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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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NGORONGORO CRATER, TANZANIA
On Sunday, I got up at 5:30am looking forward to a hot shower. Ha ha ha no hot water! So I took a cold cold cold cold cold shower which woke me up! We left about 7am on our way to Ngorogoro Crater.
The Ngorongoro Crater covers 100 square miles and is 1969ft-deep. The crater is home to a permanent population of more than 30 000 animals and has grasslands, swamps, lakes, and forests.
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The Ngorongoro Crater forms part of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area where the wildlife is protected. The local Masai have permission to graze their cattle on the Crater floor, and it is not unusual to see Masai cattle and buffalo grazing together, with a lion gazing fixedly mere metres away. 
When we got to the bottom, we had to wait for a hundred wildebeast and zebra to cross in front of us - they were really cute, going in single-file line. Saw alot of jackals and hyenas which was a treat! At lpm, we stop for picnic lunch and large falcon-like birds start swooping on us. I guess that's why Ahmed ate in the truck. Thanks for the warning! 
The highlight was definitely seeing 3 Cheetahs stalk and chase Impalas - they didn't catch any. Then we came upon a lioness who was looking at 4 warthogs. We stopped the truck and turned off the engine. Every 5 minutes she would take 2-3 steps closer. 40 minutes later she was 10 feet from the family. I said, "Run Pumba! Run!" Ahmed was laughing. Then suddenly their tails went up and they ran the other way - the poor lioness went away hungry. It was fascinating! I'm glad she didn't get them - though - 'cause I love warthogs! Anyway, watchig the Cheetahs and the Lion hunt took up most of our afternoon drive. It's cool because on every safari I see something different!
