Ngorongoro

My apologies for the 2 week posting break. The assignments have been piling up and I finally have a free afternoon that I feel motivated to blog instead of nap in a hammock or read Eat, Pray, Love…

Anyway! May I present the Ngorongoro Crater! It is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been thus far in my life and it saddened everyone that we only spent one day there. Prepare yourselves for some serious animal and landscapes y'all!

Landscape no.1

When set out rather early that morning (worth it!) so the clouds hadn't yet lifted. It gave to forest a very Jurassic Park feel. We didn't know if we'd see an elephant around the corner or a T-Rex!

Landscape no.2

We followed the rather treacherous, hilly road down into the crater and the grasslands opened up in front of us.  I swear, the animals that live there know they are the main attraction and love getting their pictures taken. Can you say model shot?

Crowned crane

Work it gurl! (or dude. I honestly still can't tell the difference)

I was so happy my favorite water fowl made an appearance. Cormorants are wicked cool anywhere in the world. 

Great Cormorant

This snazzy fellow was keeping watch over a pool of… 

Saddle billed stork

rocks?

Oh hello hippos! May I join your afternoon cuddle session??

Now, class, it is time we learned the very important behavioral difference between a zebra hug…

…and a zebra fight! This pair of males was apparently fighting over the right to mate with a group of females, though the ladies were no where to be seen. We followed the fight until there was a loser. The loser was clearly wounded but not so badly that he was going to die. We even saw him later that day roaming around the plains alone. Poor guy. 

These beautiful creatures were lounging ride next to the road! There were 2 females and 3 cubs!

Mama 1 & Baby 1

Mama 2 & Baby 2, Baby 3 is napping in the grass next to Baby 2

When we came up on this couple, the whole car burst in to song. No joke...

"Caaaaan you feeeel the looove tooniiigghhht??" 

And behold, the black rhino, the last of my big five. He was a good 100 meters away but Kosta, our driver, said they rarely see rhinos on days with the weather like it was. Rhinos aren't a fan of the wind so they stay in the taller grasses. They first time we past him, he was lying down and hard to see. But here he is standing and basking in the love of his adoring fans!

And thus, I will leave you with a final landscape of the crater. 

Landscape no.3

I hope you enjoyed Ngorongoro as much as I did!