{"id":579,"date":"2014-08-06T12:41:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T12:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.photoparadiso.com\/africa2014\/?p=579"},"modified":"2014-09-03T01:24:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T01:24:05","slug":"day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.photoparadiso.com\/africa2014\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"
June 8, 2014:\u00a0The Story<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Photo Gallery<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Videos<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mobile Gallery<\/a><\/div>\n
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The Ngorongoro Nyumba Camp (“nyumba” means “home”) is nestled in a jungle along the crater\u2019s rim. It\u2019s much chillier at this altitude (at about 7,200 feet), and gets much darker earlier due to the canopy of trees. But the camp is just as comfortable as the last one, and we sleep well, rising early the next morning for our exploration of the volcanic crater floor. This area\u00a0feels like a naturally enclosed habitat with its contrasting lush vegetation and yellow plains\u00a0trapped inside a ring of hills and ridges. But it\u2019s actually quite passable for migratory animals who come and go with the changing seasons. Morning feels like 50\u02daF, and powerful gusts whip through the crater floor. That doesn\u2019t stop our first immediate showcase: four male lions from the same pride greeting each other. They romp around in the rippling grass, the wind brushing through their mane. A whole week full of lions, and we never tire of this.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing to run all over the crater floor. Each patch has its own story. At one end, a lake welcomes\u00a0a massive flock\u00a0of flamingos. The colony is so thick that it\u00a0creates a jittery\u00a0pink band across the water. At the other end, tall, vibrant grass blades ripple alongside\u00a0the hippos who sunbathe in doughy heaps on a swamp\u00a0bank. The slopes of the crater host denser vegetation, including flat-topped acacia trees. Along the lower parts of the hillsides, yellow and purple flowers stipple the landscape, and zebras, gazelles, and wildebeest intermingle peacefully in huge herds. At parts in the crater\u2019s middle, elephants shuffle through the drier\u00a0golden\u00a0grass, calmly but cautiously eyeing our vehicles. One has a tusk snapped in half. That\u2019s the one notable difference between seeing these animals in the wild versus in a zoo; the creatures here carry battle scars or mishap injuries\u2014all telltale signs of self-sufficiency and survival.<\/p>\n

Later that night, at our cozy campsite inside the near-pitch black jungle, we have a hearty Tanzanian meal followed by the best surprise ever: the camp staff singing and clapping to\u00a0\u201cJambo Bwana\u201d<\/a> and \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d for Jeff and carrying out a dutch oven-baked birthday cake. He is speechless and completely touched. In\u00a0this\u00a0chilly\u00a0and dark evening, it’s nice to be\u00a0surrounded by the warmth of celebration. -k<\/p>\n

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