Day 5 Ngorogoro Crater

Our lodging had a very humble name, Gibb's Farm. It was dreamed up and developed many years ago by a British colonial who obviously wanted to create an African paradise with English flair. This was truly one of the most romantic "farms" imaginable.

We stayed in a cottage that was all glass casement windows over-looking an exotic African garden complete with outdoor rain head shower. At bedtime one of the staff members lit the fire in our hearth that was beside a huge (very English) soaking tub.

The 40 acre estate consisted of a 10 acre organic vegetable garden where the proprietors used only bug resistant flowers for keeping down the grubs and crop rotation to keep the nitrogen in the soil. Unfortunately, they have problems with the elephants breaking down fences and robbing them of vegetables! And I thought our deer population was a nuisance!!!

Well, I loved Gibbs Farm and I hope to replicate their vegetable garden concept on a much smaller scale our on farm in Pocahontas County.

It's time to move off to Ngorogoro Crater and a new day of adventures.

The absolute highlight of this day was the sighting of a very large pride of lions. Ephata was in his element. I'm in awe of his ability to glance out his driver side window and spot a lion hidden on a ridge in tall grass about 200 meters off the dirt road, but this is exactly what he did. We parked the safari jeep and waited.

We could see 2 male lions (about 4 years old) and 4 female lions through our binoculars. Ephata assured us that if we waited patiently for the sun to come out and warm the lions that they would come down to the river (much closer to us) for a drink. Amazingly, when the sun came out the lions marched to the river, some appearing over the ridge. We counted 19 lions! This was spectacular, both in sheer numbers and the close proximity to us.

We soon heard terrible roaring from deep in the river gorge. One of the younger male lions ran out of the fray because he had been chastised by the leader of the pride. The message was, you are a big boy now...go get your own pride! The rebuffed young male sought sympathy from several of the female lions who seemed to be happy to offer him solace.

A side bar about lions: A pride usually consists of the alpha male and several female lions who mate only with the alpha. The females do the hunting, but the alpha male is the first to eat the kill. The idea is that he has to reserve his strength for more important things like fighting off his rivals who want to steal his pride. More about lion behavior later.