Tanzanian Safari Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater

This was to be the big day of our safari since Ngorongoro is renowned as a place to see abundant wildlife at close quarters.  We set off early and descended from our hotel at the top of the crater rim to the crater floor.  The view on the descent was dramatic - the crater is much greener than the plains of Serengeti and several lakes added to the spectacle.
 
We began our drive around the crater floor, which is around 20 km in diameter.  There was wildlife everywhere, and much closer to our vehicle than had been possible in Serengeti.  In fact, the animals in the crater have become so used to tourists that they don't even bother to get out of the way of vehicles.  The lions even come and lie down beside the vehicles to enjoy the shade - I wasn't so comfortable with that, but I was assured that it is perfectly normal.
 
It was a very peaceful scene.  All types of animals grazing or sleeping as if they didn't have a care in the world.  It seemed like paradise for them.  Most of them never leave the crater - they are born there, live there and eventually die there.  So the crater is a microcosm of all the animal life in this part of Africa - the separation created by the crater walls seemed strangely artificial, almost as if we were in some massive zoo.  Except that we weren't.  This was all natural.
 
We saw most of the species that we'd encountered during the previous four days but, in most cases, much closer up than before.  And we were able to see the last of the Big 5 that had been eluding us - several examples of the rhino, albeit at some distance.  Although we are not animal fanatics, we felt compelled to snap photo after photo.
 
After four hours of driving, during which we crossed the crater floor several times, we stopped for lunch by a hippo pool.  By now, the whole crater was swarming with 4WDs of tourists (just like us) and there were traffic jams around the more interesting animals.  We wondered what the animals thought of all the tourists.  They seemed to be bored with it all.  Or did they take up good viewing positions just to watch the daily migration of tourists?  Who is watching whom?
 
One more drive across the crater after lunch, including a long period observing a rhino meandering through the plain, and then we took a precarious road up the crater wall and started back to Arusha.  It had been a memorable day.
 
Simon

PS: tomorrow we are going to a multiple day hike to Kilimanjaro (don't tell my mom), so we may be out of touch for a while. Don't miss us too much. Mercedes