National Geographic Comes to Life

TYLER: Today began as if we were turning the pages to a National Geographic magazine. We started with an early breakfast at the Highview Hotel and then off to the Ngorongoro Crater. At breakfast this morning Dr. Gauthreaux asked us the question “How did it feel when we came back to MS-TCDC from Dar and Zanzibar”. The overall immediate response from everyone was that it was like coming home from a trip. MS-TCDC is now being considered our new temporary home. The compound was a feeling of security and normality compared to the outside journeys over the last week. I could not believe after being in Arusha for this amount of time I would personally even feel like I was coming home. After we discussed our perspectives on the question we left the mountain side hotel for the beginning of the end of our journey. The morning was a very cool and foggy morning as we drove across the ridge of the Ngorongoro Crater. As we got to the entrance for the descent into the crater it began to clear up to an unbelievable sight. I could not believe how gigantic the open space inside the crater was. Once the descent in our land cruisers began, the wildlife that started out as black dots across the crater started to appear as if I was flipping the pages to a National Geographic magazine. Wildebeests and Zebras were the first to appear in numbers across the crater floor. We took a stop at the crater floor to get out of the car and actually take pictures standing just a few feet away from the Zebras and Wildebeests. After quickly getting back into the land cruiser we began to see all kinds of Thompson and Grant Gazelles scattered across the floor as well. There were just a few water buffaloes off in the distance but not close enough for any pictures. Momma Moshi had a park ranger meet us just near the lake inside the crater to take us on an off road journey that I will never forget. We started out this journey by going to a hippo pool that was full of hippos lounging around to keep cool. What a life these gigantic animals have. After the hippo pool we were taken to see a clan of sleeping lions that were taking a nap around their kill for the day. This was an amazing sight to see. The park ranger at one point drove up almost on top of the lions and woke them up so we could get a better look at them. I probably will never get to see anything like this again in my life. Definitely not from this close a distance from our land cruiser. After all of us thinking that we couldn’t see anything more that would top the day’s adventure we were taken to a single rhino that was just hanging out in the crater by himself. This animal might be one of the largest animals I have ever seen weighing over 2 tons. We then went to a picnic area to eat lunch that was surrounded by a small lake that had a few hippos hanging out in the lake. Who can ever say they ate lunch with hippos just a couple of yards away. After lunch we concluded our day’s safari with seeing some elephants and off in the distance more water buffaloes before we ascended up the crater to the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge. The Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge sat at the top of a ridge in the crater that overlooked the entire conservation area. I don’t know if you could have a better view of the area we covered in today’s safari.