Arusha to Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Area

So after a good night's rest and wonderful hospitality from Willie, we set off bright and early the next morning at 7am (this pretty much was the time we woke up for the next 10 days or so) for our SAFARI ADVENTURE!

First stop: Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Area.

After a 2hr-drive which included sleeping and last-minute mugging on the various animals we might possibly spot (and R proclaimed, "I bet you guys won't be able to tell the difference between a Thomson's Gazelle and an Impala!" - which was true, at first.)

We stopped over at a viewpoint for pix with Lake Manyara;

After another hour of climbing the crater rim, we finally entered the Ngorongoro Conservation Area... and we saw...

COWS.

Yes, you saw right, the first animals we saw at the entrance of the Crater were cows. We were all so hyped up to see our animals that we were whipping out our cameras and what-nots when our guide (Karim) shouted to us, "No, no, those are just cows!" and hence not very photo-worthy.

Once we got into the park proper, we saw the REAL animals and here we go.

Presenting......

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Zebra crossing!

Black Rhinos which are supposed to be really really really really rare and terribly hard to spot. You think this picture is far? This is abt as close as all our lenses combined. Better than the binoculars Karim had. But it still took Liling half an hr to actually spot the rhinos through the lenses!

Everyone (meaning around 20 safari cars) gathered around this lake for lunch and there were eagles circling the sky for any chance to swop down and grab our lunch. Not that there was much of a lunch to say the least:

W's eating the samosa which is the only tasty thing in the box. We had almost the same lunchbox for the next three days :( "Almost" becos the only thing missing is the samosa!!!!!! :( :( :(

After lunch, Karim got wind from his radio there was lion spotting! We raced to the spot, weaving in and out of the 10+ safari vehicles that reached before us, jostled for a spot and we saw the lion

's feet.

That bugger of a lion was lying with all fours up, snoozing like nobody's business!!!!!!!!!!!! Argh! We waited for a good 20min for it to wake up but it never did - despite R's attempts to wake it up by clapping and whistling and making clucking noises.

And the animals continued after lunch：

Partially submerged Hippos (in case you didn't realise)

All in all, we were rather happy with our first day's findings :)

Thereafter, we headed to Rhino Lodge - highly recommended for anyone intending to visit Ngorogoro.

They have a very nice dining area where people can sit around a fireplace and drink hot chocolate! (it was very cold - Africa is a much colder place than any of us imagined) Yummy~!

We had the chance to eat with our guide as well and learnt much Swahili from him - which we promptly forgot after dinner.

Lastly, the lodge provided us with hot water bottles that were extremely comforting in the cold of the night!!!!

And off to bed we go!