Ngorongoro Crater

Despite the name, Ngorongoro is not actually a crater, but a collapsed mountain or caldera. It is approximately 17km by 21km and about 600m deep. There is a very high concentration of wildlife inside the crater and the scenery is in general incredible. We saw a lot of animals here (though I didn't get video or pictures of the coolest thing we saw - hyenas making a kill) and I took some decent pictures.

Anyway, here they are: 1) Entering the crater early in the morning, 2) Zebras, 3) Flamingoes, 4) More birds, 5) Zebras close-up, 6) It could be my desktop picture, 7) The elephant that came by when we got out of the truck (notice how we are back in the truck). It came pretty fast. 8) A second elephant that walked past us. Notice the scared workers behind it. Those two animals were HUGE. 9) Crested Cranes, 10) A view of the crater on our way out, 11) A buffalo we saw as we were leaving, 12) Our cook Juma (left) and guide/driver (Bariki). These two guys were incredible and did an outstanding job.

Serengeti National Park

After a long delay, I am finally back and will be able to post a lot in the coming week or so. It will take some time as I have to sort through a lot of pictures and do many other things upon my return to Canada. However, here is the next set of pictures.

The Serengeti is probably the most famous of any of the national parks in Africa. After having spent two days there, I can understand why. It consists of several different areas including wide open plains, rivers, and forests. The biggest draw is the wildebeest, of which there are apparently over 2 million in the park.

Some descriptions to go with the pictures: 1) Ostriches, 2) A view of the plains, 3) Lizard, 4) Hyena, 5) Wildebeest crossing the road, 6) Cheetah, 7) Thomson's Gazelles, 8 and 9) A huge herd of wildebeest and some zebras, 10) Vultures, 11) Rainclouds in the distance, 12) I can't remember the name, maybe it is a Bushbuck, 13) Elephants, 14) The sunrise on the second day, 15) Lions eating their kill, 16) Vultures and a Maribou Stork scavenging, 17) A big puddle on the road, 18) A few of the seventeen jeeps crowded around a leopard (it never got close enough for me to get a pictures, but I did get some video which may be coming in a few weeks when I get the time to edit it), 19) Isn't the Serengeti gorgeous? 20) A bird (very common there, but I don't know the name), 21) Basketweaver Birds (I think) and their nests, 22) Lions sleeping, 23) Giraffe.

Lake Manyara National Park

The first stop on my safari was Lake Manyara National Park. Here are some pictures I took. Please note that I don't have a great camera and thus some of the animals are small. This park was by far the hardest to see animals in, so expect better pictures and more wildlife when I can get to posting pictures from the rest of my trip.

1) The Hippo Pool. 2) Giraffe. 3) Warthog. 4) Elephants. 5) Zebras. 6) Dik-diks. 7) Some birds (our guide told us the name, and it was at this point that I said I wouldn't remember all the animal names - looks like I was right in this case). 8) The view of the park from our campsite which was on the top of the Rift Vallety Escarpment (which is much more impressive than the Hamilton "mountain"). 9) Baboons with a baby (there were thousands of baboons in this park). 10) A vervey monkey (look closely, yes, they are baby blue).

Local Wildlife

When people think of animals in Africa, they generally think of lions, elephants, giraffes and other big game. Though I’ve been here more than seven weeks, I have yet to see any of those animals. The truth is that in the villages and towns, there is a different set of animals that you will see on a frequent basis. Here is a short rundown of the animals I see pretty much every day.

Farm Animals

Food production and sale is a major source of income for many people here, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is livestock almost everywhere. The most numerous animals are chickens. On pretty much every street we walk down, we see chickens, many with a large troupe of chicks following behind. We’ve even seen one set of chicks painted purple (my guess is to prove who owns them). It is also not uncommon to see goats tied up somewhere and grazing on grass. Cows are seen occasionally on the side of the road eating the grass, though sometimes we’ve seen them being driven down the road. Ducks are less common, but we do see them occasionally. They look different from the ducks I’ve seen in Canada. They are a bit bigger and mostly black with some red.

Critters

Life wouldn’t be complete with critters. There are many insects that I see every day. The most obvious (and annoying) are the mosquitoes. There are at least two different kinds here (black ones and brown ones) that I have killed. Beyond mosquitoes there are also thousands of ants. Often they mass in large groups when there is food somewhere. I keep my snacks locked up in plastic bags.

There are also the usual spiders (some very big ones) and other flying insects. There definitely seems to be a large variety here – moreso than back home. The common housefly is, not unsurprisingly, very common here and can be very annoying when they keep landing on me (especially when I do my laundry).

The least friendly critters, however, are the cockroaches. Usually I don’t see them unless the power goes out and even then I only see them outside (except for the one I saw in my room a few days ago and tried to scare away but had to kill when it kept coming at me). They are pretty big - my estimate would be about 5-6cm. They like the dark and most of them do scatter away when I shine my headlamp at them.

The picture is actually of a very tiny praying mantis that we saw on the office screen door yesterday. You might be able to tell, but it is a bit small.

Lizards

Most people would not like the fact that there are many lizards here, but I think they’re pretty cool. There are a large number of types of lizards here, some more common than others. I’ve had four now in my room: two of them were really tiny (and one was on the inside of my mosquito net). They come in a variety of sizes and colours. I’ve already included some pictures previously so I will not add any in the future unless I find some nice looking ones.

Flying Animals

There are a variety of birds around here. Most common are the tiny brown, white and black birds I’ve seen almost everywhere I go (sparrows?) and black crow-like birds. Also, if you pay close attention at night, you can see bats flying around.

Pets

I don’t think many people actually own pets here, but I have seen a few dogs and several stray cats. The cats look a little more like the wild cats of Africa (other people disagree with me, but I stand by my views). Generally the dogs are all similar, though we saw some tiny white yappy dogs at a restaurant owned by a Canadian.

Obviously there are more animals here, but this is just a snippet. In a few weeks I will post some pictures of your more sought-after African animals