1/31/14: SAFARI DAY 6: NGOROGORO CRATER

1/31/14: SAFARI DAY 6: NGOROGORO CRATER

We all woke up at 5 am to have food at 5:30 am and to leave by 6 am! We spent the evening before at Rhino Lodge very near the Crater. Many groups were there and the food was excellent, served by the Masai staff. We met a couple from the Bay Area traveling from South Africa to Tanzania on an extended safari with 12 people, plus a fellow on the trip from Portland, from NE Klickitat. They mentioned the organization they were traveling with and had traveled with many times before. It caters to seniors and puts together huge groups for bargain basement prices. 

Here are our photos:

 

Sunrise

 

 

Weaverbird nests decorate an acacia

 

 

 

 

 

Wart hogs

 

Zebra oblivious to the spotted hyenas nearby. 

 

 

Plant identification time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sodom's Apple - a cure for many ailments including snake bite

  

 

Caterpillar

 

ostrich close-by

 

 

 

 

Lioness in the grass sleeping

 

 

 

Nose to nose! Quite a show!

 

Without warning black kites swoop down and grab sandwiches out of your hand. 

 

 

Peddlers take advantage of the Democratic Party

Here is Yehudah's list for the day:

-Ngorogoro Crater is the Sixth largest crater in the world, but the first in terms of it's completely intact rim.

-Watching the sun rise from the opposite side of the crater rim

-Hyena chasing a wildebeest then the table turned and he was being chased. 

-A long line of wildebeest with cattle egrets trooping along and picking up the insects that were stirred up. 

-Newborn wildebeest still wet, others nursing and almost every cow had a calf. 

-Aged elephant with a broken tusk dripping urine and scent from a facial gland either to attract a mate or keep other males from following him. 

-A black rhino stirring up the dirt where a female peed to communicate to the brain whether or not she was in heat. His mouth was open in a silly grin and his bobbed up and down.

 -Viewing from Round Table Mtn. which is theorized as being the high point of the original mountain before it collapsed. 8.860 meters making it taller than any mt. presently in existence. 

Spur wing goose

Sacred ibis

Greater and lesser flamingo

Gray crowned crane - calling and in flight

Abden's stork - many

Cattle egrets - also many

Yellow wagtail 

Little bee eater

Black kite
-A black kite diving down and grabbing someone's sandwich at a hippo pool.

African fire finch

African yellow white-eye

Golden and silverback jackal, black rhino, male and female lion, bush buck, eland,

serval cat

Selena Incanam - Sodom's Apple - good for venomous snake bite, toothache

Finale: a BABOON grabbing a woman's drink at the park gate. No photo! But Christine was delighted.  The poor woman was shocked; the guy next to her laughed with others close by.
MORAL: Don't eat near a baboon!