Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti

After crossing into Tanzania we arrived in Arusha, a small town that provides a base for tourists wanting to visit the Ngorongoro crater and Serengeti savannah. It was a long drive on the first day to the Serengeti, but we saw plenty of animals along the way. We camped the night in a very open campsite and given the area is full of lions, I banned Sean from drinking after 6pm in case he needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Turns out this was wise because animals did walk through our camp. Ironically this was the first night i managed to actually sleep in the tent and i missed the action. In the morning we got up early for a game drive from sunrise to midday, then returned to camp to pack up and head to the crater. It was another long drive and we arrived in time to set up our tents and eat dinner in a caged-off room (again, risk of animals). Overnight zebra and lions moved around our tents but again i somehow slept through the commotion. Before dawn we drove down into the crater and cruised around for several hours to see what we could find. Being the dry season there weren't as many animals as we'd hoped for but we still saw a lot, including some lions going through their mating rituals (not unlike humans actually). I'll keep this entry short as the pictures say it all ...

Sean's shot of the day - taken on the drive to the Serengeti just on the highway

Masai Mara men - their tribes are the traditional people of this area

Excited we survived our last night of camping 

We had to stop on the highway to give way to these elephants, well before we reached the park

Looking down over the crater

A jackal

The Serengeti is Lion King territory - the pride lands

Big sky and amazing sunsets over the Serengeti

This lion walked right past our car and was an arms-reach away in the Serengeti.
It was our first lion-with-a-mane siting

This elephant had been trying to knock down a tree when we turned up

These lions had been mating for hours apparently, before we arrived. From what we could work out
the male wanted to move behind a tree so he didn't have an audience

Warthogs

A leopard in the Serengeti

Sunrise over the crater

Flamingoes around the salt lake in the crater

A family of hyenas in the crater, playing near a herd of wildebeest

We certainly didn't have the crater to ourselves

Having a kiss... 

The only drinking hole in the crater was full of hippos. We got out here for a
toilet stop and sat quite close to the hippos until we remembered they are
responsible for most human deaths caused by animals! 

Although there were a lot of wildebeest, these are the ones that didn't migrate
north for the dry season, so imagine what it's like in the wet season!

An elephant's skull

Only old male elephants come into the crater, and they generally do so to die.
This one won't be around for much longer

View over the crater