Life in the Crater

"From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinking, step into the sun

There's more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done.

There's far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round"

~"Circle of Life", The Lion King

Nicki: 

Saturday was another amazing day. I know... I'm starting to sound like a broken record. Sorry, but I'm not sorry! We spent the whole day exploring the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. We left the hotel at about 8am, and made our way down the mountain. Apparently, the crater is actually a caldera, and about 6,500,000 years ago, it was a volcano about the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro that erupted. What amazes me about this crater is that it holds so many different ecosystems inside. It has grasslands, a wooded forest, a lake, hills, and a rainforest along some of the sides. 

When we made our way down the mountain, the first animal we saw was a wounded hyena. It was actually really sad. He looked like he might have gotten into a fight with a lion or something over a kill, and he ended up with the bottom half of one of his front legs gone, and his ear dangling off of his head. Sorry for the grotesque imagery. We have an actual picture of him, but it's sad and depressing. At first, we thought he was dead, but then we noticed that he was breathing very slowly and he opened his eyes and looked at us. I almost lost it, but Freddy pulled forward right before I got super emotional about it.

A little further up the road, we saw our first vulture. It was super ugly, but somehow still incredible. It was huge!

And then we saw another hyena, but this one was healthy. Thank god.

Interesting fact about the hyena: its closest relative is the bear. After seeing their ears, it totally makes sense. And contradictory to all my beliefs as a child, they are not even remotely related to the dog.

Off in the distance, we spotted a group of Toyotas congregated on the road, so we decided to join them. (I always assumed that safari vehicles were Jeeps, but they are all Toyotas. I thought that was weird.) anyway, when we got there, we saw our first lion of the trip! It was a lone female wandering through the grassland and keeping her eye on a healthy herd of Cape buffalo. She dared not even think of pursuing them, though, because they had the ability to ruin her. Anyway, she kept wandering around and flicking her tail in the air. Our theory is that she was in heat and trying to attract the male of her species.

When we finally decided that she wasn't giving to do anything exciting, we moved on to the next group if safari vehicles, and couldn't figure out what they were looking at at first. Then this popped up out of the grass:

When she got up and started moving, we realized that she wasn't alone!

There were three babies with her! I mean, seriously?! Look at those adorable little ears!!!! It's just not fair that something could be that gosh darn cute.

Once the babies ran off to catch up with mom, we moved on around the crater. It was a gorgeous day. The sky was blue, the air was warm, and the animals were abundant. I can't even believe the amount of animals that we saw in the small amount of space that we covered yesterday. I mean, the crater is only 12 miles in diameter. You wouldn't think that there would be a lot to see. But here's a sample of what we witnessed in the crater:

Just when we were about to leave the crater for the last stop of the day, Freddy and Willy heard something over the safari radio, and Freddy turned around and started booking it the other way. When we finally stopped, we saw two female lions devouring a freshly killed wildebeest. We found out that it had been a hyena that originally had started chasing the wildebeest, with the lionesses waiting in the wings until the wildebeest had grown tired. Then the lionesses took over and finished the job. I actually got some pretty close pictures of it. Sorry, it's kind if gross, but worth sharing.

The hyena tried to approach to share in the victory, but one of the lionesses chased it off before it could come close enough for a bite. I felt really bad for the hyena...

So I'd say that our day in the crater was pretty successful. When we were on our way out of the crater and up the mountainside, we saw something incredible. Remember that first hyena that I mentioned earlier? The one who was injured and didn't sound like he was going to last much longer? We'll, we saw him again. Walking. It was amazing! It made me feel so good. He was limping, but there is no way that he couldn't be limping. Since he had lost most of one of his legs. I was utterly amazed by the hyena's resolve to live. It was truly inspired after seeing that. I almost started crying again. 

Our last stop of the day was to a Maasai village. The son of the chief was our guide, and showed us the traditional Maasai welcome dance, a typical house, the schoolhouse, and the tour ended with a shopping experience! Even ancient African tribes have learned a great deal from Disneyland! But honestly, it was so interesting to see how differently they live from the rest of civilization. It made me take a step back and be thankful for what I have. Everyone seemed really happy though.

After the Maasai village, we headed back to the hotel just in time to witness an incredible sunset, even though there was cloudcover. Here it is:

Tomorrow, we depart for the Serengeti! I'm so excited!

Cindy:

Saturday:

Well, the most important thing is that Nicki is feeling much better today!!!!!   Yea!!!!!
Today is our full day in the conservation area, so we opted to leave at 8:00 so Nicki could get as much rest as possible.  I have to say that Micato ( our tour company) does an absolutely fabulous job with their itineraries and personnel.  We have had a fabulous time with great people.  One picture that I forgot to share with you yesterday was the one below. Please look carefully at the tire tracks and the paw print- this is for a female lion, male's paws are much bigger!!!!!!  Hard to imagine.

Willy and Freddy have been wonderful and we have been teasing back and forth which makes the driving a lot more fun.  Willy keeps trying to pull fast ones on us!

So, we took off this morning for the conservation area in search of the big 5 - elephant, cape buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros.  We have already spotted elephant and buffalo so we have the other three to find.   Unfortunately, one of our first sightings was a very badly hurt hyena- yea, I know, how can anyone feel badly for a hyena.  Well, we did- he didn't look to me like he was a goner, but he was pretty badly hurt.  The circle of life........

Next, we spotted a female lion looking for food, a mate or some kind of diversion as she was very antsy and looking for trouble.  She was so beautiful!  We watched her for a while and decided to take off.  We then spotted another female lion and she had two cubs......we watched her for a while and then she decided to move and guess what - she had three cubs!!!!!!  Way too cute.  

We saw more hyena, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, birds, jackal, antelope, a lone eland, hippos galore, more lion, and - we can't claim this as a verifiable sighting, but we saw a rhino- we think, we're pretty sure - from a distance!!!!   We are not claiming this as a verifiable sighting.  

We had a huge day.  Freddy was a great driver and Willy was great at spotting the game.  

At the end of the day, we were supposed to head out to a Maasai village to experience these nomadic people; however, Freddy got a call on the radio, and off we went to see two female lions enjoying their wildebeest feast.  Again, Nicki was able to capture some pretty awesome, yet gruesome shots of the lions enjoying their meal.  Willy told us that the hyenas actually brought the wildebeest down and the lions finished the job......

We did get to visit the Maasai village which was very interesting.  Both Nicki and I felt a little uncomfortable turning down their products, but we couldn't spend the kind of money that they were asking.  The village and the people were very interesting however.  Which reminds me, we stopped by a local shop to look at local goods, possibly to buy some trinkets to bring home.  OMG, I thought we were dealing in the local currency (which is about 1/10th of our value). We were shocked that everything was in US dollars.  We didn't buy anything...........

As a good end to our day, we saw that badly wounded hyena on our way back to the Sopa lodge and he was up and moving towards water.  He's hurt, but he"ll adjust and live for another day.  We were both glad to have a semi-happy ending to that story.  We figure that he tried to fight over a kill and lost the battle to the king of the jungle.

We had an early dinner and leave early in the morning for the Serengeti........more to come........