Ngoro Ngoro Crater safari

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Petra to Ngorongoro...from one wonder to another one...but not the one next door!

First, 2 hours 30 minutes from Petra to Amman airport...than, 3 hours flight from Amman to Dubai...and a serious
new stock of cigars. Stop-over of only 3 hours in Dubai, and connected from Royal Jordanian to Ethiopian Airlines.
New airlines for me, but quite a good experience in the front cabin. 3 hours flight to Addis Abeba for a short
stop of two hours, sadly this was not enough to go out of the airport and have a taste of Ethiopia. This won't
therefore count as a new country visited for me...Than 2 more hours, with a small technical stop in
Nairobi, and here I am landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport...with enough champagne over the last few hours!

So no, everything didn't go right...as my bag didn't make it with me. As I'm writting this, the bag is in Arusha...
and me 3 hours away from there...and Ethiopian Airlines who refuse to deliver it...we'll see later...

So arrived last night just after sunset at the Serena Crater Lodge. There are only 5 lodges on the rim of the Crater
This obviously doesn't help to keep prices competitive, but so far really happy with the place. Did some cloth
washing to get ready for this morning and my all day safari drive.

The good news is I'm going to have the same guide/driver for 4 days. Tobias picked me up at Kilimanjaro and we
are going to be together for all this little safari leg. You can call it exclusive, as there is only both of us
in the car...don't tell you the look I receive from people around!

Seems that I forgot where I was going...The Crater is at 2300m altitude...and yes we are just below the Equator, so
therefore it's winter...and it is...let's call it "chilly". Around 15 degrees night time and max 22 during the day.
And as you can guess, I only have a shirt on me for the moment...interesting experience!

The advantage of the cold weather is that you can go safari all day long as animals don't have to hide from the sun.
This is not my first safari...and for sure will not be the last...wait the next entry...and early 2009 for a lot
more...but this time with Ma'ri in another top place!

I never saw hippos in the wild...and leopards...and jaguars...and tigers....Well, for the jaguar and tigers, it's not
the right place! For the leopard...the first day was not a lucky one...for the hippos...I've stop to count at 100...
Tonight I'm an happy man!

On the program to come...maybe my bag on the way...maybe not...but for sure a good diner, a nice cigar...and a early
night...as today we have some more safari to do...and 250km of tracks...but for this entry, wait few more days.

If there is one thing I didn't like with Ngoro Ngoro is the crowd. The Crater has a diameter 20km, and take around 100
cars, all of them on tracks. So when there is a nice spotting, it become very crowded very fast. But that's life!

You may want to come back to see this entry in around 2 weeks. I've got my little digital camera with me, plus a
proper zoom on a more classical camera...with films to be processed...sometime soon!

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