Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 13

July 8, 2014 - Ngorongoro Crater

We woke this morning and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at the Karatu Lutheran Hostel.  We drove the short drive to the Ngorongoro Crater (http://www.ngorongorocrater.org/).  The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken caldera in the world.  It is about 20kms across, 600 meters deep and 300 sq kms in area and is consider a natural wonder of the world!

A large Boma we drove by!

When we got to the crater to check in, one of the vehicles that had some trouble, was not working well.  We all combined into two vehicles.  It was a little crowded, but we managed.  We started the drive down into the crater. 

Beautiful view on a gorgeous day!

A Maasai man takes his cattle down to the caldera...what
a job!

We spent several hours driving around the floor of the crater, seeing zebras, wildebeest, lions, ostrich, and hyenas.  We stopped for lunch at an area with tons of hippos.  Hippopotamus are consider one of the most dangerous in the land.   They can kill a human instantly with one chop of their strong, powerful jaws. 

Wildebeest, hyena, warthog, buffalo

Lions!

crested crane

Pink flamingos amid the wildebeest and zebra!

Yummy lunch with chicken and
a Cadbury candy bar!

The hippo pool at lunch!

It never fails, Connor found
a tree to climb!

Following our lunch, we continued on the direction to depart the park.  In front of us were several safari vehicles.  Once we stopped, we realized they had spotted a black rhinoceros.  There are reportedly only 26 in the crater, and they are very often hard to find!



Rhino

Ostrich can run up to 40 mph

Animals living together

We stopped near the top of the crater to enjoy the view and take pictures at the lookout.  It was an amazing view of the caldera below.  The animals were merely specks on the greenery below. 

Wildebeest and zebra below

Lake Magadi



You can see all the vehicles lines up to see the rhino (in red)

The hippo pool where we ate lunch!

We had a VERY long drive ahead of us back to Arusha!  We did stop briefly at the Snake Park so the boys could buy Mzungu shirts (White People in Swahili) and a few of us could enjoy a cold beer. 

Back in Arusha, we had a hearty, buffet lunch at the Arusha Hotel.  It was a very nice hotel.  The buffet included a salad bar and pasta bar.  The food was very delicious!   It was a perfect way to end our 3 day safari adventure!