Day 9 - Ngorongoro Crater

26th Aug'2012 - Ngorongoro crater - We pack our bags as its our last day of the Safari, have an early breakfast and leave Rhino Lodge (one of the best places to stay) around 06:30 hrs. Its a chilly, foggy morning as we wind our way down to the crater floor.
We see a Masai congregation enroute - more like a guru-shishya session happening and Ame tell us that the youngsters are being taught about Masai culture.

Again the landscapes do not let me move ahead without a few pictures :)

As we move ahead, we come across a lot of Zebras and Wildebeests against the backdrop of the salt lake. 

A little later we spot a lioness walking along the lake side in the distance. She just keeps walking for about 10mins majestically and then finds a grassy patch before settling in.

We were hoping for a kill but no luck! She's too busy snoozing. We move on ahead and spot 2 young males sleeping in the grass - the same colour as the lions. All we can see is the mane of one of the Lions. We wait and then one of them decides to give us his blessings by lifting his head up and looking around.

As we move ahead, we spot a Kori Bustard - an amazingly different kind of bird. The earlier one I had shot was not a great pic, so was glad that I got a pretty decent one this time.

Ame was in a hurry (and I was miffed!!) but a little later we spotted a Bateleur Eagle. It swooped down and settled near the rocks on a water body. Lovely bird of prey!

Ame drives around at top speed and we're holding on for dear life (more of equipment). We do not know what's going on and he chooses to remain quiet. After a while he brings the vehicle to a stand still and points out in the distance. We focus and count - 1, 2, 3.....to 8...take a deep breath!

A pride of teenage lions led by a female lioness in the distance walking majestically towards us.

Ame asks us to get in the 4*4 quickly and takes us around to another place where this pride is taking positions to attack a Gazelle. Really excited we start shooting every movement that each Lion makes.

Unfortunately all shaky shots (our excitement got the upper hand). 

Just to give a brief, the lead lioness takes position followed by another one a little to her right. We see another one go further right behind the 2nd one. Then we see 2 taking position at the start of a hillock and suddenly realise that there's a 5th somewhere in the middle of the hillock. 2 more take position to the left of the 1st lioness. The 8th one seems to be injured as we do not see it and it was walking very slowly. A brilliant strategy to ensure the gazelle is not missed from any direction.

As the lead lioness went into the attack position, one of the vehicle driver's starts the engine and the gazelle gets alerted and spots the attackers. She makes a quick escape.

Disappointment writ large on her face the lead lioness slumps down! Then we see this amazing moment of camaraderie and affection.  The 2 lions behind the lead female come up to her and nuzzle her as if to say "It's alright. There'll be another one"! Absolutely amazing moment caught!

All the lions start walking towards the vehicles lined up...going right next to our vehicles and moving on further up the road with such grace and poise that it was difficult to comprehend they just missed their lunch (thanks to us humans!!)

We were already behind schedule, so we headed quickly towards Ngoitoktok springs for a picninc lunch we had carried with us. Just before reaching we spotted a gazelle trying to make its baby walk the first few steps. A far shot and a hazy shot but a must see!

After lunch we had some great Zebra shots which gave us a good laugh. Here are a few that I've named as - Conjoint, Siamese twins, Butt heads and Head butter respectively:D

As we rush out of the crater, I look behind and take some parting shots as we're being driven away. My favourite one is here.

Hey, the journey does not end here...but the Safari definitely does!

I hope you've had a glimpse of what I've experienced and what I've felt during the 9 days that we've travelled. We've been very lucky to see all that we saw and the people we've met has only enriched me and broadened my vision, taking me one step further towards doing things that I love to do.

Asante! (Thank you in Swahili) for your patience!

Please leave your feedback and comments on the blog about the writing and the photographs.

Copyright (photos) - Supraja & TJ

Credits - TJ, Sneh, Radhakrishnan, Isaac (Kenyan tour guide), Ame (Tanzanian tour guide), Minneh from Jocky tours (Kenyan tour operator), Emmanuel from Lilac adventures (Tanzanian tour operator) and all the unnamed Masai people who've made our stay comfortable and welcomed us with open hearts! Cannot forget the animals, birds, landscapes across Kenya - Tanzania!

Jambo! (Welcome) as we move on to our next destination - Zanzibar! in a little while:)

Day 3 - 5 - Masai Mara

20th Aug'2012 - Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara - We left Lake Nakuru and travelled a distance of almost 200 kms. The last sensible road was at the town of Narok where we stopped at an Indian restaurant for lunch after which about 60 kms of torturous road to Mara took us almost 2.5 hrs of a back breaking drive.

We reached Mara around 16:00hrs in the evening, freshened up and got in for a quick game drive. Expectations are high as we are in Masai Mara - the most famous place for wildlife in Kenya and most popular world over.

About half a km into our drive, we saw lots of vehicles surrounding a clump of bushes. Isaac did not tell us but took us there and we spotted the spots. Two Cheetah's lazing in front of each other partially hidden by grass and the bush. Pulse racing we start clicking wondering if they would attack us. We were at a distance of less than 2 mts from the animals.

