Safari! Day 6 - Sunrise on the Serengeti!

Today was our daybreak safari.  We had to be up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise on the safari.  That’s fun trying to get 3 grumpy people going at that hour I can tell you!  Jen has been affected by the malaria medication we think as she’s not sleeping much (or more correctly I tell her, she’s not getting restful sleep – she says she’s having pretty vivid and disturbing dreams) and the kids don’t do well this early anyway but we’re all excited about getting out early to see what’s out there.

The plan is that we’d get out early, and have breakfast on Safari and then come back for a hot lunch before leaving the Serengeti for Ngorogoro Crater.  We almost no sooner left the grounds of the hotel than the sun started poking up over the horizon bathing everything in that red light…  stunning and well worth the early morning.  Especially with lots of Impala and Zebras lounging around us. 

We can see a couple of hot air balloons getting ready for flight (Jen sat beside a lady on the flight here who’s husband has the exclusive rights in the Serengeti for this).  This was an option we easily discarded as they wanted $400/person for a two hour excursion (most of which is on the ground having breakfast!).  It looked fun but not at that price on our budget!

What's not to love about this place?

LOTS of Giraffes and other animals such as Baboons who we never really got tired of watching.  We also learned a neat trick about Giraffes in how they chew their cud.  You can watch them chewing away and then they swallow and you can watch it go down… then seconds later you can watch a new load come back up their throat.  When I get a chance on a better internet connection I’ll post a short movie.  Its quite entertaining.

We had breakfast at a large hippo pool.  We counted 85 hippos and lost count (and there seems to be every 4^th one under water at any time anyway).  A couple of crocodiles out sunning themselves as well.  We also saw another Hippo wandering in the grass not far from us and a mom and a young hippolet? walking up the rapids to the pool.  Its interesting that they keep the babies on the OUTSIDE of the group as they are more concerned about them getting squashed from other Hippos than attacked by predators. 

Back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then on for the long drive back to the Ngorogoro Crater Rim where our next lodge was.  On the drive back, we saw even more Wildebeest than before if that’s possible.  That migration is nothing less than stunning.  Sam was driving like a maniac between the herds crossing the roads and we were sure he was going to take out a wildebeest or a zebra but they are far too quick to catch and can change direction in a nanosecond.  Great fun to watch.  I have a great video of it I’ll post when I can.

We passed another pride of lions lying at the side of the road – I think they must pay them to be the star attractions!  It is amazing how in such short grass they seem almost invisible from more than 100’ away.  

Back to the park gates and then out the long and dusty road to Ngorogoro.  Out in the middle of the desert, we saw a bunch of Giraffe walking toward Ngorogoro… they must have walked 20 miles without a stick of grass or a mouthful of water and still had another 10 to go.  Can’t imagine what would drive them to do that. 

Then back up the mountain to the top of the rim, where our next lodge (Ngorogoro Wildlife) was located.  We drive in, get the traditional juice and then are transfixed by the view… floor to ceiling (20’) glass panels on an angle looking down directly into the crater.  Wow!  What a view!  It’s a Billion dollar view.

Our rooms are nice but also have stunning views of the crater.  The bar area has one of those attraction binoculars (at no cost) that allows you to pick out individual animal species from all the way up here.  Jen and Rachel spent a good 20 minutes looking at it.  I ended up with the first migraine of the trip so wasn’t really in the mood .  I pop a bunch of Excedrin Migraine and nothing happens… I find that only Advil works so I pop a couple of those and its la-la land for me (although I had a bit of an upset stomach from the ASA a bit later).  Damn migraines are a PITA.  (I was getting them about 1-2 a week at home and have gone almost 6 weeks with only one here… must be stress related or something although this evening, I’m suspecting it’s the lack of sleep and the altitude change.