Ngorongoro Crater ...Thursday, February 18

Well this morning was a beautiful one with the sun shining on the dew sprinkled farmland outside our window. After my deep sleep last night, I was refreshed and ready to go! It was then I realized that there had been a mix-up and none of my luggage had made it onto the Land Rover, and instead all 3 pieces were still back at the Springlands Hotel. No problem, or better said in Swahili "Hakuna Matata"- I could borrow shampoo from Donna, and at this point another day wearing the same clothes was no big deal!!!

After breakfast, and checking out of the Highview Hotel, we drove about an hour to the Ngorongoro Crater, for another safari experience! According to Kurt's notes: The Ngorongoro Crater is a blown out caldera, 9 miles in diameter and 120 square miles
inside with 2000 feet high canyon walls. This crater plays host to some of the biggest concentration of animals in all of Tanzania. Six prides of lions lives within the crater. It is the only place left in Tanzania where it is possible to see the Black Rhinos which were nearly brought to extinction and are now slowly making a comeback. As of 2008, there were less than 23 rhinos living there. The lakes in the center of the crater host tens of thousands of Flamingos.

With my camera poised, and the roof of the Land Rover opened up, we entered the crater. The sky was bright blue with puffy clouds. It was hot but breezy. We inched down the narrow road into the crater and found ourselves surrounded by a vastness that is impossible to capture or to describe. It's just huge and majestic in feeling. We first saw a pack of hyenas, gazelles, and warthogs. Then we saw a pile up of other safari jeeps (which we learned means "get over here, there's something you gotta see!"), so we headed over in that direction only to see not far from the road, an exausted and satisfied male lion who had just completed a kill of a whildebeest. He was snoozing away, and nearby were 3 lionesses, also satisfied. The male lion's paws were huge...it looked like the whildebeest hadn't had a chance.

Next we drove by the giant water area - it looked like a lake but I'm not sure it's actually called that. On the shores were thousands upon thousands of Flamingos. The way the morning sun hit the water, and the reflection of the pink flamingos in it made for a beautiful photo...if only I could have gotten closer. Next we came across a big group of 20 or so zebras who were working their way across the plains. They were so beautiful with their stripes (no zebra is alike!), and they seemed very friendly. There was a little youngster zebra who kept running back & forth between a few of the grown-up zebras, looking like he was trying to get someone to play with him. According to our tour guide, despite many attempts, the zebra has resisted becoming domesticated. It looks like a horse, but you can't ride it! Next we saw ostrichs, cape buffalo, and more zebras who this time literally came up to our window and peered inside at Bill who was taking a little snooze.

Just as we came upon a large grouping of elephants, our tour driver stopped and announced we had a flat tire! He insisted we wait in the car while he changed it! eeekkk! Lots of wild animals out there. Shortly after we were back on our way the jeep suddenly roared off the road to a screeching halt! Did our driver fall asleep or did he hit a rock (as he claimed)? Before long it started to rain. We decided we had seen our fill of fantastic animals, and it was probably the right time to head out of the crater and make our way to the airport which was several hours away.

By this time we were pretty hungry and we reviewed with Kurt what our options would be for dinner. He suggested the airport, but admitted he had never eaten there. Just at this moment we were driving back the way we had come and happened to be passing by the Cultural Heritage Center. I recalled there was quite a nice outdoor but covered restaurant inside, and so we turned into its driveway. Note - this stop would also allow a few last minute souvenir shopping opportunities to those who felt they just weren't quite done! The dinner was pure delight - a salad for the first time, spaghetti with meat sauce, roasted vegetable pizza, onion soup, and a side of hummus and pita bread. Of course this was accompanied by bottles of Coke and a few Fantas! It hit the spot!

A few t-shirts later, we were back in the van and on our way to the airport. The Springlands Hotel staff met us there with my "lost" luggage, and the next thing you know we were checked through customs and at 10:30pm we were on our way home...well actually first a stop in Dar Es Salam (Tanzania's capital) for an hour (we weren't allowed off the plane, but we were all asleep anyway so it didn't matter) then Amsterdam for a 3 hour lay over. We grabbed a delicious breakfast, and roamed about the many shops in the beautiful and efficient airport. (I had been alerted by Suzanne Trepp that the Amsterdam airport was the be all & end all in shopping, and she was absolutely correct). Back on the plane for our 10 hour flight to Los Angeles...smooth sailing, no problems. FINALLY we arrived at LAX and after searching frantically for my lost cell phone (it was in my backpack all along) we breezed through customs, got our luggage, and stepped outside to find Bob Fol waiting patiently for us to take us to home sweet home...but not before a stop at In & Out (which I had been dreaming about for the past 2 weeks).