Lions Ate My 4x4!
The title may sound like a B-Movie, or mass produced children’s horror book, but it is actually true! We will get to that in good time though.
This was on the outer slope of the crater (ie not looking into the crater, but away from it)
And looking in. I like the way the sun is falling. The crater is 20km in diameter and 600 meters deep. On the way down there was a radio call to say someone had spotted a Caracal (a cat with funny ears), but we couldn’t spot it. Oh well, on we went
Finally a pretty close Ostrich photo! This one is male
There are 7,000 Wildebeest in the crater, here is an assortment
You know I love Zebras. This is a good Zebra
Look how majestic he is!
Wildebeest, Lesser Flamingos, a Thompson Gazelle, and some Lapwings sharing a drink. At this point the engine would not start, and Dennis called someone over. They started edging towards us from behind so I joked “they are going to ram us!”. Turns out today is not a day for jokes: they DID ram us, but it got us going!
I am a firm exponent of the zoomed out photo today, now that there is a background. This Hippo is out of the water for feeding
A first even for Patrick! Three Lion brothers who left the pack together after one or all of them were judged to be too weak. He says that sometimes this happens to one, rarely to two, but never to three in his experience.
They were likely to be looking for shade, though it was still quite early and not too hot yet
The animals tend to be more healthy in the crater due to more abundant food and water, for both predator and prey.
A nice photo of a Grey Heron
Child Lions! Not babies like the one we saw yesterday, but still pretty little. This one looks upset at something
They were seeking shade from 4x4s as it was getting hotter and there were no trees around. From the wheel you can see that they are still small. Don’t worry, their mothers were there in the grass.
They decided to visit us! Those in the same 4x4 as me were definitely the luckiest today! But wait, what is he staring at?!
Oh. Well then. He’s eating the 4x4! Told you it wasn’t a joke (the photo isn’t great but I have a much better video which I can’t include)
Oh no, he’s done with the wheel cover and now he is eyeing up the main course! The 4x4 had a roof hatch, and Dennis would not allow us to take photos from the window in case they lept up and ate our arms. When I was sitting down though I was less than a foot from one of them (though separated by metal): I’m pretty sure I can say I’ve been closer to a lion than you have!
Please no I have a family!!
Phew. Sudden nap time saved me. Eventually we had to disturb them and leave though :(
The 4x4 is wounded!
These two Hippos are particularly nice thanks to their matching poses, and mirror image Ox Pecker friends
Not had a chance to ask but since I’ve been on a bird roll, I’m going with Yellow Weaver
Where we had our packed lunches. We could leave the 4x4s, but had to eat inside because Kites or Kestrels (I forget which) try to steal your food but sometimes miss and take your flesh. And you can’t go too far because there is a slaughter of Hippos in the lake
My favourite photo of me for a while, with a Cape made of clouds 😎
A Golden Jackal doing the rounds. I spotted this first, which is pretty rare when the guides are looking
A baby Thompson Gazelle! Regular Thompson Gazelles are cute, but shrink it to less than a foot tall and it is cuteness overload
It is a sad place for Elephants: here in the crater there is a graveyard for them (we just saw a couple of skulls and bones on the roadside, you can’t really get into the graveyard itself as it is in a swamp). Elephants have 7 sets of teeth, and eat by grinding the leaves. Once their seventh set us wearing down they go and find a swamp where the leaves are softer, but eventually they just can’t eat anymore and basically lay down to die ;_;. This is why there is such a thing as Elephant graveyards but not for other animals
This old guy only has one tusk, and you can see how wrinkled his skin is. Sleep well old friend :(
He scared some Thompson Gazelles unintentionally. He IS ten times their size
The ascent up the other side of the crater was through something like a rainforest (possibly actually one)
You can see the swampland containing the Elephant graveyard here
My tolerance of early mornings was successfully continued; this time I woke up before my 6am alarm. I definitely don’t like seeing THAT 5 on my clock, but the Zebras were eating grass too loudly (again not a joke, they are not gentle when they rip it up, and the grass around my tent must’ve been tasty because I heard a few...), so I bit the bullet and got up. Good news is that the Zebras protected me from the Forest Hogs (I didn’t have anything but new clothes, but you never know), so at this point I can say I successfully survived camping with the animals! There’s only one more night camping, and it is not near a national park or anything, and has a fence!
It was quite cold at this campsite, which was mentioned on the trip notes, but not particularly bad to be honest: I still just slept in pajama bottoms like I always do, and with my sleeping bag unzipped like a duvet.
After cereal, coffee, and some of the delectable sausages, as well as packing up a lunch for myself to eat in the park, it was 7am and time to depart! I was in a car with Andy, Suzanne, Lisa, and Warren. Our 4x4 driver/guide’s name was Dennis, and he was a very nice man, with good English, and very knowledgeable!
