Well, today has been incredible so far. Last night we planned with Justin to leave at 7am. T and I went to bed somewhat late and woke up around 6. Breakfast started at 6:30 so we diddle daddled for a little and then were welcomed by an incredible buffet of amazingness. Custom omelettes, fresh pancakes, sautéed potatoes, bacon, sausage, French toast and all the rest buffet items. Chocolate croissants, biscuits, everything. Oh and fruit and five different kinds of juices. We got our same table in the corner by the window with a great view. After demolishing breakfast, and I mean eating it in under 5 minutes we met Justin in the parking lot and headed out. The sun was just rising and no one else had left yet. Within 20 minutes and a few miles from the lodge, we had already doubled what we had seen the previous day it felt like. The most amazing site being 5 or so elephants RIGHT off the road dismantling a tree. The protective mother came within 10 feet of the car. It was breathtaking. We stayed there for a little and I decided I love the elephant as an animal. A little while later we were rewarded with a whole clan of hairless assed baboons hanging out next to a pool full of hippos. I captured an amazing photo of a little baby baboonshka jumping from a tree in mid air. It might be my favorite.This happened really early. Probably before 8. Before noon, we had done what most consider very lucky. We had seen 4 of the “big 5” – elephants, lions, buffalo, and a leopard. All sightings were very different and incredible in their own right. The one we have left to see if the rhino. All of the rhinos live in the Ngorongoro crater so maybe well see it tomorrow or the next day. Of the four, perhaps the most awe inspiring was the leopard. Just after our second lion sighting, we happened upon a group of maybe 20 or 30 different SUVs stopped on one of the paths. Something really amazing needs to happen for this many cars to be in one place and it did. Leopard sightings are rare as they usually spend most of their time in trees. We saw one in the wild on the ground strutting around confidently showing off to all the cars. Perhaps what is most awesome about leopard is it’s coat. It’s beautiful. After having seen enough of the leopard, we decided we couldn’t do much better, so we headed back to the lodge for lunch. NO ONE was there, everyone was out game driving so t and I had the entire restaurant and pool to ourselves. We got a front row table with a view a picture can’t do justice. Lunch was just silly. I had one of the more amazing amazing cheeseburgers I’ve had in memory and t had a pizza that made me drool. We showed our waiter my iPad and he loved it. He was from arusha. Apparently the workers work everyday for 2 months and then get 2 weeks off. Makes sense since they are working in the middle of the wilderness.

We finished lunch and then went down to the pool. In the duration of lunch, it had gotten a little bit cloudy and had made it cool enough that we deemed the pool to be unswimmable. So we took the two best deck chairs – they were all available – and laid out for 3 hours. Following the nice little siesta, we met back up with Justin and went for a sun set game run.