Safari- A Day in the Crater! (July 18)

We managed to get to breakfast at 5:55 as instructed and set out for the 2 hour ride to the crater around 6:30. It was cold out and we knew from last time that it would be even colder in the crater. Let's just say the Floridians were freezing and Owen had on shorts!

I forgot how beautiful the ride is passing all of the Maasai huts and animals. There are cows and sheep and goats and zebras all pretty much grazing together! 

In the clouds!

And that first view of the crater? WOW!  There was this streak of light coming from the clouds. Ashley pointed it out and called it "God's light."  I believe she's right!

When we got to the bottom, Richard popped the top even though the girls wrapped in blankets objected. Hey, this is a safari and standing up and looking out the top is the best view! Even though it was overcast and a tiny bit rainy at that point... Later on, we were all standing up!

                   

The first thing we saw were gazelles. They are so graceful! Standing next to the wildebeest I can't help but think that it's beauty and the beast!!

Three of us did this safari last visit and were praying to see a lion since we didn't last time. What's cool is the drivers all have cb radios and talk on them sharing what's where. We were going in one direction when suddenly Richard turned around and picked up speed. Ohhhh he heard about something good!  

As we approached the area with several safari vehicles we spotted them. A mama lion and two cubs!

We found Simba!  You see, simba means lion in Swahili. Owen commented that Disney was lazy in naming the characters in lion king! Later we saw Pumbaa- which means warthog. 

After we were done watching the lions we drove around and saw more wildebeest, buffalo and zebras. 

Richard showed us a funny bird called the Kuri Bustard (Which we kept mispronouncing!)

We spotted a hyena - more on them later! 

And and area with tons of wildebeest. Ashley kept confusing them with the buffalo. I think they are scrawnier and uglier!

Richard also spotted a rhino, but it was so far away you could only see it with binoculars. It looked like a black rock to me. Apparently, with the climate change the rhinos and elephants stay in the marshy areas and aren't seen as often.

Next stop was the hippo pool. Last time they looked like giant rocks, but this time they were much more active.

We watched them yawning, chatting, rolling over, and ooohhhed over a baby: Hippo video1 Hippo Video2  Hippo Video3  Hippo Video4

Then Tashoy yelled, "there's lions over  there!" And sure enough a pride of female lions and cubs were crossing the road and coming across the field! 18 of them! 18 LIONS! It was amazing!!

Photo credit: Liz Watkins

                             
Check them out when first crossing the field: Pride of lions video

After the lions wandered into the grass we drove off. Richard stopped at the side of the road and there were 5 pumbas grazing. He pointed out how one was on his front knees. It makes it easier you eat since they have such short necks and big heads.

Back Behind the warthogs were tons of wildebeest. Suddenly, we saw some running, then saw a hyena chasing a smaller wildebeest! Then more hyenas running behind. They must have caught it because the running stopped. Hyenas started showing up from all directions running to the gathering. Richard said it they would be too late because they eat fast.  Owen asked why they don't just go after  one of the other wildebeest. He explained that hyenas are scavengers. They can't run too fast, but they have stamina so they go after a smaller animal and chase it until it gets tired. Circle of life, folks. 

                             

You can see the chase here:Chasing wildebeest

Next we went to the picnic area for lunch. There is a huge lake with a few hippos in it. I didn't understand why they got to be here while the others are in the smaller pool.  They were fun to watch.

After lunch, we drove out to an area that was filled with zebras. We had to drive through this creek to get there which was pretty cool. 

I love the zebras. A mama and baby were in the road right in front of us.  We all took zebra selfies and sat watching them for a while. 

Here is some video. Listen to Richard's corny joke about the stripes 😃.

We drove through the forest area. I was hoping to see more elephants but there weren't any.  Here's a far away pic of one we saw earlier...

We stopped to use the restroom before heading out of the crater. There were some zebra hanging out right there...