This was on the outer slope of the crater (ie not looking into the crater, but away from it)
And looking in. I like the way the sun is falling. The crater is 20km in diameter and 600 meters deep. On the way down there was a radio call to say someone had spotted a Caracal (a cat with funny ears), but we couldn’t spot it. Oh well, on we went
Finally a pretty close Ostrich photo! This one is male
There are 7,000 Wildebeest in the crater, here is an assortment
You know I love Zebras. This is a good Zebra
Look how majestic he is!
Wildebeest, Lesser Flamingos, a Thompson Gazelle, and some Lapwings sharing a drink. At this point the engine would not start, and Dennis called someone over. They started edging towards us from behind so I joked “they are going to ram us!”. Turns out today is not a day for jokes: they DID ram us, but it got us going!
I am a firm exponent of the zoomed out photo today, now that there is a background. This Hippo is out of the water for feeding
A first even for Patrick! Three Lion brothers who left the pack together after one or all of them were judged to be too weak. He says that sometimes this happens to one, rarely to two, but never to three in his experience.
They were likely to be looking for shade, though it was still quite early and not too hot yet
The animals tend to be more healthy in the crater due to more abundant food and water, for both predator and prey.
A nice photo of a Grey Heron
Child Lions! Not babies like the one we saw yesterday, but still pretty little. This one looks upset at something
They were seeking shade from 4x4s as it was getting hotter and there were no trees around. From the wheel you can see that they are still small. Don’t worry, their mothers were there in the grass.
They decided to visit us! Those in the same 4x4 as me were definitely the luckiest today! But wait, what is he staring at?!
Oh. Well then. He’s eating the 4x4! Told you it wasn’t a joke (the photo isn’t great but I have a much better video which I can’t include)
Oh no, he’s done with the wheel cover and now he is eyeing up the main course! The 4x4 had a roof hatch, and Dennis would not allow us to take photos from the window in case they lept up and ate our arms. When I was sitting down though I was less than a foot from one of them (though separated by metal): I’m pretty sure I can say I’ve been closer to a lion than you have!
Please no I have a family!!
Phew. Sudden nap time saved me. Eventually we had to disturb them and leave though :(
The 4x4 is wounded!
These two Hippos are particularly nice thanks to their matching poses, and mirror image Ox Pecker friends
Not had a chance to ask but since I’ve been on a bird roll, I’m going with Yellow Weaver
Where we had our packed lunches. We could leave the 4x4s, but had to eat inside because Kites or Kestrels (I forget which) try to steal your food but sometimes miss and take your flesh. And you can’t go too far because there is a slaughter of Hippos in the lake
My favourite photo of me for a while, with a Cape made of clouds 😎
A Golden Jackal doing the rounds. I spotted this first, which is pretty rare when the guides are looking
A baby Thompson Gazelle! Regular Thompson Gazelles are cute, but shrink it to less than a foot tall and it is cuteness overload
It is a sad place for Elephants: here in the crater there is a graveyard for them (we just saw a couple of skulls and bones on the roadside, you can’t really get into the graveyard itself as it is in a swamp). Elephants have 7 sets of teeth, and eat by grinding the leaves. Once their seventh set us wearing down they go and find a swamp where the leaves are softer, but eventually they just can’t eat anymore and basically lay down to die ;_;. This is why there is such a thing as Elephant graveyards but not for other animals
This old guy only has one tusk, and you can see how wrinkled his skin is. Sleep well old friend :(
He scared some Thompson Gazelles unintentionally. He IS ten times their size
The ascent up the other side of the crater was through something like a rainforest (possibly actually one)
You can see the swampland containing the Elephant graveyard here
After getting out of the crater we had a short drive to reunite with our truck. It was 154km to our next and final destination in mainland Tanzania: Arusha, however the roads were upgraded from “African massage” to smooth and regular tarmac (with frequent mirages, which I frustatingly couldn’t take a picture of), so it was only a couple of hours.
The last campsite was an odd one: there didn’t seem to be much since for tents, and so they were just scattered all over under ornamental trees, but on the plus side there was a nice, cheap bar, and WiFi so I could finally share the blog I had painfully written in the evenings and on the drives! I thought it’d be frustrating to be without the internet for days but, the urge to google odd bits aside, it was quite refreshing to be cut off.
We had our last meal with Wilson (chef), David (driver), and Jessie (help) as they would not be joining us in flying to Zanzibar, but at least Patrick was coming! Tomato soup followed by barbecue pork, some delicious chips, and mixed veg was a fine send off, and short speeches followed (Wilson mentioned we should share our experiences from Africa so that it would encourage more people to visit because they need tourists for their jobs. I got that one covered Wilson!), plus Andrea had bought some small cards for us to write in and put the tips in.
It would be a “late” 7:30 breakfast tomorrow, so we could stay up talking and enjoying the odd drink until 10pm. How decadent!
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