Ngorongoro Crater

Rhinos were the big sighting today. Sampson, our driver, spotted two miniscule black spots on the horizon and immediately identified them as rhinos. The specks moved slowly towards one end of the crater, and Sampson stepped on the gas and rallied along the bumpy dirt road to meet them. Several other safari vehicles beat us to the point where the rhinos were heading and there was a small crowd of people watching them by the time we got there. The rhinos obviously wanted to cross the dirt road that the vehicles had lined up on and they turned to look for an opening. As they trotted by us I snapped several pictures and just enjoyed being only twenty or thirty yards away from live, wild rhinos.The Ngorongoro Crater represents the remains of a volcano that erupted over two million years ago and contains an entire eco-system capable of supporting thousands of wild, exotic, African animals. Besides the occasional rhino it really is packed with wildlife. One of my other favorite sightings down there was a grassy pond filled with about fifty giant hippos. We saw hippos in the Serengeti too, but there were only a few of them in the pond we passed and they were so far away that all I could see were their crusty grey backs rising like small islands out of the water. This time we pulled up to within about thirty feet of the hippos and watched as they sprawled out on top of each other, twirled their ears, wagged their filthy tails that splashed water everywhere, and generally enjoyed being very lazy and very wet. I really would have liked to have seen a hippo crawl out of the pond and let out a long, toothy yawn, but no such luck. Maybe next time.Besides the hippos and the rhinos we also saw hundreds of zebras and wildebeast, a lake filled with bright pink flamingos, more lions (from a distance), and entire herds of fat water buffalo.After only three days of spotting wildlife I feel like I've had a very legitimate Africa experience. While on the truck back to Arusha today I was talking to Lauri and mentioned that driving through the game parks here feels like driving through the movie “Jumanji”. Animals are absolutely everywhere, it's impossible not to spot them. Before I started this safari I imagined searching long and hard for a few sightings of an elephant or a giraffe, but animals really are everywhere, searching for them isn't even necessary. Not only that, but it's easy here to drive right up to animals and watch them face to face, they're completely unfazed by a Land Cruiser filled with people on safari. So far I've been twenty yards or less away from elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos, zebras, gazelles, water buffalo, hippos, and lions, not to mention a handful of other species of animals that I can't remember the names of right now.The Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater have been incredible, but right now I'm pretty glad that the game spotting I'll be doing in Africa is spread out. I'm ready to experience something different now. I think that our visit to Zanzibar that's coming up will be perfect, I'm excited to see a different African culture. I'm sure I'll be ready for more game viewing by the time I visit Southern Luanga National Park in Zambia and Kruger National Park in South Africa.