Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater, where do I start? This place was incredible, not only for the animals but also for the scenery. Travelling to the crater the were elephants and water buffalo on the road (that refused to move out the way and posing for several photographs) but as we drove down into the crater the first thing we saw was a lioness run past our car on the road, we could have reached out and touched her! We soon realised that she wasn't the only lioness as other came out of the bushes surrounding a group of water buffalos, we watched as they began chasing the water buffalos and eventually catching one of the young.

This means in under one hour we have ticked off three of the 'big five' which is incredibly lucky and a great start to the day- especially for those who have only just started on the tour, this being their first game drive!

We came across two lion couples (separately) who were on their 'honeymoon' where they move away from the pack and mate every twenty minutes for seven days! We just happen to be there for the live pornography show along with another twenty vehicles.

We stopped for lunch by a lake which was full of hippopotamus', it was nice to just watch them as we sat on the bank while eating our lunch.

After lunch we continued the game drive and it wasn't long before we came across two rhinoceros' which is rare as they normally travel by themselves but the jungle master told us this would be a mother and her child.

Throughout the day we saw several other animals such as zebras, gazelles, hyenas, warthogs, wildebeest, giraffes, etc. Today the animals were so close to the vehicle compared to other game drives making it so much better, it was as if the animals felt safe with us being in their environment and were not scared of us.

On the way to our campsite in the Serengeti National Park we came across a cheetah and then shortly after fourteen lion cubs and three lioness'. The cubs were playing, pouncing on each other, chasing each other and climbing the tree while the lioness' rested on a nearby rock keeping an eye on them. I could have sat there and watched them for hours, it was just beautiful to see but the jungle master wanted to get us back to camp as he would be fined if we were still out past dark.Read more