Tanzania - Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is a large ancient volcanic caldera and a great place to see African animals.  This conservation area is surrounded by Masai villages.  We passed many Masai warriors with their cattle, which graze around the crater.

Our tent camp was at the top of the crater.  Since this camp is in the bush, we had to be accompanied to and from our tent (for our safety) by a Masai.  It was cold here (altitude), but they supplied a space heater in the tent and a hot water bottle in the bed (which I needed more than Gregg did).  

In the crater we saw 4 of the Big 5 animals.  The Big 5 are the five most dangerous African animals to hunt on foot; elephant, lion, leopard, cape buffalo, and rhino.  We lacked only the leopard.  However, we saw the shy and elusive black rhino here.  We were told that there are not many left and it is rare to see them in the wild.

Here is Gregg's favorite lion picture of the safari. This male and his pride of lionesses had just killed and eaten a Cape Buffalo and he seemed quite proud of himself (although I'll bet the lady lions did all the work).

The lionesses looked like my boys after a Thanksgiving meal!

Hippos seem to live a life of leisure.  They are dangerous and we needed to be in a vehicle to get this close.