More from Tanzania

I FINALLY finished editing our pics from Tanzania. Here's a new batch...more on my Facebook Page...and the entire 1,900 image gallery at http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/tanzania. Enjoy!

Serengeti

I've finally found a couple hours to edit some more of our Tanzania Adventure photos. By our second day on safari, our excellent guide, Leonard, had led us to all of the "Big Five". These images are from our first day in the Serengeti. We were UNBELIEVABLY lucky with our lion encounters. These big cats aren't anything like the tame, placid animals you see in the zoo. THESE have vibrant mains, sinewy muscles, and a fire in their eyes that sends a shiver down your spine when they look directly at you. It was SO COOL to see how God and nature intended these great beasts to live!

The Ngorongoro Crater

After we left Arusha, we headed strait into the Ngorongoro Crater. It's not actually a crater left behind by some ancient meteor as some scientists originally believed. It's actually the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera...formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago.

Based on fossil evidence found at the nearby Olduvai Gorge, we known that various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years. Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "Big Five" (rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo), which we saw within our first two days! An estimated 25,000 animals live within the crater, almost every known species of East African Wildlife. Notably absent are giraffes, impala, and crocodiles. But it does boast the densest known population of lions, thought we actually saw more later in the Serengeti...which I'll share when I get to them. :-)

The Ngorongoro Crater is often called the Eighth Wonder of the World!