I booked this safari at the last minute and didn't realize that I would be visiting one of the natural wonders of the world. It turned out to be quite a nice surprise. Just a little background on the crater: The Ngorongoro crater has one of the largest concentrations of wildlife in Africa. Often called "Africa’s Eden", this 10th natural wonder of the world is the natural sanctuary to thousands of birds, insects, and animals such as lions, zebras and black rhino, to name a few. It became a conservation land in 1959 and it covers 8,300 square kilometers or reserve. Located in northern Tanzania, 190 miles from Arusha town, the park is located between the Serengeti and Lake Manyara. It's also famous for the “largest unbroken Caldera in the world”, a crater 610 meters deep and 260 square kilometers in area.
Ngorongoro is essentially an upside-down volcano that was formed over millions of years. Over time, it produced a natural habitat inside the crater. We spent the night on the crater rim and would spend the following day looking for animals inside this amazing zoo. Our goal up to this point was to capture all of the Big 5 on film. So far, we've captured a lot of elephants, a couple of leopards, one male lion feeding and several female lions. We still needed a good shot of a buffalo, a closer shot of a male lion and the very hard to find rhino. We would not be disappointed.
The day started great as we got fairly close to a leopard, but unfortunately it was not quite the angle I was looking for. Sippy got us real close to another big one as we came across a herd of Buffalo and got a great close up of this ugly beast (see first image). But I still needed a good shot of a male lion as the one I had gotten the other day eating didn't quite have the same Lion King image that I wanted. So, Sippy took us to where they hang out. As we approached this next site, there were about 15 vehicles surrounding about a dozen lionesses and two males that were sleeping. Not very good images to capture but we knew that when it started to heat up during the day, these big suckers would have to get up and move to some shade. So we waited...and waited. (Gawd, they were lazy) :) So after spending over an hour just waiting for these lions to wake up (from the heat), they finally moved and we got the shots we wanted, a lot of them. Now I know how those guys from Discovery Channel feel. :) You'll also notice that in one these shots, several of the younger females came right up to the vehicles and were looking for shade. You see an image of them underneath a couple of the vehicles. Pretty funny.
On the way to having lunch in the crater, we came across a herd of zebra that were blocking our path. It was so cool and their sounds were amazing (I got video of this). There were so many and we needed to go very slow and quietly as to not scare them. Great images! After that, lunch was good and I was pretty satisfied with the whole expedition so far. So we didn't get to see a rhino, big deal. ;-)
After lunch, it seemed we would not find a rhino as anticipated. But on the way out of the crater, we came upon a group of vehicles looking at some wild beast in the distance. What we would soon discover was that there behind them was a single lone rhinocerous! It was a bit far away but he was approaching us at an angle. Sippy got us into position to get a decent shot. And Sippy delivered. This experience was one of the coolest things I have ever done. This is not like a zoo at home because you're out there with them. Just very different and more personal; I would compare it to something like diving where you get into the natural habitat. Very good last day on the safari and well worth it. On the way back to Arusha, I had to jam Diesel and Dust (80s old school) on my iPod which seemed to appropriately set the tone for the week.
On the way back to Arusha, we needed to stop by the crater rim camp site to pick up our gear. While waiting around, we had a guest elephant wander into the campsite. This probably ranks up there with not the smartest thing to do as I later found out that I was standing between the elephant and his drinking tank! The elephant looked like he was going to charge one girl that got a little too close. Luckily, he eventually got to his water (without incident) and from what I understand, he is sort of a friend of the campsite. It was the first time we got that close to a large animal without the vehicle protecting us. Pretty cool way to end the day. My trip was coming close to an end, but not before the main reason why I came to Tanzania. Tomorrow, I would be heading to Amani to visit with the kids.
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