Lemala Luxury Camp Ngorongoro Ngorongoro Conservation Area

... my head for a bit. INstead I settled for some soap and clean water, watching out for black kite as I roamed, and decided to test my luck.

Anyway, on the way out after a great drive, despite the growing frustration at Michael's unwillingness to offer any details on the animals and then need to incessantly probe (he was however more than happy to talk at length about how he would be the perfect person to be my on board mechanic should I decide to road trip from Namibia to ...

... with big golden eyes and a mane that radiated out, his powerful body backing it up. All around the buffalo the lions lay shoulder to shoulder in a circle, blood dripping from their whole face when they looked up to take a breath or a break. The noises were also intense, bone breaking and flesh being gnawed upon. The cubs came and went as they pleased, burying their heads in the meat and then scampering off to play. We ...

... for animals when all of a sudden I noticed a boat load of cars lined up along the road in the distance. I thought…that is odd. So as we were pulling up to see what was going on, I poked my head up and counted the # of jeeps, I counted 33 including us. Something big was up and at first all I saw was a lion sitting there. Big deal we all thought! Then we looked around a bit and noticed another lion and he appeared he was laying down. I also ...

... by the water teaming with wildlife - beautiful.
Right that's enough of that. To carry on where Kirsty left off, after the mobile clinic we spent the week back at the clinic base in Karatu. As they'd told us before we arrived they've got the place pretty well staffed with Tanzanian doctors and don't have a massive patient load yet so there weren't a huge number of cases for us to see. As i'd said to them i liked orthopaedics, i was considered an ...

... they call them Tommy’s) and slightly larger Grant gazelles.

3. Then came the hyenas … ugly, mangy things, almost exactly as Whoopi and the other characters in the Disney movie "The Lion King" portrayed them.

4. The highlight of my day came when we ran across a pride of lions basking in the sun. Several lionesses and several cubs. There was a very cute male I’ll call Simba, who ...

... jewelry and carry spears. To become a warrior, they must kill a lion with a spear as part of the rite of passage. Well, OK, that was before the lion was protected.

Once again, nix on the photo taking. Damn. They are such good material. They live in interesting round grass huts and move where the water is so their animals can survive.

Our first destination was Lake Manyara National Park, a verdant oasis in an otherwise brown and ...

... was that of fossils depicting the first specimens of homo habilis, which lived about 2 million to 1.6 million years ago. They were the first species that could make and use stone tools. Their footprints are identical in shape and form to modern humans.

We reach the park gate at Ngorongoro crater at 12:30 PM. The trip took 5 hours and covered 250 km. (150 mi.). Our driver is having some complications with the authorities. They charge him $200 US ...

... Jackson. One of my lectures at school is about the spread of American popular culture around the world. I had to laugh at this prime example as Billie Jean blared from a radio inside a mud hut in a remote Maasai village.

We listened to the radio as we waited for Ema to bring us our dinner. The men had killed one of the goats earlier and then in Maasai tradition drank some of the blood mixed with milk. The men they cooked the goat and ate their share before giving ...

... the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge in time for a late lunch and relaxed all afternoon at the lodge. We grabbed hold of the Lodge telescope which is situated outside the Bar and peered down into the crater. It was a beautiful picture that unfolded in front of us. The lake was in the centre and pink dots of flamingoes could be seen from our vantage point. Little to the right was a clump of trees with a track passing by. Right in the middle of the track ...

... population of lions, numbering 62 in 2001. On the crater rim are leopards, elephants, mountain reedbuck, and buffalo. We enter the park & drive at about 10 mph on a dirt road & immediately we come across a herd of Elephants grazing just 4-5 metres from the road. We stop & take pictures and soak up the sheer beauty of these massive creatures. Patrick moves on slowly and soon we are encountering a bewildering array of ...