For The Love of Travel

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and World Heritage site, with a crater that’s the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, with a 2,000 foot descent to the crater floor. Home to about 25,000 animals.

A beautiful lookout gives you an idea of the vastness of the crater, but our accommodation on Lemala Hill gave us spectacular views. We left early in the morning and it took us 10 mins to get to the crater floor, well ahead of other tour operators – we had the place to ourselves for a whole 30 mins before there were another 100 vehicles touring around.

A local vet was chasing (with a view to tranquillising) the rare, and only black rhino in the area, as it was limping badly. Local lions were seeking the shade of tourist vehicles until they had to be made to ‘move on’ (drops of water on their backs from water bottles held by tourists). Zebras canoodling. Male lion listening out for calls from his harem some 300 metres away. Pink legged ostriches making like ballet dancers…and a very rarely spotted black winged bishop (because they flit so quickly) , but I did and took a pic! Haha!

 

The Serengeti hosts the largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, which helps secure it as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Africa.

We did heaps of game drives across the 15,000 sq kilometres of the Serengeti, home to over 3 million animals, particularly lions!. 

Lions languishing,draped over tree branches in the heat of the day, zebras enjoying a dip in the pool, hippos fighting, giraffes grazing at leafy tree tops, watching a male feeding on a hartebeest that had been caught for his lunch by the females in his pride, a lion cub mewing for his mother. A herd of about 12 elephants chasing a pride of lions away from a drinking hole to which they wanted access!

 

 

 

We had warm days with clear blue skies. Magic!

Mariana, Vukoslav and I (small tour group!),  headed for the Tanzanian border, arriving for a delicious lunch at Arusha Coffee Lodge, then travelling past a colourful and vibrant Maasai market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove across the Maasai Steppe and onto the Great Rift Valley again, where our lodge was located high on the rim of the valley overlooking the national park. Some entertainment at the Lodge before dinner with jugglers and tumblers.

After breakfast, a game drive in the National Park, with lovely encounters – a huge troop of baboons with lots of newborns; flock of flamingos and pelicans. 

Then a long and bumpy ride to our accommodation in the Serengeti.