Safari day 4 - end of the journey

Well just a quick wrap up of the safari, as I seem to be taking FAR to long to complete this story, and then at least I can try to return to current events, of which there have been plenty.

The descent into the crater was via a long winding dirt track which zigzagged the 2000ft to the craters floor. This gave us terrific panoramic views across the crater, with the herds of buffalo and zebra looking like tiny ants moving in time with one another.

Upon reaching the broad savannah covered floor, it was only moments before we came across a queue of traffic – A QUEUE, in the Ngorogoro crater, in the words of the oft quoted Victor Meldrew – “I DONT BELIEVE IT!” However we were really pleased to have found the delay, the other vehicles had stopped to look at a small yellow and brown dot on a small hillock – picking up the binoculars that spot was a Cheetah! Not only were we thrilled to see it for its own sake, but we had been quite despondent after the guide had told us we would not have chance to see this particular feline again as they don’t go into the Ngorogoro – thankfully he was very wrong!

After waiting for a while the Cheetah appeared to get bored of Mayhem sending off what sounded like 50,000 shots, rose to its feet and trotted off towards a group of wildebeest in the distance, possibly in the hopes of finding lunch.

The rest of the Safari took in great swathes of flamingos, vibrant pink against the blue sky (although I am colour-blind I know that a flamingo is pink before you comment Mayhem (mind you that said with Mayhem’s frequency of posting he could be dead by know, he head held like a glorious trophy in one of the girls bedrooms after pushing boundaries too far – either way no one would be the wiser!)

One of the girls came up with a tremendous way of taking photos through the large binoculars provided by the guide. I managed to use the same system to take some great pictures of the afore mentioned flamingos, and then bizarrely after having mastered the technique, much to my annoyance, I forgot it just as soon. Something I was to regret when we saw our first black rhinos

We were lucky enough to see three of the granite coloured beasts, quite a score card when there are thought to be only between 70-200 remaining in the wild.

Our safari ended with a lunch in the swamp – not as bad as might have been expected, apart from constant dive booming attacks from the nearby kites. The size of the birds, and speed with which they would stoop was more than sufficient to send people running for cover, resulting in the remainder of our meal being completed in the confines of our 4x4

After having finished our final meal of carrot and cheese sandwiches – bizarre, but that is what the cook provided us with – a peal of thunder rolled around the crater and signalled the end of our safari.