For a few of us the 6.30am breakfast was a bit of a lie in compared to a Monday morning heading down to Mercedes! So after a coffee, we were desperate to get out and see some animals.
It was a bit of a drive to the Crater. Once we'd arrived we had to wait at the gates to get our permits for the day, which was really frustrating as we were all so keen to see what was down there.
We finally started the journey, ascending up and up on rocky roads (for a change) in a low hanging mist! Louise was extremely excited by this as it felt like Jurassic Park with the jungle surroundings, the mist and the wild noises (apparently she has always wanted to find herself in one of the films!).
After about 40 mins, we started to descend, and eventually arrived at the opening to the crater. Until now we had been on a narrow road, surrounded by trees and greenery, so this was our first glimpse over the vast Crater, which spans 19 kilometres!
As we came around the first corner, we stumbled upon a heard of Zebras. I never really got excited about seeing the zebras, but they are beautiful animals.
By now the roofs on the safari cars had been opened so we could pop our heads out and get some great pictures.
A bit further along the road, Davis shouted again to look left. About 10 foot from the car were five Lionesses (Simbas) basking and sleeping having just eaten. These were incredible, and we spent quite a while watching and waiting to see if they would get up, but they were quite happy just rolling around relaxing. We tried dangling Steve out of the car, but they weren't interested!
From then on it was just one animal after another. We saw lots and lots of Buffalo, Wildebeests and quite a few families of Water hogs, which just make me laugh as I imagine them singing Hakuna Matata from The Lion King! I was a little disappointed when they didn't but I guess you can't have everything.
Soon though, far in the distance we could see a herd of something really big. We asked Davis what they were......Elephants, he said!
I was so excited as the Elephant was one of the big five that I was desperate to see, and as it turns out, we were about to see a whole herd of them. They were so close to the car and absolutely amazing to see in their natural habitat, doing what they do and not being cooped up in an enclosure.
By now everyone was getting peckish and so the guides pulled up at one of the picnic areas and we settled down for our picnic. The picnic area is surrounded by Black Kite birds swooping down to pinch food, so there are signs up to say not to feed the animals.
However, we have five males with us and, as we know, they don't read instructions and so Steve (yes the responsible staff member) decided it would be fun to throw food up into the air for the birds to catch, which they did! They obviously then wanted the rest of his food and one hungry Black Kite took it upon himself to swoop down and help himself to the rest of Steve's sandwich, cutting his hand at the same time with his talons.
As if Steve wasn't wounded enough, one of the guards then came over and charged Steve a penalty for feeding the animals. Lesson learned!
After lunch we saw more animals, including a Lioness who had just killed. We are yet to see a giraffe though and this is one of the animals several of us are keen to see. We have been told there is more chance tomorrow when we go to Lake Manyara, so fingers crossed!
We were all pretty tired tonight and so had a nice relaxing 'last supper' and took ourselves off to bed early as we are going for an even earlier start tomorrow - 5.30am! We want to be sure to see some animals at the Lake before we have to head back to the airport. Fingers crossed for Giraffes!
Kwaheri for now, LaLa Salama (sleep well)
Team Tanzania xx
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