Ngorogoro Crater

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We got up the next day early so we could drive to the Ngorogoro crater. The crater is quite famous as an amazing place to see all the big game of East Africa. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/tanzania/attractions.htm#ngorongoro) On the way the roads were quite bumpy and after about an hour the Land Rover lost all power going up a hill. We diagnosed the problem that rear wheels were sapping all the power from the differential and I thought there might be a problem with the drive shaft. We found that by locking the differential the front wheels were able to pull the jeep along but fairly slowly. We struggled along for half an hour while many jeeps overtook us and then stopped at a small village to hopefully get a fix.
The guy in the garage seemed to be teaching 10 other guys something as they were all pouring over the hood of another land rover when we arrived. He took a look at our vehicle and quickly came to the conclusion that the bolt in the middle of the tire was threaded on the back right. David was sent off on a bicycle to get the spare part from somewhere else in the village and it was replaced in about 1/2 an hour. I thought that since the drive shaft had been spinning so much it seemed unlikely that just one side would have gone without damaging the other side and told this to David. The mechanics seemed to agree with me, and they took the part of the other side to inspect it. It did seem to be a little on the edge so they sent David a second time on the bike to buy another one. We got back on the road without too much time gone. I was pleasantly surprised as was quite worried that we wouldn't be able to make a repair. We got to the crater entrance not too much after many of the people we had seen at dinner the night before. It was a great day in the crater - we saw so many Wildebeest (Gnu) and other bucks. Right after lunch we got to an amazing mud pool chock full of Hippos with an Elephant grazing right next to them. It was a wondrous site. It was great when they rolled over and you could see their pink undersides briefly. They were so close to us. The Elephant got really close before we decided to see what else was about.
Towards the end of the day we focused on trying to see any of the big cats and the Rhinos. Petra got a glimpse of a Leopard in a tree but the rest of us couldn't make it out. Not even throwing an orange at the tree (at our guides suggestions - I was pretty horrified at the prospect) could convince the leopard to come out. The group in front of us got a better view I think. We drove around a lot looking for the black Rhinos and eventually saw one in the distance. David had "forgotten" the binoculars at home which was a shame. I had asked the tour company if we could get an extra pair, but we ended up with none for the first two days. David did manage to borrow a pair later which was great.
At about 4 pm we spotted many groups parked together - so we went to see when they were looking at and saw about 3 pairs of Lions lazing around in the long grass. That was great! We watched them for a long time as they watched us and lazed around. Then on the way out maybe an hour later we saw a cheetah sitting on its own quite close to the road. What an amazing day.
The lodge at the Ngorogoro crater was very nice - a great deck overlooking the crater so you could see Elephants and other animals. Dinner was great and afterwards there was a local dance troup which did some amazing stunts - reminded my of Cirque du Soleil - it was that good and we were in the front row - well there was only one row and they landed right next to us after their air jumps onto the wooden floor.

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Photos

Masai
one of them isn't!