is, being out there is such a great experience. 

Come and join the lucky few!

The rodent hoover

Beautiful and majestic, the Barn Owl is the most widespread of all owls and one of the most widespread of any bird species in the world. Found pretty much anywhere, it is often a very welcome guest just because of its diet.

Consuming more than one rodent a day, a nesting pair and their young are known to consume over a 1.000 rodents a year! The main reason for its high volume diet is that the Barn Owl's metabolic rate is high, requiring more food than its counterparts.

Barn Owls consume more rodents than any other creature in the world - you see the advantage of having it around?!

Fascinating to see, this bird out of a pair seem to have found its ‘barn’ on the veranda of one of our guest rooms. Often seen in the morning when it returns for resting, it’s seems not only to have developed a great taste for food!

All ears for 800.000 years!

Known for its enormous ears, this woolly and very interesting little fox is a spectacular creature. Roaming the savannas of Africa since the mid Pleistocene era, the bat eared fox is equipped exactly for what it likes doing most. And that is hunting!

Though most of its diet consists of crunchy dung beetles, scorpions, millipedes and heaps of termites, this cunning little fox will eat small birds and rodents too. Since it prefers insects, often bat eared foxes are found close to herds of zebra and antelopes and feed on the insects that come along. And since we have plenty of those Lamai Serengeti offers a chance of seeing it!

But above all the bat eared fox is a very sociable creature and that makes it interesting to observe. Mated pairs interact all the time and are thought to be monogamous. Also bat eared foxes don’t mind sharing their territory with other foxes and often overlap. The highest density of bat eared foxes recorded is 72 in 1 square mile!

But ho! It’s not an easy animal to find. As in our case yesterday afternoon it required a lot looking for ear sticking out of the endless plains basically!

Rewarded with tons of interaction around their underground den, these two foxes ran, dug, played and jumped together.

A pleasure for the eye – and the camera!

Where time is non existent

“Honey, what time did you say it is...?”

“It’s 1200 BC my dear”

Drive out a slight bit from Lamai Serengeti or look out towards the north and east as you stand in your room on our koppie. We do guarantee you will have all the views you have ever wished for.

And even more than that.

Endless grassy plains keep rolling further only to meet distant mountain ranges that dot the far horizon. Views here reach up to anywhere between 60 and 80 km.

So striking and yet so unbelievable is the vast empty space that lays at your feet. Beautiful and wild as it has been ever before.

Now if you have managed to grasp all that, let us add some other unique qualities of this untouched place.

Herds of wild beasts roam these plains. No manmade structures are in sight – anywhere. Night skies are littered with constellations and the moon can be as bright as you have never seen before.

Amongst all that nature, just a handful of lucky human beings that take the effort to visit this place. No masses, no lines of vehicles – only outright adventure.

Few places can capture that pre historic feeling. And even less can make it come alive.

Meet you in Lamai Serengeti!

The carnivore patrol

Ok true – there are many fantastic birds and all of them special in their own way. Though few of them spend most of their time on the ground (!) and are exclusively carnivorous. Hence we need to tell you about the Ground Hornbill!

This beautiful and somewhat pre historic looking bird spends all hours of the day patrolling our grasslands. Living up to 50 years of age, they stay in pairs or small family groups, hunting anything edible they come across. From small mammals to birds and big reptiles, these birds are tough.

A stunning site to see, Ground Hornbills assist each other in their hunt. If a large snake or other prey is found, everybody may be involved in the killing, stabbing the prey with their powerful beaks. Hungry as they are, Ground Hornbills require huge territories of up to 20 square miles.

Spread in the massive Serengeti plains, seeing the birds therefore isn’t that easy. But of many places you have a chance to see them, the open grassland around Lamai Serengeti offers real good opportunities.

Picture courtesy of Elza Blankenburgs