An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
A great sleep here in East African paradise. We lingered over breakfast so were a bit late for meeting Titus and setting off for the crater, but, what the hell, we can do whatever we want here!
The drive along the rim was the now-familiar jarring, swerving, tilting, rattling experience and took about 90 minutes to get into the crater. Once there, we were in the midst of the innumerable grazing zebras, wildebeast and gazelles. We saw a few spotted hyenas trot across the road (much larger than we’d expected), then a short while later we saw two of them mating (doggy style, no less). Talk about exhibitionists: they were going at it perfunctorily in a clearing in the midst of two large groups of wildebeasts, who kept making strange snorting noises due to their fear of the hyenas. We also saw a few jackals, which were small and fox-like with light gray spotted fur along their backs, and our first large herd of the enormous cape buffalo.
This setting (a pre-historic collapsed volcano) is equally magical — a 160-square-mile base, (roughly 10 x 16) with sloping green hillsides gradually rising up 2,000 feet all around. The crater and its rim have their own climates: the rim area is quite tropical, lush with thick trees and plants; the floor is warmer, mostly grassland, with some isolated small forested areas, and a river and large lake, though these mostly dry up in the dry season (August - November).
After a few hours, we drove to the communal lunch spot, where we joined the other Crater Lodge rover (and the other 20 or so vehicles a short distance away). We enjoyed a nice picnic of various salads, chatted with the ex-hippies Costas and Sally (they own a safari company operating around here, though they live in Atlanta. They come to this area with their 9 and 7 year old boys to watch the wildebeast migration every February; this time they’re here for 23 days!), then set off for the afternoon’s viewing.
We spotted two male lions, snoozing a bit too far away for good pictures, but clear in the binoculars. (as opposed to yesterday, in the crater vehicles must stay on the roads) We also drove by many large ostriches, and several large elephants, including one with the whitest and longest tusks we’d yet seen. We drove along the lakeside, seeing many flamingos, and saw (again, at binocular not photo distance) 5 of the 14 rhinos in the crater. Some were languidly munching some grass and a few were sleeping, and they were as big and weird looking as always. We’d had enough, and didn’t want to extend the drive home by going further into the crater, so we turned around and headed home, stopping for more close-ups of the large gazelles, baby zebras and mud-covered buffaloes, and seeing two more lions sleeping in the far distance.
The ride back home was long and bumpy, though the deep-red rocky road was pretty as it wound up and through the rich green surroundings. We’d reached our terminal tolerance limits (we were really Darioed) by the time we pulled into home base, so we partook of the always-open bar, then went to recover in our velvet covered big bed.
Thus rejuvenated (at least enough to get to dinner), we dined on a great carrot/pumpkin soup, eggplant (they sure have a lot of eggplant dishes in this country) risotto, and some so-so entrees. The chocolate mousse was good, and the truffles were as devine as we remembered from last night. We were drained from a long day, so we crawled under the electric blanket and tried (in vain) to stay awake past 10.