Three parks, one day, no problem :)

3 parks in one today - was craziness :)

We started with a game drive on the way out of Tarangire park - more lions was the highlight of that one. We saw a recent kill last night w no predators around it, but this morning the happily sated lions were lounging around the area.  Great pics of that with the grown up camera ;).  Will share in future.
Also - this is when I learned that if I were stranded in this environment my time would be very limited. One of the lions took me a good five minutes to find, despite him being directly in front of me AND knowing he was there. I’d be the first one to step on a cub and set mama off. Lol all those years of hidden picture puzzles did nothing to prepare me for the reality of safaris.


— Chris and I at Lake Manyara lunch stop —

Anyways - it was a great start to the morning and then we drove to Lake Manyara. The environment was a complete change; deep forests and lush green colouring. We saw forest elephants within seconds of entering and all kinds of monkeys and baboons. Forest elephants, btw, are never going to sneak up on anybody. The noise of them navigating... Serious “get out of the way” warning.



Lots of very colourful birds, some super lazy hippos, a lone forest buck who moved far too quickly to get a good photo, and the usual multitude of zebras. When exactly did zebras become usual?

Sadly we were unable to find any tree-climbing lions, which I was quite looking forward to :(. Apparently none of the guides had seen any sign today. But other than that minor disappointment, was a good trip :)



We then headed to Ngorongoro - on the way we detoured through a cultural centre, which was really a giant gift shop. Tons of really amazing stuff, sadly none of which we could even pretend to afford ;)


— The view from our balcony —

So Ngorongoro park is huge — we’re focusing on the crater. And that view. The best photographer couldn’t do it justice. The best scenery I’ve seen anywhere in the world was in either Banff or New Zealand; this easily ranks amongst those.



It was a stunning drive up to our hotel. When we checked in they gave us one room, then randomly decided “no, we have one with a better view” and gave us another ;). The conversation was not in English so not sure what inspired the upgrade, but the room is incredible so win. It is much colder here - I’m bundled in my fleece as I’m waiting for dinner and was pleased the heater was on in the room. But I’m very much looking forward to star gazing tonight after dinner.

Update: stars are incredible! No light pollution and a clear view to the sky. AND turndown service includes a hot water bottle between the sheets. This is a new (or actually very old) level of service I could get used to ;)