The Ngorogoro Crater is one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World. What it was today was the day of the lion. We were up early and on the road at 6:00 AM. When we got to the gate it was a mad house of drivers trying to pickup their permits to get into the park. Josh told us that the permits have been prepaid and it is just a matter of getting it from the office. One hour later….. Interesting information – the entry fee into the park is $200 per person. So including the 10 of us, Josh and the 2 drivers OAT paid $2600. Josh said that fee schedule is for all parks. Kind of explains why African safaris are so expensive.

To enter into the crater you must first drive up to the rim of the crater and then drive around the top of the crater until you reach the road that goes to the bottom of the crater. Basically when you are riding on the rim you think you are driving in fog. When you finally get into the crater and look up where you just came from you realize that you were really driving in the clouds. Not the easiest drive in because you can drive around a corner and an elephant might be in the middle of the road.

The bottom of the crater is flat and lush because of the abundance of water. Wildebeests do not usually migrant from here because they have everything that they need. The only two animals who are not here are the giraffe and the impala.

Some of the wonderful sightings are below:

Our guide said we saw 18 lions. Below are some of the more memorable ones.

The following three pictures were shot all in a row. In the first one the lion is attempting to mount the lioness. The second one is her reacting and the third one is her telling him that if he touches her again, he is dead. Nature at its best.

There is a story about the above lion. We first saw him and the lioness protecting the kill of a large Cape Buffalo in the middle of a field. The jackals were circling hoping that the lions would leave and they could finish off the rest of the carcass. The lion suddenly got up and began walking toward the road where we were watching. He clearly was seriously injured and probably had a broken leg. It was surmised that he was probably injured in the takedown of the Cape Buffalo. His hind quarter also looked like it was gored.

The lion came and laid down at the side of the road and I was sure that he was there to die. We finally pulled away to allow other people to get a view. When we came back an hour later he had moved to the other side of the road in a ditch.

After a wonderful picnic lunch we cracked open the bottles of wine that Janice and I bought and inaugurated “the wine jeep.” I sent the picture to my former guide “Willie” so he knew that the tradition has continued.

Tomorrow on to see the Hadezabe and Dakota tribes.