Rhinos in the crater

Today was a great day (again). We didn't hear anything romping around the camp last night (except our Maasai protectors, but they don't count). The 5:30 Jambo Jambo came very early, but as we were both already awake it wasn't so bad.

We were the last to leave the camp after breakfast, but the first down to the crater floor (not sure how that happened). We rode in Leonard's jeep again today (since yesterday's transit didn't really count) with Richard and Sylvia from Vancouver. Sadly, Sylvia forgot to bring the right battery pack for her camera and has had to resort to taking pictures with her iPad.

The drive into the crater was spectacular. Even from the overlook yesterday viewing it in all of its splendor, you just can't get a good feel for how huge it is until you get to the floor. You feel like you can see all the way across, even though it's over 10 miles from one side to the other so you can't realistically see anything on the other side.

Our first animal encounter of the day was with a small herd of cape buffalo. They're mean looking. They'll just stare right at you as you drive past like they're daring you to make some sort of move on them. We saw our first hyenas next, and then a small jackal. Leonard spotted more hyena looking very "hunty" a bit off, so we moved to see what they might be interested in. They were harassing another herd of buffalo and what started out as a couple curious hyenas turned into 9 of them looking very interested in trying to pick off a baby or weakling. It was not to be, however, as the herd of buffalo were able to move away fast enough and leave enough of a "rear guard" to dissuade the hyena from making a serious go of it. It turns out that this same pack of hyenas were able to kill and eat a serval kit just before we got to them.

While we were tracking this aborted "hunt," Leonard was keeping tabs on a gathering of jeeps down by small creek. We hear him say "there's a lion over there" and immediately make our way over there. Leonard takes the long way to cross the creek so he can get us a better/closer view of them (since we really haven't had a close lion encounter yet). Leonard's move paid off and we were rewarded with 2 lions just sitting in the middle of a crossroads with not a care in the world. Out of the tall grass popped the heads of 3 other young lions and there were even more in the trees closer to the stream. A veritable pride o' lions! We sat and stared at them doing basically nothing for a good 20 minutes before deciding to move on.

One animal that I really wanted to see in the wild is the Black Rhinoceros. They are very rare and there are about 20-25 resident in the crater. Seeing one at all is not a guarantee, let alone seeing one up close, so when Leonard calmly declared that he saw not one but 2 rhinos laying down, we all got very excited. Forget the Eland that we saw, or our first Zebras, or all of the Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles and wildebeest. There were 2 rhinos laying down 600 yards away! Even through the binoculars they just looked like a giant gray lump. No one else in the crater noticed them, so for the time being we had them all to ourselves; at least until we moved on to watch the mating dance between 2 lions, and see our first hippos!

The hippos were all in a big pool (as they are wont to do in the daytime), but we couldn't get too close. Leonard assured me that we would be able to get close enough to see, hear, and smell them when we got to the Serengeti, so I just watched them through my telephoto lens.

The lion mating ritual was fascinating and boring all at the same time. The female was obviously playing very hard to get and the male was getting frustrated. We saw them tussle a few times, then lay back down (but a little closer together), then separate, then tussle some more. All of this under the watchful eye of the male's brothers; keeping tabs from a safe distance to see if the female would just out and out rebuff the alpha male's advances and give them a chance. After giving them a chance to make whoopie, the ladies among us had to disengage for a visit to the toilet. It's a testament to the size of the crater how long it took us to get to the nearest one.

On the way, we spotted a Zebra that survived a lion attack, but just barely, and her foal. Lions attempt to bring down their prey by grasping with both front paws at their victim's hind quarters and dragging them down before clamping onto the throat and suffocating them; and her hind quarters were shredded and bleeding pretty badly. She must have barely escaped. Leonard didn't think that she would survive very long with those injuries. Not sure what that bodes for the baby, but I'll bet that Zebras aren't as social as Elephants.

After the pit stop, at which we were gently accosted by some Maasai teenagers, we rejoined the pair of lions doing their dance, but this time they were on the other side of the road and had been noticed by seemingly every other guide in the crater. We watched again for another half hour or so to see if they would at least get to third base, but in the end, the female tired of the male's prodding and walked off. No sexy time today.

The rest of the morning was spent driving to our picnic spot. By now the rhinos were up and munching away on the grass, so we were able to actually "see" them. Lunch was another prepared picnic at basically the only picnic spot in the whole crater. There must have been 30 safari vehicles parked on the shore of a large hippo pond. We didn't get a great parking spot, but Leonard, John and Kumbi sort of circled the wagons to give us some privacy. The birds were a trip and there were probably 5 or so incidents of bird-related lunch theft while we ate.

In the afternoon, we drove through the woodland areas in the crater looking for Leopards. No luck, but we did see a whole bunch of baboons. We even saw the little SUV from yesterday that got violated. I'm pretty sure that they had their windows closed this time. We drove through a small herd of Wildebeest, complete with babies, but Leonard asked us to no be too impressed. We saw another rhino, too, from a little closer than the others, but still quite far away. The sighting of the afternoon, however, was a lone hippo sauntering towards a small pool. This, in itself was not noteworthy (except watching an animal so large and ungainly walking out of the water without crushing its legs), but the oxpecker on its front shoulder picking the ticks and other bugs out of its skin made the scene.

With our 5:30 wakeup, it was a very long day in the crater and we were all ready to get back to camp and get cleaned up. Tonight we had what was described as traditional Tanzanian cuisine, but it didn't seem too exotic. Some roasted local root vegetables, like cassava; ugali (which is a polenta like corn-based dish); stewed lamb and beef; and eggplant.

John warned us that the drive to the Serengeti tomorrow will be long and arduous; over unpaved roads the whole way. I am looking forward to our brief stop at Oldupai (not Olduvai as generally thought) Gorge.