Day 39 Ngorongoro Crater

Elephant in camp! We were up before the sun and getting organized. I went to the toilet shed and met John there. He was leaving and a couple of minutes later called to me “Joe do you have our camera?” I went to see what he was talking about, and there just outside the toilet room was a male elephant! He was in the camp. We looked and then went out another door to get breakfast. The elephant hung around for an hour or so.

We loaded up into the jeeps again and headed out for the Ngorongoro Crater (which not a crater but actually a caldera). The road down into it was rough and steep. There is only one road in and another road out. The caldera is ten miles in diameter and contains a brine lake, a forest, lots of grassland, a river, a swamp and a couple of hippo pools.

We rode around for five hours and saw a wide variety of animals. We saw elephant, hippo, zebra, topi, Grant's gazelle, Cape buffalo, lion, hyaena, warthogs, rhino, eland and probably a few others. Lots of birds too: secretary birds, maribou storks, white storks, grey crested cranes and lots of others. However, overall yesterday was more exciting, with cheetahs, leopards and lions. However, another great day.

Then we rode up out of the crater to the same craft shop we visited on the way in, and had a box lunch and a short visit to the shop. I bought two heads like Megan's zebra head. I bought a zebra and a giraffe. Now I have to figure out how to get them home!

After that we drove back to the Snake Park campground about 3:30. I slept most of the way, as I was very tired from lack of sleep last night. John, Ed and I pitched our tents and headed to the bar. We had a couple of beer with Richard, Philip, Scott and others while charging cameras and batteries. I am backing up photos for Scott and John. My cold has developed into laryngitis and I've pretty much lost my voice. Everyone feels sorry for me, as they know I love to talk (or so they say!).

We had dinner at the restaurant in the camp. Vernon explained the events for tomorrow, the last for everyone except John, Katherine and I. Then they had a short party in the bar, before an early night and another early rise.