On Saturday I went with Shannon and a bunch of UN kids to the Ngorongoro Crater, a wildlife-filled volcanic crater in a conservation area contiguous with the Serengetti. Descend deep into the crater, 600 meters down, down the road's switchbacks. You can see the ring of mountains all the way around the entire crater. The animals can and do leave, but it's immediately apparent why they'd choose not too. Steep ravine on one side, flat land on the other.
We saw lions with a fresh buffalo kill, so exhausted from the hunt they couldn't eat. They sat and panted, waiting to catch their breath and have dinner. Elephants, hippos, giraffes, all that. Beautiful landscapes, with bands of green, brown, and white in the distance, framed by blue and green mountains for a full 360 degrees. The layered color palette on my photos is like nothing I've ever seen.
After lunch, the guide tried to cheat us by leaving the park early. But we've been in Africa too long for that crap, and after a heated back and forth he brought us back into the crater. Such a beautiful, unique place, though, that not even Tanzania's worst safari guide could hope to ruin it.
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