Crazy for the Caldera

Today we spent the day on a game ride through the Ngorongoro caldera. A caldera is a large, cauldron-like hollow that forms when a volcano's magma chamber empties and the ground above collapses. As I mentioned in my last blog, the hotel we are staying at is on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater. But we learned today it is actually a caldera!

The Ngorongoro is a large, unbroken volcanic caldera located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. Formed millions of years ago, it is one of Africa's Seven Natural Wonders and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is known for biodiversity and

the high concentration of wildlife including the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino).

We started the day very early, 6am! But the good thing about getting up and going that early is you get to see the sunrise. Here are a few pictures of sunrise over the caldera taken from our hotel.

We saw animals right away! Started off with Wildebeest. A very regal animal. They and the zebras seems to be together in most of the areas today. They are both vegetarians and not a threat to each other. Wildebeest migrate in a single line to reduce scent to predators and walk in a common gait to protect the older, younger and sicker group members.

Next, we saw zebras. I think zebras are one of my favorites. So be prepared, you will see lots of zebra pictures in the blog! They are right up there with penguins in my book! Didn't learn as much about zebras today but I am sure we will in the future. These are plains zebras.

Next were the Hippos. Hippos can not swim and they are VERY territorial. Their nearest relatives are pigs, dolphins and whales. Of all safari animals they kill the most people. They have VERY large teeth - although we weren't close enough to see any :-)

We were lucky enough to see a lion. He was very far away so we only have a small picture. He was beautiful and so fun to watch. As we head to the Serengeti we will I am sure see many more, and up close.

We saw a group of lioness sleeping. It was so cool to see them all snuggled together for their morning nap.

We had an amazing fancy picnic lunch in the caldera. It was a nice break from our intense animal watching! :-)

We saw quite a few birds. Here are a few pictures:

Grey Crowned Crane

Female and male ostrich - the male is black the female grey.

Lesser Flamingos - eat green algae and shrimp and thus the pink color.

We also saw Cape Buffalo - one of the Big Five. The male horns are farther apart than the female.

Lastly we saw a warthog. AKA Puma in the Lion King hahaha :-)

WOW!! What an amazing day in the caldera! Lucky us on the drive home we saw a giraffe. He / she was just standing on the side of the road.

We had some free time in the afternoon after we got home and Meredith and I made beaded bracelets with the Masai women.

A wonderful first full day of game rides and safari adventure. Tomorrow is a travel day. We had to pack up our safari duffle and leave our bigger suitcases with Tauck. We will fly a small plane to Serengeti tomorrow. We will be in a new hotel for three days and have three exciting days of game drives in the Serengeti.

Thanks for following along on our adventure.