We were extremely thrilled that we got to see Cheetah's in such a short time. Within another kilometre distance Isaac stopped on the road and pointed out to us "2 ears" - partially black in the tall grass. We trained our eyes to look through the grass and realised we were looking at a Lioness. She had just woken up and was so well camouflaged it was unbelievable. She then got up, walked around a little,  stretched herself, sat down and gave us a beautiful yawn.

After a while, we assumed there was no more, when Isaac told us that she would mostly be hungry since she seemed to have woken up after a good sleep. So we waited and then we saw her crouch. Wow! There was a herd of Zebra right across her at a distance of less than 100 mts and she had got into the attack position. She attacked them in swift moves but they dispersed quickly. They probably had already seen her.

She disappeared out of sight and Isaac drove around to the other side telling us that she probably had hidden herself in the ditch across. As we were crossing the ditch, TJ standing at the back of the vehicle screamed out saying he spotted some movement in the ditch. Isaac inched back and we saw her getting out of the ditch. We were at a distance of less than 2 mts from her when she was coming out of the ditch.

If TJ had bent down and looked out the window he could have smooched the lioness :)

We realised that her target was a herd of Wildebeests on the other side of the road. I could not get stable pictures of her running across but managed to get the final kill shot - she had the Wildebeest by its throat. The kill was swift, simple, finished in less than 5-7 mins. No gore! No blood!

She then pulled the Wildebeest down and stood majestically alongside it before she settled down to eat it.

We were on cloud 9 or even higher. How lucky could we get?

Apart from Gazelles, we saw a new set of Antelopes called Topi. Very distinct and very different from anything that we had seen so far.

As we drive back to Rhino lodge, its sunset time and I click the first Kenyan sunset of my life.

21st Aug'2012 - Our 2nd day at Mara starts as early as 04:00 hrs. We have paid for a hot air balloon safari which leaves at dawn around 05:30 hrs. The distance to the balloon site is almost an hour's drive.

We see glowing eyes in the dark and there's complete silence all around except for the radio crackling.

We get off at the take off site and see the hot air balloons being filled with Helium - ready to be up in the sky.

As we start moving up, we can't wait to stand up and start looking at the world below. Its a completely different experience, being in a hot air balloon. We get to click pictures of the sunrise over Mara. In hindsight this is the only sunrise we have been able to capture.

Zebras, Topis, Gazelles are some of the animals we got to see from the top. 

We also saw Elephants and Giraffes.

On landing we were taken to an area where there was a beautiful buffet breakfast set up. We were welcomed with champagne and long tables were laid out with breakfast fare. (Skipping the photos here)

After breakfast, we were being driven back to the lodge when we came upon herds of wildebeests, wild buffaloes and zebras. We could see wildebeests as far as the eye could see and we realised why "the migration" is such a huge phenomenon.

We also got to see a pack of vultures which included Hooded vulture, white backed vulture and Ruppell's vulture. One of them had its head buried feasting on a dead wildebeest. A Ruppell's vulture and Hooded vulture having an argument I suppose while there was another one which lifted off gracefully to take flight.

It must have been the mating season, as a male ostrich was dancing in all its glory showing off its feathers trying to woo a female.

Post lunch we again got out on a game drive and boy! were we lucky. We came upon a female cheetah with 3 adorable looking cubs. The only problem was that both the mother and the cubs were well hidden amongst the bushes. It was an ask to click proper pictures what with grass, sticks and leaves being in the way between the camera and the animals.

22nd Aug'2012 - On our third day at Masai Mara we witnessed 2 mating lions. It is said that the lions go without food for a week during mating. It seemed ritualistic - the female was just going through the motions!

We had picnic lunches packed and were moving towards the Mara river. Excitement was high as we were hoping to catch some crossing and who knows maybe a kill?

Enroute to the river, we spotted the most colourful bird we had seen till date - a Lilac breasted roller.

As we reached the river we stopped on a bridge to photograph a monitor lizard. Whew! This was huge and eating the remains of a wildebeest.

We then came upon these hippos sleeping peacefully literally on top of one another and a giant crocodile which was also snoozing (usually what crocodiles do!). Check out the teeth.

On the way back from the Mara river, we spotted a couple of young male lions snoozing under the afternoon sun in the shade of a couple of trees. One of them woke up and gave us a yawn and then kept its mouth open. I felt like it was laughing at a group of fools!

Late in the evening we were taken to a Masai village. Will share a separate set of photos later.

23rd Aug'2012 - We left Rhino lodge at 06:00hrs the next morning on our long journey towards the vast plains of Serengeti. We were fortunate to see a teenage Cheetah dart across the road and gave us beautiful shots on the other side sitting on its hunches before walking off into the bushes.

We also spotted a couple of Hyenas at a close range.

3 days at Mara were thrilling and the only puzzle piece missing was a Leopard. Would we get lucky in Serengeti? To be continued....