The first of many lions...

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In the morning after breakfast we headed out for a hike with two Maasai guides. We learned a lot about how the Maasai use the local plants as medicine and food. We were also shown which plants are used as soap and which ones can be made into rope. The Maasai also build beehives and collect honey. We saw where termites were building a fresh mound (there are giant termite mounds everywhere!) We learned that cheetah is a friend to people but lion and leopard are very dangerous.

Day 2 - Ngorongoro Crater

Back in the truck we headed to Ngorongoro crater (ask Shelagh to say that sometime, it’s quite amusing). It’s very foggy at the top of the crater so we saw nothing as we hurtled along dodgy gravel roads in thick fog. But then as we got to the rim and began our descent the fog cleared and the crater appeared before us. It’s an old volcano caldera and provides perfect animal habitat for many species. You know the scene at the start of the lion king where he holds simba (lion - your second new swahili word) up for the animals to see, I think that's ngorongoro crater.

The parade of animals began with zebras and warthogs. Did you know that warthog moms fart when they can’t see their babies and then the babies follow her scent- bet you didn't think you'd get parenting tips out of this blog as well. The goal on safari is always to see “The Big Five” - Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion, Leopard. The Rhino and the Leopard are actually the hardest to find, but everyone is always excited by the big cats. Shortly after arriving in the crater we saw our first cats, two lazy male lion brothers. We marveled at them just lying in the sun. They were probably 30 feet from the truck. That is something that we learned quickly, the animals are not particularly afraid of people so in general do not run away (except when they are zebras forming a blockade of the road or silly skittish little Thompsons Gazelles. They are scared of the truck but are spectacularly dumb and so run along the road, across the road, onto the road etc, in their attempt to escape the truck. More on Thompsons later). We watched these lions for a long time. The biggest excitement was when the bigger one with a great mane stood up, yawned, sniffed his brother…and lay back down on his other side. We soon learned that’s what lions do…sleep. We actually ate our lunch in the truck watching the lions. The pack lunches the hotels sent every day were great and more food than we could ever eat…which is saying something for Andy and I. In most places you do not get out of your truck, it isn’t safe, but in a few places around the parks there are picnic sites for lunch.

Anyway, the next animals we saw were hippos. They were in the water so we just saw eyes and ears. The same pond had tons of flamingos. Also lying beside the pond were spotted hyenas - another very common animal. They are so creepy looking and they slink around the plains just looking nasty. We actually saw one approach a group of wildebeast (also in the running for worlds ugliest animal) and the hyena came and lay down beneath the wildebeast and rolled on its back. He was clearly teasing them.

We saw a hyena cub lying by himself in the grass, but he wasn’t well hidden and he looked injured. He was still there when we came by later but I suspect he didn’t last long after that. Hyena will even eat other hyenas. Shortly after this we had one of the most amazing experiences of the whole safari. Our guide spotted a cheetah in the grass. It wasn’t far away from us, but still, none of us had seen it. We watched the cheetah and then she sat up, then she stood up, then she started walking and actually crossed the road right behind our truck…to the other side of the road where there was a group of zebras, wildebeast and Thompsons! She then lay down and began to stalk the animals. The animals knew she was there and would look at her occasionally and one would get spooked and move away but then forget she was there again and keep eating. However, there was also a jackal hanging around and he kept wandering over to her and by the animals and generally wreaked havoc with her hunt. We watched for probably 20 minutes and she did make an attempt to chase one animal, but it was pretty half-hearted and she gave up quickly and then simply walked away. We kept driving and saw another hippo, and another lazy lion - this one a female just lying on her back in the sun.

One of the rarest animals is the black rhino. They’re not actually black, they’re grey, like you would think. Ngorongoro is one of the only places in the world to see them. Godwin spotted a baby rhino from very far away and was able to get us close enough to see it, but we were still quite far away. Just his head and back were visible over the tall grass. Mom was lying on the ground and we could just barely see part of her. The baby kept nudging his mom as if to say “c’mon mom, get up, let’s go for a walk”. But she was having none of it and kept sleeping. Godwin told us how the Rhinos go from the crater to the Serengeti for mating time. It’s quite a distance away. So Shelagh asked “Do they walk all that way?” This inspired quite a bit of conversation at Shelaghs expense as to the possible other modes of transport that Rhinos could take advantage of.

It was getting late and gates to the park close at 6 so we headed out of the crater - an amazing day. We spent the night at a large hotel on the rim of the crater. Not the $1000 per person per night hotel, but another nice hotel. The building was beautiful, the setting amazing. But the food was just okay and the whole thing felt very production line. We learned that we like the smaller places better.

Oh yeah, by the way, Shelagh is positive that we would need a special compass to know the direction here, because there are special southern hemisphere compasses. Apparently north isn’t north here in the south. (editors note: the writer of this blog would like to sincerely apologize for this factual error. Upon further research there are, in fact, southern hemisphere compasses. They still point north but have to be built slightly differently for the dial to spin smoothly due to the weighting on the needle itself from being so far from north. The writer and her sister and brother in law must admit that they were wrong, and cruel, and are very very sorry - they do not however promise to always believe Shelagh. remember she thought rhinos might travel by some mode other than walking)

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Photos

Massive termite mound
On our Massai walk we found gigantic termite mounds.

Warthog
Fart...fart...fart.

Sleeping lions
2 brothers sleeping. One has a big gash on his back. Perhaps from a fight?

Rolling lion
Legs sicking in the air rolling around...just a big cat.

Baby Black Rhino
Mum is beside, but hard to see.