 A cheetah, looking for her morning meal On the final leg of our safari, Emily and I spent a day inside of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The crater is the remnants of an ancient volcano and is now technically a bowl. Located just outside of the Serengeti, the floura and fauna contained inside of the bowl are beginning to adapt and change to the different environment. The lions inside of the bowl are slightly smaller than the lions in the Serengeti; naturalists are considering cross breeding Ngorongoro lions with Serengeti lions, to even out the darwinian score. Please click "read more." Emily and I arrived at our hotel, perched on top of the Ngorongoro Crater, simultaneously energized and exhausted from a day driving through the savanna. We had just enough time to wash the Serengeti dust off of our body, throw on clean clothes, and grab our own version of a sundowner to watch the sun dip behind the Ngorongoro crater wall and disappear into the Serengeti. The next morning, we headed down a single lane road down into the depths of the crater. The very first thing we saw was a spotted cheetah looking for breakfast. The crater contains thousands of animals, and most of them would be a tasty morning treat for this beautiful lady. We spent the next 45 minutes watching her pace back and forth across the tall grass. Everyone, including the zebras, wildebeest, flamingos, Crowed Cranes and people were engrossed, anticipating her next move. After stalking a dozen different animals, she put her nose in a bush of wildflowers, and came up with rabbit. Carrying her prize across the field, she sat down for her meal, disappearing into the gold and green tall grass. After our adventure with the cheetah, we headed off to watch a young male elephant play in a mud pool. He got up to his belly in the muck, sprayed mud into the air, and made a fantastic mess of himself! On the other side of the pool we watched a mother and her infant hippopotamus meander up the pool bank, sticking their ears, eyes, and nose up into the air to navigate their way. Next, we found a couple of hyenas hanging out with a family of lions. The lions had caught a wildebeest earlier in the morning, and the hyenas were waiting their turn with the carcass. At one point, the matriarch of the group stood up, and started walking my direction. Our driver, Daniel, told me to pull my body back inside of the Range Rover, and close the window. Luckily, the lioness just wanted to nap in the shade of our vehicle. Our day ended with the king of the crater, an older male lion and two white rhinoceroses. We watched the lion, with his shaggy, matted, golden main wander across the tall grass, in the bright sunlight, to some unknown destination. The rhinos laid in the sun, unmoved like giant white boulders, embracing the African heat. Next week I'll be sharing my final week in Kenya and wrapping up my development work with OGRA Foundation. To see all of the pictures from our trip into the crater, click here. |                                                                                                                                                       |
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