Advertisement
Published: June 28th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Day 9
We actually had an early start - 7.30am, and when we got up, the cloud was right down and you couldnt see to the edge of the crater, never mind into it. We were cold too - fleeces and boots weather, at least until it warmed up. As we set off down into the crater, Sylvester had to use all his concentration to keep us on the road, as his windscreen was permantely steamed up and he had his wipers going. The crater is 16-19km across covering an area of 265 sq km, and it is estimated that it is home to 30,000 animals. It is the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself 2-3 million years ago.
We started the game drive through a wooded section, where we saw a number of elephants, some of quite an age. We had the roof up on the jeep, but it was chilly so we mostly sat down rather than stood. Again, Sylvester was listening on the radio for "something special", and we headed towards a middle part of the crater floor where lots of
jeeps were parked. In the distance, and amongst a herd of buffalo, a black rhino was sat down. Through the binoculars we could see the horns, but it looked like it had no intention of moving anytime soon.
We also saw a different type of gazelle, without the black stripe down the side. These are Grant's gazelle. There were lots of herds of impala and gazelle, and we saw our first substantial number of wildebeest. In the middle of the crater are a couple of lakes, but they dont have any fish in them as it is brackish water no freshwater. This does attract flamingos, of which there were some in the lake. Our only lion sighting of the morning was at distance, which was a shame. What we did see was large numbers of male and female ostriches and pairs of crowned cranes, some of which had chicks with them.
Our picnic spot was by a lake which was really nice. The weather seemed to be warming up, and Sylvester was convinced that would bring out more animals in for the afternoon game drive. He recommended that we eat our picnic in the jeep, as there was
a kite circling and as we watched it swooped down on people to try and grab their lunch. Not to be deterred Gottfried decided to ignore the advice, but soon retreated to the safety of the jeep after having to flap his arms at the kite to frighten it away. As we sat and ate our lunch, we noticed eyes and nostrils in the water - hippo. A number of other groups were getting very close to the water considering that we could identify at least 3 in there. They are very dangerous animals and not to be underestimated, so we certianly wouldnt be going that close to the edge.
We set off again for our afternoon game drive hoping that the change in the weather would bring a change in the animals' activities. We saw an extraordinarily large number of jackals always on their own. It seemed that whilst normally they are quite rare to see, they were round every corner. We also saw a number of bustards, which are very large birds that can fly, but not well due to their size and spend most of their time walking instead. We saw another lion - again from
distance and really just a head before it settled down back into the long grass.
We went back to the spot where we had seen the rhino to see if it had moved to a better spot for a picture, but it remained in exactly the same place as we had left it that morning, which meant that our photos werent good enough. Carrying on, we stopped to take pictures of a hyena on one side of the jeep, and when we looked, there was one closer on the other side too. Even to those that like wildlife, there is no disguising how ugly they are.
Across the other side of the river, we could see a gathering of jeeps, which usually indicated "something special". Sylvester tried to get across at one place, but the crossing looked a little deep, so he aimed for another spot. We passed a troop of baboons on the way, and as the jeep crossed the river through a shallow ford, we noticed that the pool on the right of the jeep had eyes and nostrils, and then 3 hippos popped their heads up at us.
The jeep speeded towards the place
we had seen the jeeps, hoping that we werent too late, and with his great driving, we got positioned in a prime spot to see a serval cat sat on the track next to our jeep. The cat then casually moved across the front of our position and into the grass at the side. We thought that we were going to lose her, but then she spotted something move in the grass, arched her back and lept on the prey. We then saw her wolf it down, before she re-emerged from the grass to the side of the jeep, underneath it and back out the other side. Sylvester told us that this was a very rare sighting indeed.
We headed back to the lodge as the temperature again began to drop. As we left the room for dinner, we saw one of the housekeepers with hot water bottles, so thought we would have a nice warm bed when we returned. As we arrived for dinner, we just caught the end of the Maasi jumping display, which was exactly what we had seen the day before in the village. During dinner, Gottfreid treated us to another of his jokes, and
Russ told them the Arthur the chicken joke with a number of accents, which Ulrike in particular thought was very funny, and promised to take home to Austria to treat her dinner guests. We were disappointed when we got to our room later to find we had no hot water bottle - cue to put another blanket on!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 18; qc: 99; dbt: 0.1092s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb