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May 6th The Serengeti Six were on cloud nine after the previous days wildlife activity. We had seen most of what is called The Big Five. This nomenclature is used widely on safaris and it relates to the land mammals you see, it consists of elephants, lions, rhinos, buffalo and leopards. These are considered the most dangerous and also the hardest to kill, if you were inclined to be such an asshole.
We woke up early again, had breakfast and tea at the campsite and watch the sunrise over the Ngorongoro Crater. We chatted about the Big Five and the hope that we would see a cheetah. The previous night there were buffalo grazing right next to our tents so we had only the rhino to cover all the bases of the Big Five. To see a video of us going down into the crater click
here. The game drive in the crater was to go from 6:30am to about noon. At that point we would go back to camp, break down the tents and have lunch before returning to Snake Park in Arusha. It didn’t quite work out that way. Early in the drive Victor had spotted
a cheetah but noone else really saw it, it was frustrating and I was impatient to see him. We continued on the drive with the promise of returning to the spot later in the day to see if he/she was still around. On the way over to the far side of the crater we saw a black rhino with her baby, and our big five has been covered!
Not long after that we saw one of very few elephants in the crater, apparently older elephants go down there as a “retirement” area, there is soft grass that is easier for them to eat, at least this is what I was informed. After a quick bathroom break we headed back to where the cheetahs were but on the way we saw Nico, Xuxa, Rachael and Cameron in another safari truck and stopped and had a chat with them. (They had opted for a cheaper trip, that didn’t include the Serengeti).
Shortly after that we had back to where the cheetah was earlier in the day, but alas he was not found. We headed for the ascent road to leave the crater and get back in time for lunch, but
as we were heading out Victor got a call and was told the cheetah had been spotted, two of them in fact. So we went back and watched the two of them for a bit, even though a large part of the time they were laying down in the grass. I was still able to get a couple decent photos though, so I hope you like them! After leaving the cheetahs we made our way to the exit of the crater but a traffic jam had been started by a band of baboons, you can see the video
here. After making our way past the baboons we climbed out of the crater, (the views were incredible by the way!). We made it to camp a couple hours late but seeing the cheetah was worth it! We had lunch and packed out the tents and made our way back to Arusha.
We had a big night planned back at the Snake Park campsite, it was Nico’s 19th birthday, what a lucky duck, to spend a birthday in a 2.5 million year old crater filled with wildlife, and then be thrown a party later on! Everyone had a good laugh,
we played drinking games and chatted about the trip and what we had seen. We all went to bed at a decent time - we had to wake up early the next day and head towards Dar es Salaam on the coast, and ultimately Zanzibar island.
Hope you like the photos and videos! Until next time, Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!
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Stephen Farrand
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Gargantuan heron doing his strut
The bird in the photograph is not a heron of any type. It is a male Kori Bustard displaying during mating season.