Today was our final full day before heading home, and it started early, 4:30 am early. I accidentally thought we were leaving for 5 am, only to find out we weren’t leaving until 5:30 am. can’t be too ready I guess. We split into two safari jeeps: Ellie, Phoebe, Jaimee, Ella and I went with Jo, and the rest of the group went with Charlotte for a three hour drive to the Ngorongoro crater.

Even before reaching the safari crater, we saw two baboons just chilling on the side of the road. Our guide, Ben, was amazing as always and shared so many facts along the way. He told us about one of the largest trees in Africa, and we passed a park known for its tree climbing lions. Apparently, they climb trees either to spot prey or to escape the rain. It made me think of how they really are just big cats.
We also passed through a place called Karatu, which has a sad history, it was used by Germans in the 19th century as a place of punishment, where people were sentenced to death by wild animals.

When we arrived at the Ngorongoro Crater gate, we saw so many baboons, at least 30 of them running along the road and climbing trees. I even saw a baby one! Ben told us that female baboons give the males massages. typical.

We drove up the edge of the crater and got our first view from the top. absolutely breathtaking. As we made our way down into the crater, we started seeing animals everywhere like giraffes right in front of our car, zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, and gazelles all just roaming around together. We even saw Pumbaa from the lion king! We then popped the roof on our jeep, meaning we could stand up to see the animals even more clearly.

We drove by a lake and we spotted tons of flamingos, though they weren’t as pink as those in zoos. shrimp shortage? We kept moving and came across an old elephant all on its own. Ben explained that older elephants come to the crater when they’re ready to pass away. it was really peaceful but sad at the same time.

Later, we got so close to a small group of elephants, they were right beside the jeep. I could practically reach out and touch them (don’t worry I didn’t). They were just calmly eating, and it was so quiet we could literally hear them pull the grass from the ground. My mom would’ve freaked, she loves elephants!

We stopped for lunch by a hippo pool, which was cool but me and hippos aren’t on good terms, they’re too mean for my liking. Luckily, they stayed in the water. For lunch we had some snacks like chips and salsa, rice cakes, cookies etc. This giant stork bird was waking around us. It looked weird but still pretty cool up close.

After lunch, we kept driving and saw even more zebras (again, super close), a rhino walking around (my dad would’ve loved that), and a lion that was surrounded by 5 hyenas. The lion ran at them once and they pretty much backed off.

Eventually, we drive back up out of the crater and started the long drive back to the hotel. We stopped at one last gift shop on the way for some last bits we might want before leaving.

On the way back we “raced” the other girls (not actually racing) back to viji, my quote of the day is “Ben, lose if you want to, but why would anyone want to lose” – Jaimee.

For dinner we had cucumber soup as an entree, spaghetti noodles, beef and spinach as a main.

I can’t believe the trip is basically over. Today was unforgettable and emotional me. It was a perfect way to end this whole experience.

Ready (but not ready) for the travel day tomorrow.