Ngorongoro Crater (last safari day)

(Sept. 8, 2023)

Our last day on Safari we began bright and early again around 6am. We headed out towards the crater, as we were driving out we could barely see infront of the car because of the heavy fog that had come in to the valley. But as we descended to the crater floor, we got below the clouds and were able to see better in front of us.

Once in the crater we began to see hundreds of wildebeest and zebra, many who had migrated there from Kenya in the Maasai Mara in order to have their young. As we drove along the crater floor we passed through multiple herds of wildebeest all grazing along, following each other like ants.

As we continued we came to a large herd of Zebra who were walking through the tall grasses. We watched them for a while and then noticed that they had all sensed something and began moving more quickly, some starting to run.

As we moved around we saw a lioness crouching in the grass, stalking and watching the zebra, hoping to catch breakfast.

We continued to watch her but she did not run after any zebra, maybe because there were too many people watching her from the multiple cars.

After leaving the lioness and the zebras we had a pit stop by a lake which had more hippos in it. They were watching us from underwater, where all we could see were their eyes and ears poking out.

Our drive then took us further through the crater. We saw many more zebra, wildebeest, antelope, water buffalo and even a wild dog (who was far away in a field) and also a grey crowned crane.

As we were reaching the end of our drive we stopped near some large bushes where a bull elephant was having lunch. He was so close to us we could almost touch him. As he finished munching he walked around the car and off into the bush. A great way to end our week long safari.

Our day ended with a long drive back to Arusha. Scott and I stayed there in a hotel for the night before catching our flight to Zanzibar the next morning.