Ngorongoro Crater, the beginning...

(Our group of seventeen at the top of the Ngorongoro Crater.)

Excited and anxious, I had no problem hopping out of bed at 6 am to get ready and eat for our 7 am departure to Ngorongoro Crater. The conservation area was about an hour and a half drive through Masai land from our camp. It was awesome to see the Masai working, tending their herds of cattle and sheep, doing laundry, and traveling by foot from village to village. Their lifestyles are so simple and yet they seem to be so fulfilled.

As we near the park, we get our first glimpse of African wildlife from afar...GIRAFFES!!!! I took some great pictures, but they were fairly far away (about 500 yards). We were ready for our adventure. We finally arrive at the park around 9 am. We popped the roof off of our jeeps and off we drove. Once inside the park, we have to head uphill some to get the the summit of the side of the crater. On the top, we get out and make use of the fantastic photo op (as shown above). We got a bit of history about the Crater from our guides as well. The Crater is a volcanic crater that has grown because of the shifting of the tectonic plates. The mountain beside the crater is an active volcano that erupted in December of 2007 - a mere three months ago. It was an incredible site. The wildlife in the Ngorongoro crater are permanent residents. They do not migrate in and out because all of their needs - food, water, and shelter - are met within the walls of the crater.

We finally start our descent into the Crater. It seemed like such a long drawn out drive, but the excitement once we finally arrived was incredible. We came in three jeeps (Land Cruisers actually), and my car held (from L to R in the picture) Leann (US), Ann Michelle (Boston), Lindsay (Edmonton, Canada), Cathy (Edmonton), and myself. None of us had ever done anything like this before and we had all dreamed of doing it since we were little kids. Our dreams were coming true!!!

At the base of the Crater, the first thing we run into is zebras (punda milia). We had been told that we would quickly tire of zebras. They are a gorgeous creature. They are donkeys (not horses) with stripes that look like they are painted on. It was almost surreal to see them in the wild. They were right next to our jeep throughout the safari and we never tired of them. It is the season for having young, so we got to see lots of baby animals. Actually, we saw a baby animal for every animal we saw except for the lion.

Living right alongside the zebras were wildebeasts and buffalo. In the picture above is a heard of zebras and wildebeasts. It was simply incredible. The base of the Crater was filled with heards since they never migrate.

I want to spend the appropriate amount of time on the safari, so I'm signing off for now to head to lunch and will post more later when I have time...There's many more animals to talk about and show pictures of. I can't wait to download my pictures -- I've got at least one of every single animal we saw!

The pictures in this blog are not my own but those taken by Bushmen Expeditions. My pictures are not uploaded yet and this is just easiest!