This morning we wake up early, have breakfast and then leave! We descend into the Ngorongoro Crater, in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area​​, in Tanzania.

We follow the road that runs on the edge of the crater and then we arrive at the entrance; there are not many cars, only three others besides us, better, so we do not waste too much time.

We begin the descent on the dirt road that is made a bit slippery by the rain; usually on the edge of the crater there is a thick fog that looks like rain, but today instead it is seriously raining.

As we descend, we admire the landscape that opens beneath us, and we cannot wait to get to the bottom of the crater.

Everywhere around us there are wildebeests and zebras that graze the green grass, but we, as first thing, go into the only portion of the forest at the bottom of the crater.

Here we find a large elephant male, it is beautiful and gigantic; we take several photos while he is eating but, at some point, he hides a bit in the bush and we can no longer see it, incredible, despite its size.

tanzania ngorongoro exploringafrica safariadv romina facchi travel

We continue our tour, while it continues to rain, we go a little way, always in the midst of wildebeests, zebras and buffaloes and several species of birds, before finally finding the lions: we find two lionesses, who sleep blissfully, careless of the cars stopped to look at them and of the rain; there with them there are 6 puppies that are probably a few months old, they are beautiful and, some of them, are awake and look around curious.

Shortly after we see a black rhino in the distance, what a show!

Inside the Ngorongoro Crater there are more than 20, the precise number is kept secret to protect them from poaching, but it is not easy to see them, often they remain along the perimeter of the crater, where there are no roads to approach, or hide in the bush; today we were lucky because we were able to see 4 black rhinos, of which a puppy that would have been 8 months old, it was too cute the way it walked following its mother.

We see another bunch of lions, we can count 14, they are all lying down sleeping except for two puppies that sometimes move; they are too beautiful, but although today it is a cool day, they do not move a whisker; what a beautiful life lions have!

Before leaving the Ngorongoro Crater we see 2 more lions, 2 males who, for a change, sleep blessed; in all we have seen 25 lions, without a doubt this is our personal record for a safari day!

tanzania ngorongoro exploringafrica safariadv romina facchi travel

We also see several hyenas, most of them looking around for food, we see one that has caught a newborn wildebeest cub; the wildebeest mother tries to get closer in some way to recover its puppy, but it's too late, the hyena has already eaten up the baby.

A golden jackal tries to take advantage of the situation and tries countless times to steal the prey from the hyena, that promptly makes it escape; the unfortunate jackal is alone, and not in pairs as it usually happens, because if it had a partner, perhaps distracting the hyena it would be able to steal a few bites.

At a certain point, suddenly, we saw the earth flying in the air and, from a hole in the ground, a warthog came out, then another and then another and finally came out 4 puppies, they are too cute; as soon as they came out of the den the puppies started running together in the same direction, then they realized that they were running the wrong way from where the adults were and therefore they came back very quickly, they are too funny!

We have also seen many birds, in this period, in fact, in addition to the resident species, there are also species that migrate here from Europe, Asia and other parts of Africa; we have seen the lapwings, the crowned lapwings, several species of starling, the Kori bustards, the black-bellied bustards, the white storks, Abdim storks, the gray crowned cranes, the black-headed herons, the gray herons, many cattle egrets, the pelicans, the ostriches, the helmeted guineafowls and many others.

tanzania ngorongoro exploringafrica safariadv romina facchi travel

In some pools of water there are the hippos, that remain immersed almost completely in the water for most of the time, then, occasionally, re-emerge puffing or emitting noisy verses; they are cute and funny.

We go for lunch on the shore of Lake Magadi, this stretch of water is permanent; usually all cars come here for lunch as it is a very nice place both in the dry and in the green season.

In the lake there are hippos, while there are several birds around, such as weavers, starlings and buzzards looking for the right opportunity to steal food from tourists.

After lunch it's time to go, we have to reach Ndutu in the Serengeti National Park; we had planned to leave the Ngorongoro around 3.00pm, but tonight it rained in the Ndutu area and our guide prefers to leave a little earlier to get some margin, as some roads are full of mud.

This morning we had a wonderful safari and we saw a lot of animals, so we leave satisfied.

We go out along the old road, that climbs up the wall of the caldera; it is very steep, but fortunately it is paved.

Going up you have a splendid view on the inside of the crater; every time we leave here a piece of our heart, but we are sure that we will be back soon!

tanzania ngorongoro exploringafrica safariadv romina facchi travel