Day 76 - Serengeti 18/12/12

Yet another of our early starts, but with very good reason, as we had an important date with the Ngorongoro crater - a World Heritage Site conservation area based in the crater of an (almost) extinct volcano. (It was in the Olduvai Gorge at Ngorongoro that Mary Leakey found her famous footprints way back in 1976). Fantastic views from the rim, and then down to the floor where the wildlife was amazing, adding wildebeest, tawny eagle, hyenas and eland to our list.

Lunch by the lake with the eyes and ears of numerous hippos bobbing up and down, as black kites tried to snatch our food. The slashing rain had arrived by the time we reached the vivid pink flamingoes, but the best was yet to come. After the sun came out again, we saw a variety of lions in various shapes, sizes and positions - 25 in all in this one day, such as:

- two males, two females plus cub having just gorged themselves on a zebra carcass.
- two very obviously immediately after coitus. We were so close we could hear their panting, and see their muscles throbbing and the male's saliva drooling
- two young-ish lionesses trying to attack a buffalo - and being driven off by him and his mate
- single male gnawing at a buffalo carcass, with half dozen hyenas within a few hundred yards waiting for their turn

Then it was on to yet another highlight - Serengeti National Park, of course yet another WHS from UNESCO. (The Maasai are allowed to graze their cattle in the Ngorongoro, but not here). After climbing Naabi Hill just before sunset, we found the vast plains of the Serengeti stretching away below us into the infinite distance. A mind blowing sight in itself, but what made it a sight that will forever be in my memory was the multitudes of zillions of wildebeest and zebra making their annual migration. Impossible to describe. And we were so lucky - a few more days and they would have passed on.

And the day was not yet over, as we were then treated to a truly magnificent sunset, with the western sky being a fantastic mix of gold, purple and red - and of course "a red sky at night ......"