Remember when I said Tarangire National Park was my favorite? Well, I have a tie...
We began the day at 5 o'clock in hopes of arriving at the park prior to the sunrise in order to see the animals awaken. Unfortunately, we were minutes late for the sunrise, however, Laurent maneuvered through a rocky road to eventually reach the top of the crater that consisted of flat-topped acacia tree. Seeing the trees was nostalgic. Although never seeing more than the Lion King depiction of the flat-topped trees, I felt as if in the past I had experienced the trees. As we journeyed towards the crater, we encountered water buffalo emerging from the morning fog. The sight served as a reaffirmation that despite the unforeseen schedule mistake, we would continue to experience the beauty Africa's landscapes and animals had to offer. Soon after arriving into the crater, we stopped for a coffee/tea break, along with a moment to dive into our box-breakfast. This time consisted of many silent moments. As if everyone took a moment to listen to what the view was communicating. With coffee in hand, the backdrop highlighted every color scattered in all the wavelengths.
As we continued through Ngorongoro, we saw many magnificent animals. This included the agile hunters, lions. I was surprised at how close we were able to approach the lion and lioness, especially during their mating time. Our safari guide mentioned that during mating season, lions will mate every 20-40 minutes. The lions did not seem bothered by having an audience. Surprisingly, many zebras surrounded the lions as well. We were told that the zebras, along with other prey, are aware of lions mating season and typically do not hunt during this time in order to conserve their energy for mating. By this day, we were very accustomed of zebra, however, we continued to drive slowly to observe them. Additionally, we stopped by a large piece of water that contained many, many hippos! We were one animal closer to seeing all Big 5. We watched as the hippos bathed and rolled around in the mud. |