We bless the rains down in Africa, gunna take some time...

bPeteb · 2025-06-18T23:47:35+1000

picnic lunch at a very busy picnic area, including a coffee truck!

We chuckled at some people sitting at a picnic table laid with a tablecloth and getting served a three course meal, including wine. The wind was howling and that tablecloth so wanted to fly off into the hippo populated swamp. The over the top lunches were to become an ongoing sight

bAlt had became fixated on baby zebras quite early on in the trip and this manifested itself here. I post just one image of the 6,329,309 pictures that he took of them

lots of buffalo

hyena is the only popualtion that they control. If the population gets to high they impact the ability of lions to get a meal

crown cranes and their chicks. Very cute. We saw a few pairs with two checks as we journied towards the road up and out of the crater

hamerkop

one way road in and one way road out

the look out on the edge of the rim

unlike most of the places we've been to so far, we won't be back

thriving Rhotia. Tonight's digs are just out the other side of the town

bPeteb · 2025-06-19T00:39:13+1000

What a unexpected surprise Ngorongoro Forest Tented Lodge was. It was really really nice

instead of tents we found ourselves in the best two of the eight solid structure rooms

the view from our verandah back towards the crater

in case a baboon comes in and tries to attack us

our rooms beside each other on the upper floor

main camp building - viewing lounge upper level, restaurant/bar/reception lower level

the standalone 'viewing deck', down a path below the pool, that was so much more than a deck

inside the main building

the upper viewing lounge

and dinnert hat was a fixed menu and was very nice

day 12, done

bPeteb · 2025-06-19T13:57:39+1000

Say 13

Ngorongoro Tented Safari Camp to Simba Tarangire Camp

Looking back through my notes that I put into my phone as we go I have -

Ngorongoro comes from the the sound of cow bells ringing
Poli poli - slowly slowly
A new Geopark Museum has been constructed on the road from the crater towards where we stayed
An elephant never forgets and a buffalo never forgives

Back to normal programming. A TERRIBLE nights sleep. There was constant singing coming up from the valley below. What we thought was an all night party, that conveniently fiished right on 6am was in fact an f'n all night church 'service'. F'n missionaries have a lot to answer for with what they have done to African society. I'll say no more on that subject.

Opened the curtains and it was grey and damp looking outside. The weather gods had sure been on our side for our visit to Ngorongoro. The Pittsburgh people we'd spoken to at our Serengeti camp had rain and cloud when they were there.

Breakfast was part buffet, part cooked to order. Yet again the service here was just so good

but the concept of soft poached eggs was not really understood and that bacon was, unusual

looking back towards the crater

lunch bag for today's trip to Tarangire. Great concept where you grabbed a bag and you put into it what you wanted. A chef there to make you a roll with whatever you wanted in it.

a warm goodbye from a great little lodge. The tents here look great. Another recommendation we'll take back to Tapestry

Ernest pointed out Lake Manyara as we started down a decent. Here it is in the distance

we were looking forward to this drive as it mentioned the possibility of lions in trees but we drove straight past the entrance. I said to Ernest aren't we supposed to be doing a drive there and he said no, just Tarangire. I said that's not what our itinerary says.

We pulled over, he got on the phone, we drove back to the park. He showed us his very basic itinerary for the day - Tarangire Lodge, Tarangire National Park, and he read through the rest of what we had for Tanzania. Our itinerary was a little more detailed.

We had to wait until a booking was created before we could go into the park. While we did Ernest explained that the tree lions were only during the wet season. No matter, we've done pretty well with lions so far.

We're all really glad that I mentioned it. Ernest loves this little park. he loves the trees and pointed lots of them out to us. He loves the geography of the narrow park that skirts the edges of a growing lake and he loves the animals.

Literally five minutes in and one of the last animals on bALt's list - blue monkeys - were beside the road

then baboons high in the trees

we saw some vehicles together on the side of the road and LAbert stopped and asked what they were looking for. Someone in the thick undergrowth was a lion. We all decided not to bother. Then the first of many, many elephants emerged from the jungle

where one of the roads used to go

I love the next series of pictures that bAlt took. It's like he said to the blue monkey strike some different poses. I wish the eyes closed one was clear