Tanzania....Serengeti to Ngorongoro

   At the end of the last blog I was sort of "taking it all in"- my experience from an amazing day- AND the terrific Seronera Wildlife Lodge. There would be no night or early morning walk here since there were lions, hyena's, and even a leopard in close proximity to the lodge. Actually there were about 10 hyena's in the field by the entrance last night, they are a really ferocious looking animal, nothing cute about them. I was awoken at 4:30 in the morning by a baboon running on the roof so I had plenty of time to talk to the front desk clerk and write in my journal.

  Today after an excellent breakfast we were to make our way east about 160 kms to the Ngorongoro Crater; we were on the lookout for wildlife. We cruised along slowly viewing animals as they came into sight; Supra (the guide) ended up stopping, he had heard a noise from a lion. Turned out that two lions were about to mate; you could not write this script, even if you were in a zoo. We sat in the jeep listening to all the noises of lion passion, we could see the lions moving in the long grass. The male and female have intercourse for about 2 minutes, then wait about 10 minutes to do it again; meanwhile another male was waiting close by in case the dominant male got too tired and he would get his chance. We could hear all the action and could see the "relief lion" hunkered down hoping to get his opportunity. This had to be some tourist luck; like watching the leopard eating the deer the day before, just couldn't get it on camera.

  We continued on and saw a herd of about 15 elephants and many more ostrich than the previous day. There were a lot of giraffe's and gazelle's, and then we went through some bush, there were 4 lions laying on a tree, with 3 very young cubs playing in the grass.

                           

We watched as the mom in the tree kept an eye on the young ones; this action was beyond fabulous. In about 20 minutes we were able to see the family of lions communicate...when the babies got too far from the tree the mom jumped down and went to get them. There were many colorful birds around, I took so many photo's. Once we got close to the Crater there were many Maasai Villages strewn here and there.


                           

 I got a photo of 3 ladies using cloth wraps to carry firewood; as far as the eye could see there were no trees, they must have walked for hours.


                            


    We arrived at the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge and I could not believe the view of the Crater from my room with Lake Magadi right below me.

                           


 The lodge sits right on the rim of this famous caldera that is about 260 sq kms, there are so many animals that live in the Crater full time and tens of thousands of birds that come and go. Yet again the food was exceptional and the service very thorough, the staff really treat the tourists well.

   In the morning we headed to the park gate for the Crater, the park fee was paid by Supra (included in my price). Once we were in the Crater we waited for an endangered black rhino to get close enough for a photo, he did not look black, but Supra said that this creature was a black rhino.

                          


 After that we spotted a cheetah who was taking a break, he did not stay around long once we got close but we still got good photo's.

                          


There were hundreds of pink flamingo's close by, at Lake Manyara there were many more but they were on the other side of the lake.

                       


A couple of times I got bit by a tse-tse fly and does it ever hurt. They are well known for spreading disease and taking a lot of meat with each bite. Most of the day was spent in the Crater and we got close and personal with many different species like the ostrich, hippo, rhino, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, lion, warthogs...and the list goes on.

                       

                       

                       


There were so many types of birds, some were at the lakes edge, while others were on the backs of animals or simply standing in the open.

                       

   Visiting the Crater was an amazing experience; I cannot really say in words or catch in a photo an accurate sense of the thrill that I felt while on this safari.

  As we were climbing out of the Crater on a very rough road (not the same road we entered on) there was a leopard sleeping in a tree. There are so many such photo's capturing wildlife that perhaps look better to the naked eye since I did not have a powerful lens.

    Once we got up onto the park road it was like a circus with the large trucks trying to come up a steep, muddy mountain pass. Several corners we had to stop and the big trucks stopped.....drivers could not go up or down the pass. One truck only had two wheels on the road and it's load had shifted, it was on a 45 degree angle.Another truck was over the edge about 8 metres down, a crane would have to get that one out. We stopped at a souvenir place so the Japanese guys could get something, they were finished; I bought a statue.

                           

                           



  We made it back to Arusha late and I stayed in the 7-11 hotel, the next day just Supra and I would go to the Arusha National Park. On the way to the park 3 ladies were waving the jeep down, Supra looked at me and asked, should we ? We stopped for a photo and the ladies were happy to get some money.

                           

   The last of the safari was good, perhaps not as spectacular as the previous days but any day that one can see these animals is a good day. There were: giraffes, baboons, ostrich, 3 types of lions, jackals,

                           

   hyena's, gazelle's; some monkey types that I hadn't seen before, zebra, buffalo, and the list goes on. When we stopped at a rangers station the ranger (who had a gun) asked me if I wanted to go on a bit of a walk to a waterfall. On that walk we got very close to some giraffe and buffalo; in the other parks you are not allowed to leave the vehicle, for good reason.

  A safari is a great experience for the animal lover We have to hope that there are enough sq kms for these majestic animals to roam in search of food and water. If they see a human, lets just hope that the human is armed with a camera instead of a gun. Oh yea....bring money for tips, the locals need it.