Day 12 - Ngorongoro Crater

A morning in the Crater…wow! I was with Nicholas, Louise and Dan. First up were four huge male lions downstream on the meadows of the Mungi River. They were very shy and could have been nomads just passing through. Some folks got great serval cat photos. Val showed me a picture of it leaping on its prey.  Fantastic! The hippo pool had lots of birds and a big male lion right where the bull elephant came out years ago. Two male lions had made a wildebeest kill last night and were just finishing when we came up. We were joined by a pack of 100 hyenas that chased off the lions. Then the fun began! Fighting, wild yipping, laughing, and grabbing legs, tail, spine, what have you from the kill. We followed the male lions to where the females were and they made the lion face right at us! I wanted to show Dan and Louise the lake shore with all the flamingos and gazelles on the shore in clear morning light. When we got there Nicholas spotted two big female lions just as a migration of 1,000 wildebeest came around a bend in the lake shore. The lions went down and the herd came straight to them. The light was perfect and the backdrop of lake shore and flamingos was made to order! The lions took off at full speed. I had never really seen full speed from lions before and it was amazing! They ran right into the wildebeest, just like the cheetahs in Serengeti. Wildebeest were flying everywhere and when the chase went into the lake, splashing water and flying mud added to the mix.   Next post > Previous post >