Our room at Ngorongoro farm house.
We left our lodge at 615, after a quick breakfast. The roads to the crater, which is actually a calderra, are a little scarey. Basically a one way dirt road yet it is two way and at times, we had to pass many trucks. Lots of uphill, then down hills. In Tanzania, like S. Africa they drive on the left side of the road. We made it safely to the bottom of the crater by 730. The first thing we saw was a serval cat with a mouse in its mouth.
I am going to list all the animals we saw. Some we have photos of, some we don’t. The vehicle we are riding in is a Toyota Land cruiser and we sit higher than the driver. There is room for 6 passengers, but it is only us. Which we love, because we can stand up and move front to back. The roof also lifts up for 360 degree view. It is awesome.
Ok, here are the animals we saw, in no particular order: white rhino, Thompson gazelle, Grant gazelle, hyenas, buffalo, gray crowned crane, hawk, warthog(but from now on we call them Pumbas, because of Lion King), wildebeest(lots), yellow beaked egret, sacred Ibis, zebras(so many), Grey heron, hippo, lioness, black headed heron, flamingos-both greater and lesser, Pelican, kori bustard bird, leopards in the trees and elephants(not in trees!).
mix of flamingos
White rhino
Gray Crown Crane
Impala
Buffalo with his assistants
top part of a hippo and some supervisors
black headed heron
warthog pumba and zebra
Kori Bustard (ready for a cold winter)
In South Africa it is pronounced zehbra, and in Tanzania it is pronounced zeebra
Elephants graze and browse (by tearing the branches off)
and this is what it looks like. Elephant mouths must be tough.
Pelicans
This was a full day for us. Frank brought us back to our lovely lodge. We ate lunch in the garden as most people were still out. Frank had a 7 hour drive to Kogatende and he would meet us at the air strip the next morning. We opted not to drive on bumpy dirt roads for 7 hours and instead fly. More on that tomorrow.
After lunch we walked around the grounds and I took an hour long coffee tour. But they toured us all around the grounds. They grow all their own produce and don’t sell to anyone. Same for the coffee. Produce and coffee will go to the owners other lodges.
Dinner was outside at 7. The food was pretty good.
There was dancing on the rooftop (by the Marabou Cranes) and then to bed for another early morning.
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