Ngorongoro Crater

With a width of approximately twenty kilometers, the Ngorongoro Crater is one of the largest craters in the world and contains grasslands, swamps, forests, saltpans and a freshwater lake. A huge variety of wildlife move in and out of the crater and share the crater floor with local Maasai herdsmen who have grazing rights there.

From the rim of the crater, we were able to see the entire crater floor, except for the spaces covered by clouds.
As we descended into the crater, though, the view only became more magnificent.
Once inside, we drove through all areas of the crater and saw all kinds of animals.In the bottom right of this picture, you can see a lioness staring across the lake toward a group of cape buffalo.I could have sworn this bird was really a pterodactyl. Even though I was wrong, it is the largest flying bird in the world.
The main freshwater lake in the crater had so many flamingos in it that it looked pink from a distance.
Although, it's pretty far in the distance and hard to see, the next picture is a rhinoceros.

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s largest (14,763 sq.km.) and most famous national park. It is named after the Maasai word “siringet”, which means “land of endless space”, and that is exactly what it is, though that endless space contains grasslands, woodlands, swamps, rivers, hills and so much more.The southern part of the park contains numerous kopjes (also called "simba rocks").
We spent three days in Serengeti, driving throughout the park and witnessing the varied landscape and animal life.
The animals that we saw in Serengeti were truly amazing.
The following two pictures may be difficult to identify, but in the first, there is a cheetah perched atop the rock in the middle of the frame, and in the second, there is a lion lying under the tree, just to the right of the trunk.On our second day in the park, we stopped at the visitor's center for lunch. While eating, we made two new friends - the hyrax and the mongoose. Although I'm sure the hyrax is basically an African squirrel and the mongoose is a pest as he begs for food, I couldn't help but take pictures of both.
At the welcome center, there is also a small nature trail and display area that provide information about the park's ecosystem, wildlife and management. Although this picture may be too small to make out the details, it's a handpainted mural that describes what it takes to manage a huge national park like Serengeti. The scenes in it are priceless.
For the two nights that we were in Serengeti, we stayed at the Ikoma campsite, which may as well have been within the gates of the park. We even woke up one morning to find two enormous elephants less than 200 meters from our tents! On our last day in the park, we witnessed the famous migration of wildebeest and zebras that takes place each year. There are over a million wildebeest and over 200,000 zebras who migrate around the park depending on the season. This time of year, they are in the south, and I truly believe we saw the vast majority of the herd. They literally stretched to the horizon.
On this day, I was also "lucky" enough to find a dung beetle that made its way into our vehicle as we were leaving the park. Everyone else in the car - Hudson, our driver and our cook - seemed to think it was hilarious to make me hold the huge, powerful beetle, but I'm not so sure I agreed.

Oldupai Gorge

We then proceeded to Oldupai Gorge, a canyon northwest of Ngorongoro Crater that is approximately 50 kilometers wide and 90 meters deep.
Because of a unique geological history that placed distinct layers of volcanic deposits in the area over a period of almost two million years, the gorge has provided tremendous insight into ancient life. The fossils excavated from Oldupai Gorge provide some of the oldest evidence of human existence. A set of 3.6 million-year-old footprints were found near the gorge that were made by three early hominids. The most famous fossil from the gorge is a 1.8 million-year-old skull known as Australopithecus boisei, which is on display in a small museum.
The gorge also provides one of the best views of Oldoinyo Lengai, Tanzania’s only remaining active volcano. In the left of the picture below, you can see smoke rising from the volcano.