Thursday, November 10, 2005

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

We were on the road again by 6am for our 5th and last game drive in the Serengeti. We saw huge herds of zebra and wildebeest, with all sorts of other ungulates thrown in here and there. We were near the top of a giant sloping plain, and could see thousands of animals all about. We even saw a pride of lions, 7 in total, that looked like they were on a hunt, but just walked from tree shade to tree shade. It was a very relaxing ride, I just sat up on top of the Land Rover the whole time and enjoyed it. We didn't see any more animals to tick off our list, but it was very scenic.

Saw: giraffes, spotted hyenas, impalas, black-crested eagle, topi, gazelles, wildebeest, zebras, cheetah, lions, buffalos, guinea fowl, warthogs, hartebeest, ostrich, dik diks

Back to camp for brunch, and then we packed up and headed for the Ngorongoro crater. (I had washed my tshirt before brunch, and 45 minutes later, it was dry!) It was a bit of a drive (4 1/2 hours), although we did make a number of stops.

Saw a few more lions along the way, including a large male (we'd seen mostly female). Got to the campsite on the lip of the crater with about 30 minutes of daylight remaining. We quickly pitched our tents, and I took a (cold) shower at the camp facilities. (The Serengeti campsite also had showers, but no water at this time of year). We had stopped to pick up firewood along the drive, and again had a nice campfire. We had dinner by the fire, and then sat drinking wine until the fire burnt out (10pm).

1 comment: