Safari Day 3 - Final day!

Tuesday June 1, 2010

Woke up to a very cool morning and another great Sopa lodge shower and a breakfast buffet that goes on for about a mile. Get on the road by about 8ish after Peter fails to negotiate his way out of paying for the milk consumed the night before (it was free at the first lodge and they didn't even charge all of the tables, so it should have been an easy battle). Take a very steep and scenic drive down into the crater. Spy a lion in the grass almost immediately! Other wildlife is soon evident, and we come across a hyena, well-fed, resting beside the road that didn't even blink when we stopped to say "jambo."The jeep drivers were very knowledgeable and gave us quite an education about the origins of the crater, its inhabitants, and the surrounding area. The crater covers about 17 sq km and has vastly different landscapes - dry flatland grasses (warthogs, hyenas, gazelles, rhino (wa-a-y far away), ostriches, wildebeast, zebra), lush rainforest (elephants, baboons), swampy watering holes (hippos, cranes, lions - LOTS of lions, it was gr-r-reat), and a lake. The lake is supposedly covered with flamingos during the dry season, and they get really pink when they eat the algae. It is apparently quite an amazing site. This, however, is not the dry season and the dumb birds have all migrated to another lake in either Kenya or another part of Tanzania. We saw a few slightly pink flamingos (I guess the lazy ones that didin't migrate) from quite a distance.

We stopped for a bathroom break and were immediately surrounded by Masai pushing their familiar wares. They are much like the lions that hang around the watering hole waiting for prey to arrive, except the Masai hang around the toilets knowing that the tourists will show up sooner or later.

Stopped for lunch by a large pond that was full of hippos. All we saw was hippo ears - it was naptime for them. Had another box lunch (getting a bit too familiar with this concept) and enjoyed basking in the unaccustomed sunshine. Made another drive around the crater and then headed up. Really steep! These are some kind of tough jeeps - definitely like to bring one back as a souvenir! It would take on Manitoba roads without a blink. After crawling out of the crater, clinging to the edge of the road, we had an uneventful drive back to Karatu enjoying the gorgeous landscapes. Stopped at a small curio stand to look at carvings, but quickly realized they were not the best quality and highly over-priced, even allowing for some bartering room. Quickly fled without buying anything.
Arrived home (and yes, our rooms back at the hostel did feel like returning "home") in time for some people to venture off to the market before dinner. It felt like we had been on a three-day vacation from our "real" life.