Woke up early in our little paradise farm Ngorongoro Farm Lodge. Scent of spring and flowers everywhere….strong colors and one huge Maramboi Stork welcomed us on our fourth day in Africa.

After breakfast, we packed lunch boxes and drove to what is known as the eighth wonder of the world- The Ngorongoro Crater.. The Ngorongoro Crater is part of the Serengeti ecosystem, and to the north-west, it joins the Serengeti National Park

The crater is said to have the densest concentration of wildlife in Africa.

We stopped to admire the breathtaking view before driving down and into the crater.

The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself about two to three million years ago, is 610 m (2,000 ft) deep and its floor covers 260 km2 (100 sq mi).

Sharon wanted to "check the tire" and Philip suggested that she waits a bit… two minutes drive further down, we saw an impressive beautiful lioness about a meter away from the jeep…   well, we were all glad Sharon was still with us…

We drove down into the crater and started complaining a bit (  in Hebrew of course)  that all we saw were a few ostriches…. Although one female was nesting her eggs, we couldn’t wait to see the big five…  

Rael was the only positive thinking one and kept on saying "wait… we'll see some animals soon…" When it was obvious that there isn't anything to see, we got to what seemed to be a scene from the "lion king" where all the animals are standing proud to be presented…

A population of approximately 25,000 large animals, along with the highest density of predators in Africa, lives in the crater.

Animals were there by the thousands!!! Ugly hyenas, buffaloes, gnus, a zillion different birds of all size and colors, hippos, beautiful zebras, antelopes, monkeys and the highlight of the day  lions and lionesses that came so close we could pet them..

The lions came close looking for shade from the sun and we were so excited we nearly dropped one camera trying to pass it to another jeep in order to take some pictures of us with the massive cat…

We stopped for late lunch by the lake when a local thief jumped through the roof of the jeep, opened a box and stole a banana… Monkeys apparently do like bananas…

Driving up the other side of the crater we admired the breathtaking view again at the end of another amazing day…

Pool time, uploading pictures to my laptop, great dinner

Good night Africa