The Serengeti ended up being a short trip because of needing to get to drive across the country to catch our flight to Uganda tomorrow. I would have liked more time at this place, but there's more to see and do elsewhere.
I was ready early today and just decided to bring my luggage to breakfast so I don't have to walk back before we leave. Every time we come or go from a lodge, a plethora (love that word) of baggage guys come running to help. (Honestly sometimes this gets annoying, as they won't let you do it yourself.) Anyway, a porter takes my luggage and sets it near the entrance with other bags, just like normal. I decided to put my backpack there as well, which I almost never do. In this case, I'm glad I did.
While I was at breakfast, they loaded the suitcases into the trucks. I'm used to my suitcase ending up in another truck and have stopped paying attention. However, I wanted my backpack in my truck. So I went looking truck to truck (we have 4).for my bag. You can guess where this is going. My luggage was put into another company's safari truck which had already left for their next town.
One of the ladies was standing by the head guide, and according to her, he blanched when I looked in the last truck and didn't find it. Luckily there had only been one outfit who left before us. So they called them and confirmed that they did indeed have my luggage. They turned around and we met them part way. This could have been a real problem, since my passport, phone, and everything I brought was in those two bags. Two things I had in my favor, although I didn't have to use either: 1) I put a gps tracker in both of my bags (The Tile), which I highly recommend it for finding keys and muted phone, and in this case, luggage); 2) I keep a copy of my passport in my cloud. In either case, I'm glad I didn't have to test either backup plan.
So of we set off for the next lodge several hours away.
It sounds boring, but every drive turns into an opportunity to see animals. Yes, there can be moments where the is nothing for miles, but on the other hand you can run into leopards in trees (same one as yesterday - the kill from tragedy was still in the tree although the leopard had been snacking on it overnight) , lions under trees (they must have used all their energy hunting), crocodiles stunning themselves next to a pool of hippos, monkeys in a tree (I thought the one sitting on the top of a tree was the cutest), more elephants and warthogs (can you ever really have enough of either? ), giraffes calmly munching leaves in a tree, or wildebeest fighting with their horns (I'm never sure if playful or not), baboons hanging on the side of the road in the small town of Manyara - all of which we saw. The hard part is to stay alert in the boring parts, so you don't miss the gems. 
As we were driving, I pointed out the horizon to the lady next to me in the safari truck. It looked like a lake, but I wondered if it was a mirage. She thought it was to big to be a mirage, but after 30 minutes and no lake, we realized it definitely was. I had seen a mirage in Kenya and took a picture of it, which is what made me suspicious.
Tomorrow is a travel day. We will spend the whole day getting to the airport, flying, or waiting [looking forward to that, NOT).
So tomorrow I will tell you the legend of the wildebeest. .
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