Tuesay, May 27th... Wildlife Retirement Home

We packed our land rovers and headed into the brisk morning as the clouds wrapped the road in a misty fog. The jungle lined the road, but off to our left was a steep drop off into the Ngorongoro crater, our destination for the day. We dropped our bags at the new hotel ( the Sopa, a 5 star suprise from Mama Zara).

We popped the tops to the rovers and headed for the gorge eager for the animals ahead. Our first encounter was a family of baboons playing in the misty trees on the side of the gorge. We jostled and jolted our way down the rim of the crater to the plains. This caldera is a huge protected area of about 100 sq. miles. Lion King songs were repeating in my head as we drove in search of Pride Rock. Wandering in the grasses were huge herds of cape buffalo, wildebeast, and Thompson's gazelle. One cool moment was when we drove by all of the buffalo lying and chilling in the grass. Douglas started playing his African drum and they all stood up and stared right at our car. We were hoping they enjoyed the music, not sure though. We didn't stick around to ask. My personal favorite of the grazing animals were the zebra. The foals were born in Dec. So now they are 6 months old and still in their adorable awkward and fuzzy stage. Their brown baby strips are just too cute. We ate lunch at a watering hole that was full of hippos, but when you get close they smell pretty bad. We had to eat inside of the jeeps because the local birds are known to dive bomb your hands for food.

Many in the group loved the huge male elephant that walked by about 15 meters from the jeep. They say this crater is the retirment home because a lot of the older animals move here where predators are scarce. Some other really cool animals that we saw were warthogs and the much larger "cousin" the black rhino. The rhino mom had her calf with her so we were lucky to see 2 of the 20 rhinos that live in this park. We drove up on a sleepy hyena who had just taken a mud bath. I thought he wasn't alive until he peeped his head up to check us out. I felt bad that the rover woke him up.

A shocking experience was seeing osrtiches crossing the plains, I had forgotten that they lived in Africa... They looked neat though. I guess people just forget about birds because there are so many. Speaking of birds...we saw a couple thpusand pink flamingos in a lake in the cebter of the caldera. The sheer number of animals is overwhelming. Another cool bird that we saw was the Cory Bustard, the world's largest flying bird. I wish I would have seen lions closer. We saw two males at the top of a hill relaxing in the shade of an acaia. I'm crossing my fingers that we will be closer in the coming day.

The wildflowers in the grasses were so increduble. As the breeze whipped through the plants and over the rover, the aroma swept me away. This is the first time I have smelled that "fresh wildflower" scent.

After a long day of wildlife spotting (it felt like a treasure hunt), I was ready for a break at the hotel. Windburned and sunburned we were ready to chilax and watch the sunset. It slowly rolled onto the rim of the gorge and slipped behind the clouds, a perfect ending to a breathtaking day. Miss ya'll. From the safari world, Britt