10-6 20 kph and that's lantana

We met Cosmos in the restaurant for breakfast, went back to the room for our things and then headed out to the Ngorongoro Crater. All my research had told me that the Ngorongoro crater was amazing. Nicknamed “The Garden of Eden”, it is said to have an abundance of wildlife within the confines of the caldera. Teeming with black rhinos, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, cheetahs, jackals, this is THE place for game spotting, so I had high expectations. The day started well enough with a giant troop of baboons on the road to entrance of the Crater.

Bruce had seen a plant the day before and asked Cosmos what it was. He said he would get back to us. I guess he remembered, because he whipped out a book of animal and bird species and announced that the plant was a lantana. Um, no. I know lantana. This bore no resemblance to a lantana whatsoever. In fact, the photo he showed us in the book looked nothing at all like the plant Bruce had seen. Minus 2 points for our expert guide.

We made the steep descent down the mountain side at a too cautious 20 KPM. Partway down we saw a zebra crossing the road, then came upon a tour vehicle that had broken down. Cosmos and 5 other vehicles stopped to offer their advice. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way again, the vehicle still sitting by the side of the road. We spotted a lion walking in a field, then some kind of deer – are those gazelles? Who knows? Saw a massive group of wildebeests – can’t stop, they’re not special enough. We stopped for 5 minutes, however to watche the top of the head of a lion sticking up out of the grass. Look, all the vehicles have stopped to look at the giant mass of wildebeests and zebras. Can we go there? “No, we go here first. We can go there later.” “See that dot in the distance? That’s a black rhino. Do you see it?” Yes, I see a tiny black dot. Black Rhino? Sure. Black VW beetle? Just as likely. Happily, since we sat there for about 15 minutes, the rhino came a little closer and we could make out his shape in the binoculars.

We went back and looked at the mass of wildebeests

and zebras for a couple of minutes then drove around following other vehicles for a sighting. We landed at a spot where about 30 vehicles were parked and joined the queue. We finally made up to a spot where we could see that there was a black maned lion sitting with the remains of a kill. Cosmos pulled up and started to go past where we could see it, so I shouted “stop!” He slammed on the breaks and people in other cruisers gave me the evil eye, but my patience had long since departed. I got a good shot of the lion

and was focusing for another when Cosmos pulled out and passed the queue to “get a better view”. Of course, doing that put the black maned lion completely out of view, but we saw two lionesses. I took a short video and sat in my seat. I was done. After ten minutes or so, Bruce, who was standing on the back seat said that there was a lioness next to the car behind us. He moved over and I got up to take a look. The driver of the van wanted to leave, so he revved his engine. Nope the lioness wasn’t budging. He honked the horn. Nope. So he started very carefully backing up and moving forward, being ever-so-careful and managed to drive away from her. Very impressive driving!

We stopped to watch some hippos who were lazing near a gathering of flamingos.

Then it was off to the picnic area for lunch. At the picnic area we had to eat in our car because some black tailed kites were circling above and occasionally diving at people’s food. Apparently they’ve been know to try to take a finger with them. After out not terribly good boxed lunch, we walked down to the edge of the picnic area, a beautiful inlet, to take a picture. As we were walking back, we spotted a couple of marabou storks just walking around, checking things out, looking for anything that people had dropped.

So cool to be able to get so close to them. Cosmos announced that we were now heading back to the lodge to relax. Hmm. So our all-day game drive was to end at 2:00pm. You now what? Fine, at least we wouldn’t have to listen to him praising himself and talking about how amazing it was to see a lion. If you’ve been doing this for 15 years, you shouldn’t be amazed. We should be amazed.

As we drove back up the crater out of the caldera, Cosmos was back to his 20 kpm antics. Cruisers were passing us like we were standing still. Bruce and I started to play a game where we compared Cosmos to Mick Schumacher, son of legendary Formula 1 driver, Michael Schumacher. The younger Shumacher was in F1 for one year, but was dropped because, well basically because he came in last in virtually every race, when he actually finished and didn’t crash out. So for every cruiser that past us, we said, “Oh, there goes Alonso” or “Oh, there goes Hamilton”, etc. etc. If you’re a Formula 1 fan, you’ll find this amusing. If not, You just wasted a paragraph. Sorry.

Anyway, got back to the lodge, and decided to visit their little gift shop. I picked out a couple of items, got the prices and then tried to pay in Tanzanian money, though the prices quoted were in US dollars. Well, the poor guy couldn’t figure out the exchange rate, so called someone else in. Suddenly the prices doubled, so we said no thanks and left. Back to the room to relax and wait for the sun to cross the yardarm, then G&Ts. Waited another couple of hours for the dining room to open. More unidentifiable stews followed an alleged carrot-ginger soup (no discernible carrot, very gingery, though, which I liked.) Cosmos joined us and shoveled down his food in a hurry while making no conversation and generally trying to ignore us. Back to the room to pack.