Second safari

this weekend we went to Arusha national park on Saturday. It is only about a 30 min drive from our house. The landscape was gorgeous, esp w mount meru in the background. We were spoiled by all the   Animals last weekend and this park is not as diverse, at least w large mammals. However we still were able to appreciate it for its immense beauty. There were a lot of baboons and zebra. And the long white tail colobus monkeys. We saw hippo which our guide has said he's never seen before there. The real star were the giraffes- they were everywhere and close. They are so graceful to watch and when you really think about them they are such a strange creature. We had a nice lunch spot with a lookout of the lake. Had the same strange box lunch again. Wish we had time for the walking tour but we had to drive to ngorongoro.

We stayed at the same campsite as before. Since we were repeat customers, they offered us an upgrade to a little igloo. Was better since it was more protected but had almost no ventilation so became hotter than hell at night. It poured or more accurately monsooned at night ...even some hail. Of course the power was out. We made our run from dinner to the igloo at a break in the rain but still was drenched. When we had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night...well that was fun. There was a spider in my clothes and one hanging above our bed I thought it was going to fall on us while we slept. I woke up terrified at some point bc it was like 2 in the morning and right outside our igloo I heard people yelling in Kiswahili and slamming car doors over and over. It was an angry yelling and I thought it was some kind of attack but Matt was completely unconcerned and said they probably drunk. But their tone, duration, and some screaming I heard really made me doubtful. We would have had no way out. But luckily Matt was at least somewhat right bc we woke up safe

Yesterday was ngorongoro crater... Most popular of these parks and yes there were more people than I was used to. Our guide said only like an hour drive but all said and done ( bc you actually have to drive down to the floor) it took us about 3 hours. It was worth it though. Lush greenery like a tropical rainforest with even some cacti and winding mountain roads w fog and clouds. It is cool bc the Maasai were not kicked out and are able to live in the park. We saw them herding cows alongside zebra. The sight of the crater was spectacular. The guidebook said you could pick any superlative to describe it and you'd be right. The floor was even better. Apparently has the most animals per square foot in Africa and that's apparent. Short green grass and just tons of animals. It's like it was a snow globe and someone just liberally sprinkled glitter in there ( the animals). Mostly gazelle, water buffalo, wildebeest, zebra ( so so many ) living together in harmony. We saw random clumps of elephants as we drove. And we saw 2 black rhino! One was closer than the guide said they usually are ( and sightings are rare). Almost extinct due to poaching and only like 6-7 left in there sadly. One was eating grass and I could see his mouthful he was so adorable. The other neat thing was a pride of lions ( like 6-8) were wandering the road and went to sleep under the tree there. They looked tired , hot, and scraggly and there were flies all over them. I know they can get plenty to eat here so maybe that's what they look like up close? Was females and young males. I shut my window bc they were so dang close. We stopped at a beautiful lake to eat our lunch ( again nothing to write home about except the shredded carrot sand which how random ) and hippos were playing in the middle of the lake. We couldn't eat outside the jeep bc eagles swarm down to get the food. We saw so many baby animals on this trip- glad we went right after birthing season. The ride home was long w lots of flooding and rocks in the road from that rainstorm. Almost couldn't cross glad we had a Jeep w a snorkel. We even saw zebra randomly far from the park trying to cross the road

The weekend was great, although combined the power has essentially been out since sat AM. Which meant no charging the fans and very hot sleep, reading no movies ( which is fine but after 3 books I was ready for something else) and no showers. Sponge bath central. It sucks trying to pack and unpack in the dark. Last night since I didn't have the roar of the fan I heard everything outside- something jumping from the roof, cat fights, some animal incessantly making noise , people talking, man singing at the top of his lungs for an hour, those damn rooster (why you start crowing at 4 am??) we are here for a reason but I'd be lying if I said we never get frustrated or annoyed. hope the power awaits me at home!