Safari Day 7 - Ngorongoro Lions and Rhino

This day was one of the most exciting on our safari and started with a "powder day" (skiing terminology) early start.  We were up and eating breakfast at 5:30 AM and headed into the Crater by 6.  The goal was to catch the lion prides in the Crater as they moved around... and man, we did.  We stumbled upon a big pride who had killed a Buffalo during the night and were still very much feasting.  It was a little grotesque but very interesting to see them take care of business.  Since we had gotten up so early, we were the first safari jeep to witness this.  By the time we left the scene, there were at least 6 other safari jeeps there.

We watched across the plains as two female lions and a few cubs from another pride tried to get close to the kill to get some food of their own.  It was at first a very slow motion dance as one pride protected its food from another... but suddenly the fight was ON.  We chased the... lion chase and managed to see a real lion fight.  There was not time for cameras, but I can assure you we won't forget this blur of battle.

We lingered for quite a while and eventually the males of the pride wandered over... right by our car.  Close enough that eventually they decided to "mark" the vehicle in... the same way a dog would mark a fire hydrant.  Yes, that happened.

If you don't believe how close they were, here's some more photos.  In the first, they're using our car for shade and that's Mom's head poking out the window.  Photo credits go to my Dad for the second great close-up.

After all the lion excitement we continued to explore the crater and had a great morning checking out hippos, zebras, etc.  The crater is just full of life!

This day was also pretty darn sweet because we got to just baaaaaaarely see a black rhino in the distance.  The black rhino completed our site of "The Big Five" game animals in Africa (Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Buffalo).  Black rhinos are usually one of the rarest of the Big Five to see.  We were pretty far away (hence, blurry picture, but we got em!

We had a pretty great lunch down in the Crater.  Our camp crew set up a beautiful picnic lunch for us in the woods. Smiles all around for a great game drive morning!

We enjoyed a leisurely drive back to camp and just hanging out with our crater view.  We were surprised by a group of Masai people who visited us to dance just before dinner. This day was truly a whirl-wind but the scenery and animals in the Crater were just fantastic.