One of our neighbours on patrol at Lamai!

Walking the pathways of Lamai you will occasionally come across a strange 

set of tracks. It looks a little like someone has been driving around with a 

miniature 4x4 or perhaps pulling a tiny suitcase with wheels. 

Follow it a while and if you`re quick enough (they are surprisingly sprightly - 

Aesop was no fool!)  and the mystery is solved.

The largest of the African Tortoises (and the fifth largest in the world!), 

a Leopard Tortoise can often reach 46 cm in length and weigh over 15 kg. 

There is an Ethiopian sub species of giants that has been known to 

double those stats!!

The flat plastron (underside) on this specimen would suggest it's a female 

(you can also tell by the eyelashes), males have a concave plastron 

to facilitate mating - it stops him from falling off!

One of three species found in the region, the Leopard Tortoise -

Stigmochelys pardalis - is named for the splash coloration on it's carapace 

(upper side), rather than it's ability to drag impalas up trees.

We were delighted to find him while showing this mornings arrivals to 

their room - what a star.

PS. I've just discovered the existence of creature called a Pancake Tortoise, 

Malacochersus tornien (by all means google that) - a bizarre looking flat chelonid 

that favours rocky outcrops or Kopjies in East Africa (remind you of anywhere?). 

I'm heading out hunting, super excited that we're going to find our own little 

colony of Lamai Pancakes!!

"What's the meaning of all this preening?"

 
Without doubt one of the most ornate and memorable birds in the Serengeti National Park, a Grey Crowned Crane has to work for the image. 

 
 Preening is an essential part of the morning routine, re-aligning feathers and coating them with an oily secretion from a gland near the base of the tail helps keep things subtle and shiny.

 
Turn into the wind to blow dry and add a little "bounce" to the coiffure.
 
Have a partner double check the back......

 
....and I'm ready for my profile.

Seasonal gardening tips from the Northern Serengeti

Good morning listeners....it's time for our handy hints for the indigenous Savannah gardener.

With the short rains providing their daily sprinkling, you may also be viewing a sudden growth spurt in this blooming season!

As the trees and grasses spring to life things can get a little labour intensive and, lets face it, weeding can be such a bore. We love that our lodge blends into it's surroundings (we should win the award for that - seriously no one else comes close when it comes to camouflage) but we'd rather it didn't disappear entirely!

If you`re suffering the same and your snippers just can't keep up, then do what we do, and invite a host of pachyderms for tea.

Nature's landscape architects - no job is too big for a heard peckish Elephants.

Attention to detail is a signature of the firm - no pot goes un checked (or tasted)......

and they'll make certain that your archways and pathways....


meet with the Loxidonta standards of strength and measure.

They're dedicated,

in-obtrusive....

and they will deliver the bill direct to your office.

Thanks team, till next time.

I’m just going to check up on the solar pump – do you fancy a ride?

......Sure thing.

We round a bend at the bottom of our Kopjie and gape to find a lioness hot on the heels of sub adult Zebra, caught unawares the unfortunate animal barely makes a single bound before the lioness has her on the ground. Within two minutes the struggle is over.

“To witness a kill” is often on the wish list for our guests on safari but it is not box often ticked. You have to be very lucky and, despite the fact that we live here, this is the first time we’ve arrived in the right place at the right time.

It’s a raw and unsettling thing to see how efficiently this she-predator hunts, taken aback we are both somehow reluctant to lift a camera. Ten minutes later and a second female arrives, the scene until now has been completely silent and their vocalisations bring things out of slow motion. A few swipes and growls decide who gets which end.

Moments pass and a glance up from the spectacle in front of the vehicle reveals a third female making her way down from the Kopjie - her three cubs bouncing along behind her.

Nature rewards the bold, they brave the snarling mammas and get stuck in although not without getting their ears boxed once or twice - there is still a pecking order here.

Sun sets and the solar pump goes un-checked - we'll try again tomorrow.

Rock Stars of the Serengeti

Without doubt the title goes to our abundant reptilian neighbours, the Flat Headed Rock Agama! 

With the kind of colouration any self respecting punk rocker can only dream of maintaining in a hair cut, the male Agama puts the our friends at Camden Lock to shame.

Adding to this he displays by violently thrashing his head up and down to attract the attention of females and send his rivals packing - suitably intimidated by his prowess as a headbanger. 

We should post this behaviour on you-tube with Metallica's "Ride the lightning" as a soundtrack.

"That's not music, that's just noise!"

A Cubs Life...

We have been spoilt rotten with sightings of a local leopard female and her two cubs these past two weeks, after a brief absence we were delighted when they started showing up on our guests camera screens again.

A remarkably large, healthy looking female she is rearing two boisterous performers - it must be an exhausting task keeping them safe in an ecosystem in which a potential threat sits behind every rock - beneath every tree. She watches over them in the shelter of the Kopjies for now and they are utterly fearless in their explorations of this outcrop home. She seems to visibly sigh when once again she has to get up and retrieve them from wherever they've gotten stuck!

It was a relaxed afternoon when Jana, Rebecca and I ventured out to the rocks to try and spot them - unbelievable as it sounds we had them to our selves right up until sunset. Very happy managers!

A point of View

Do not leave your room/office/vehicle/pool,- in fact don’t attempt anything at all, without some binoculars and a camera!

We’re new on the scene in Serengeti and perhaps we will, in time, become blasé about such things but I seriously doubt it.

From a vantage point in this ecosystem, and it would not be idle boasting to say that Lamai puts a very big tick the “room with a view” box. The surrounding landscapes and the skies leave you speechless. How amazing that you have the opportunity to observe countless species interacting on a daily basis.

In the past week we’ve seen lots and lots of Wildebeests, Zebras, Lions, Buffalo, Elephants and even a Long Crested Eagle every day (just to mention a few!) - without even leaving the camp! Fantastic!