On Wednesday we spent the day in Ngorongoro crater. It was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. The crater is much bigger than I expected, the pictures we took from the top don't come close to doing it justice.
According to Stephen, it is home to 30,000 animals. Steep mountains surround it on all sides, so all of the animals are permanent residents except the elephants and African buffalo. It's a retirement home of sorts for old male elephants & buffalo, who come there when they are too old or weak to defend their role as leader of their tribe. We couldn't believe how many zebra & wildebeest we saw everywhere, many with young calves. The highlights of the day were a baby elephant and his mother and a lioness with her cub.
We also saw a black rhino, although from a distance. There were hippos in the lake that's fed by the freshwater spring, although they weren't very cooperative for a picture of more than just their noses. We ate lunch in the jeep because the black-face monkeys have been known to steal people's lunches, even jumping through the roof according to Stephen. He also told us at breakfast that elephants are great at climbing steep inclines, and to get back down they sit and slide on their butts. I'm skeptical of this but without my smart phone and google to look it up I'll have to take his word for it.
We stayed at Rhino Lodge in the forest at the top of the crater. We were cautioned not to walk outside the compound at night because of the many elephants, giraffes, and lions that call the nearby forest home. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see any of those (from the safety of our room of course), but I suppose it's for the best.
We met two women about our age at dinner, sisters who are from Colorado and were going on a short safari after finishing their Kilimanjaro trek. They entertained us with stories of their adventures, which made me want to sign up for a trek and Tricia vow never to attempt to summit Kilimanjaro. Maybe next trip...
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