Ngorongoro Crater

Despite some poor rainy conditions (this being the height of the rainy season and all) Francoise and I with two others arranged to have a driver from language school take us the 4 hour drive for a day trip to the Ngorongoro crater. Quite nice to have Lake Manyara and the beginning of the Great Rift Valley in the distance on the road trip.

Ngorongoro is about 2000 feet deep and 100 square miles in distance. Aside from being spectacular to look at in itself, the crater acts as a natural enclosure to concentrate crazy amounts of African wildlife. Within a short space of time we had seen buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, Thompson's gazelles and lions.

(can you spot the lion sitting in the background?)

I was eager to see elephant and after seeing a few in the distance we had the chance to get close to a herd and have a couple of them cross the road in front of us. One in particular got right up next to my open front window(waving its massive Doug killing tusks in my face).

It was humbling to see a tusker that close. I felt quite teeny.



After elephant-mageddon we stopped and lunched near a lagoon filled with hippo basking under a tree covered in weaver bird nests. And Black Kites. How was I to know these extremely agressive raptors had learned to associate tourists with food?! I had a cake in my hand, suddenly I heard a 'whoossh!' and most of the cake and a portion of the skin on my left hand was taken by a diving kite. Despite my bloody paw, I could not believe what had just happened...so I held out some cake in the hand again. Sure enough two kites shot past my screaming self again...our driver suggested I eat lunch in the car...
On our leisurely drive out of the crater we caught a rare glimpse of a black rhino and her baby before the long drive back. A long day and the park entry fees are a bit steep but definitely worth it.

Plus we didn't have the troubles of another group of students here who went to Arusha National Park the same day as our mission then had their car break down in a fire ant ridden area...ouchy