Day 13

This morning was a very early start, we had to wake up at 4:30am to be ready for 5am. We ended up leaving the vijiji hotel at about 5:40. We were going to the Norongogo crater which was about a 3 hour drive away.

When we arrived at the entrance there was loads of baboons on the road and in the trees.
To get up to the crater you had to go up really steep roads because we needed to be very high. Once we had got to the top we got out of the jeep to look at the crater. It was stunning and a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We then continued he journey where we started to go down into the crater. On the way we saw at least 10 giraffes in a huddle, there was also a couple baby giraffes. They were so still and didn’t seem to mind the cars being there because we ended up getting so close to them. When we got into the crater we saw hundreds of zebras, they were everywhere and we could get so close to them. There was also hundreds of gazelles everywhere we went, they are very cute animals. We also saw a couple of bulls but only from a distance, we couldn’t get that close. We all really wanted to see an elephant but we hadn’t seen one all day. Until we saw one in the distance so tried to drive closer up to it. As we were driving closer it started to walk towards us. It ended up being so close to the jeep, it was so big and very old. We got told that elephants only come down in the crater if they are very old. We then started driving further and a lot more elephants, there was maybe about 6. One of them got so close to the jeep and was eating grass. We stayed there for about 10 minuites just watching it slowly make its way closer. Our guide Ben said he saw a lion in the distance, we used the binoculars to look closer and we could see two lions lying together by a bush in the distance. We carried on and saw an ostrich walking through the field, it was so much bigger than I thought they were. We went past the lake and saw hundreds of flamingos, they were a very baby pink rather than bright pink. They walk very elegantly and look so peaceful, there was also a couple pelicans stood by the water.
We then made our way to lunch at the hippo pool. We had lots of snacks like crisps, cookies, chocolate, popcorn and a lot more. There were only a couple hippos in the lake but it was still amazing to see. Whilst we were eating our lunch a stork was stood right next to our bench. Apparently it stays there to look for left over food for it to eat once everyone has left. It wasn’t aggressive at all it just stood next to us and watched us eat. There were also many little birds that kept landing on our table looking for food.

Once we finished eating lunch we carried on with the drive. We saw hundreds of wilder beast crossing the road, they were all in a line following each other. We then saw about 10 hyenas in a circle so we stopped to look at them, they were all looking at a bush and circling around it. A lion then walked out of the bush or just about 5 seconds and then went back in again. So we weren’t able to see it for very long but we still got a very good view of it. Our guide thinks there was a dead carcass in the bush and the lions were trying to protect it so the hyenas couldn’t get it for themselves. We carried on driving and saw a rhino in the distance, we were only able to see if we used binoculars because it was so far away.
We then started our journey home and had to go all the way back up the carter and then all the way back down the road. We stopped at a gift shop on the way home to have a look and buy the last gifts for family and friends. The journey took about 3 hours to get back to vijiji from the crater. We got back around 7 and had dinner, we had noodles, spinach and beef.