Back across the magnificent Malanja Depression to a lodge on the very rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The next day, we descended into the crater and spent the cloudy day touring it very enjoyably. But the next morning was sunny and we enjoyed much more not only the animals but the almost unearthly sceneery of the crater floor and walls. Leaving it to go back to Arusha was a melancholy moment for us.
1 Driving back across the incredible scenery of the Malanja Depression leading up to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater
2 The Malanja Depression
3 Maasai with his stick
4 Maasai boma
5 Cloud shadows
6 Our first day in the crater, the weather was very cloudy.
7 Three spotted hyenas
8 Our only glimpse of rhinoceros ... from very far away
9 Mr and Mrs Lion
10 The same lion couple. He is showing a nasty wound, which Manny said he may well have received from her.
11 Lion couple coupling
12 Hyena playing with an ostrich egg
13 Grant's gazelles
14 Grey-crowned crane
15 Grey-crowned cranes and buffalo
16 Grey heron
17 Another hippo pool next to a picnic site
18 Probably some kind of heron
19 Colorful Marsh weaver (maybe either compact or Ruffel's)
20 Picnic site for breakfast
21 Wildebeest grazing near the crater wall
22 Wildebeest procession
23 Wildebeest beneath dramatic clouds
24 Ngorongoro landscape
25 Male ostrich in splendid landscape
26 Female ostrich doing her mating dance: "Come and get it, big fella!"
27 Randy male ostrich doing his mating dance, flinging his head and neck from side to side
28 Lake Magadi, a soda lake, releasing carbonate salts into the air
29 The silly wildebeest pranced and cavorted.
30 They even hopped for us! Hilarious. Who says wildebeest are boring?
31 Flamingos in the soda lake
32 Very handsome Thomson's gazelle, or "Tommy"
33 On the road leading out of the crater
34 Sunset over Ngorongoro Crater
35 The next day, the weather was beautiful as we descended into the crater.
36 Acacia trees
37 Heading down into the crater
38 Into the crater
39 The flat crater floor
40 A lady ostrich, whom Manny named Helen, and a male impala
41 Her beau, whom we named Herman
42 Beautiful Ngorongoro grassland
43 Large and noble Kori bustard
44 Jackal
45 Hyena
46 Blacksmith Lapwing
47 Manny said this was a black stork. It looks very old.
48 Entering the Lerai Forest
49 Looks like an augur buzzard, but the legs are too long
50 In the Lerai Forest
51 What happened to this tree?
52 Defasssa waterbuck, with solid white rump patch
53 Baboons have committees too.
54 Mother and baby
55 This one rode on top.
56 Why do elephants cross the road?
57 Oh
58 Trees on the shore of Lake Magadi
59 Ngorongoro Crater wall
60 Zebras grazing near the wall
61 Handsome (?) warthog
62 Grant's gazelle
63 Grant's gazelles in beautiful Ngorongoro landscape
64 On the way out, who runs up to the car but Herman?
65 Herman says, "Goodbye". (Sniff)
66 A last sighting, a serval in the distance
67 On the road around the crater rim, a Maasai shepherd and his cows
