Things that go bump in the night...

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We welcomed the farmhouse for its hot showers and the ability to do laundry for the first time since we finished our climb. It was nice to finally feel clean! We spent two nights at the Farmhouse which included afternoon siesta times, which we were all very excited about. After an evening of sending out laundry and hand washing what we could (laundry is VERY expensive here), we headed to bed early in anticipation for the crater the next morning. We met our team of drivers the next morning at just before 6:00 as we were only allowed to be in the crater for 6 hours. Leaving early meant less tourists and enjoying the morning views with some reprieve from the afternoon heat. The drive into the crater was something along the lines of Jurassic park and "into the mystic" was stuck in my head as we drove into the luscious green forest and descended down into the crater below. It only took the first ten minutes to blow our minds as we spotted our first pride of lions right on the side of the road. There were five of them laying together in the sun, and never in my life did I ever want to be that close to a wild lion with no windows to shield me if they pounced. Our drivers just tried to take us as close as we could get, which was probably less than ten feet away. The experience left us all arguing over who got the nicest picture while trying to slow our heart rates down to a normal pace 😊 What fascinated all of us was how so many species of animals can exist in one place together. In one field we saw hyenas, ostriches, zebras, wildebeasts, buffalo and elephants. It was strange to see predator and prey walking through a field in such close proximity to one another. We did stumble upon an elephant carcass with a group of hungry hyenas and vultures enjoying their lunch while on our way to enjoy our breakfast. We ate the remainder of our breakfasts near a hippo pool, and we were all pretty pumped to get to see them for the first time. On our drive out we spotted four of the 26 black rhinos remaining in the park, but much to our dismay, after 30 minutes of waiting they started moving farther from us. They are cranky creatures and didn't seem to take wildebeests invading their space very well, and the wildebeests run pretty fast when the rhinos take charge. The cars sometimes were separated as we were looking for animals, and while we were separated we had our most memorable elephant encounter. We had a bull with a broken tusk walk towards the landrover on the road towards us, and right as he was about to walk into the truck, he turned to walk around us. He was so close I could have reached out my hand to touch him. One flick of his head and the truck would have been on its side. I think as he finished walking by we all let out a collective breath that we had been holding... Mom and Dad reported a similar experience in their vehicle, only their bull had two complete tusks. It is hard to describe just how big these guys are, and some can reach up to 7500 kilos! That night we packed up again and the next morning we were headed to three nights in tented camps and to be greeted by the wildness of the Serengeti.

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Photos

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One of the big bulls we came across

Comments

[Dickey]

Farmhouse
We also enjoyed to stay there,its also close and ideal to crater.