Here is the start of our wildlife tour. This picture demonstrates just how close we were able to get to many animals, such as these Zebras. It is interesting to note that while in popular public wildlife reserves, like the Ngorogoro Crater, the Serengeti, or Nakuru Park, the cars had to stay on the roads... rather than drive through anywhere on the savana.
This is the Ngorogoro Crater (named for the sound made by cow bells from the Maasai herds). At this point, we are taking a winding road down into crater of the longtime inactive volcano.
Another view of the crater. Note that this crater holds Africa's most dense population of wildlife. And I believe it... we saw more animals in a few hours than during the rest of the trip.
Last view of the crater. Here is a shot of the lake that lies inside of the crater, where flamingos abound by the hundreds and cape buffalos stop for a drink.
A Maasai cattle heard -- with an impressive set of horns on the one bull. There is also a very skinny cow on the right hand side.
A small herd of Tommy Gazelles (named after the guy who discovered them).
An Eland or an antelope... after seeing so many types of gazelles and African deers, you start to lose track.
Ostrich! They walk pretty funny with their heads bobbing like they are listening to some good beats.
Ahh warthogs... these were one of my favourites. They were pretty skittish, so it was hard to get a good picture of them.
Hyena! I thought these guys were cute (of course not everyone did) - I just like their round ears and their curiosity. At night, these guys slowly bark "whoop, whoop". Sorry, I didn't hear any of them laughing.
Oh yes, note the proximity of our vehicle to this lionness. It looks like we disturbed her sleep.
Of course at that moment, and frankly whenever we saw almost any animals in the Crater, everyone jumped up, in the expanded rooftop and became trigger happy.
Here comes a herd of Wilderbeest (Gnus) and Zebras. So, we got a closer and sat there watching them for a little while.
And boy, there were a lot of them!!
Here is a close-up of a Gnu. These guys are not cute creatures.
My fravourite - Cape Buffalos giving us the evil eye for interrupting their lunch. They love just staring at you (but as they are pretty dumb creatures, maybe "evil" is a little too sophisticated for them! ;c)
Ok, the guessing game starts. When you are out in the wild, your eyes must be sharp to locate these beasts.
For example, what do you see here and how many?
Answer: Hippos, about 2 dozen. Look at the "rocks" in the water.
And what is this?
It is a hippo upside down in the water... just rolling around. Yep, and those are its tiny little legs.
Ok, what do you see here?
Can you see the two faces in the bush?
After having parked next to this bush for a while, we counted up to six hyenas left this bush!
Here is an overview of the serengeti plains... the acacia trees and the savana is just breath-taking.
