Drove back through the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro crater today – the crater measures 16km by 19km and 600 metres deep – a massive caldera formed by the collapse of a volcano million of years ago – it’s famous because it forms a unique habitat for many of Africa’s most famous animals, including the rarest of all, the black rhino – we were desperate to see it to complete our ‘top 5’.
Approaching the crater was bizarre- there was a line of clouds along the top of the rim, giving it a really magical, yet sinister feel – like approaching the lost world. Once at the top we drove down into the crater and I have to say it’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen – a massive flat plain surrounded in every direction by the sides of the caldera – a salt lake in the middle, smatterings of forest, watering holes and streams.
We saw thousands of wilderbeast and zebras – they’re best mates and always hang out together, the zebra have great eyesight and the wilderbeast can smell danger a mile off! We stopped for lunch by a watering hole, trying not to have our sandwiches nicked by the eagles flying overhead. We saw an elephant with HUGE tusks (right down to the ground) over by the lake, with hippos floating around him.
We also saw three Ostriches doing their mating thing – the females performed a little dance by bowing down and shaking their wings, the male simply walked on by looking totally disinterested. Hmmm, judging by his pink legs and mincing walk I’m not surprised! There’s something very camp about the male ostrich!
We finally managed to see our coveted Rhinos – although at a distance. In fact a huge distance...bloomin’ miles away. A mother and baby apparently – looked like 2 dots to us! But we still stood for half an hour looking at the dots. The jury is out on whether that counts as 5 out of 5 – maybe we’ll settle for 4 ½
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