We spent the morning riding around the Ngorogoro Crater. Most of the scenes were as idyllic as the birds above. Then we came upon two lions who had just taken down a wildebeest and were dismantling the kicking thing while 6 hyenas barked and looked on hungrily. It was pretty disgusting to watch the lions pulling out the intestines of the poor dying wildebeest.
We saw a rhino mother and her very young baby, completing our sighting of the big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, Cape buffalo, and rhino.
One of my big fears in coming on this trip was that of needing a bathroom while out among the wild animals. It was reassuring to see structures like that above. Our guide Isaac always checked before we went in, relating how a visitor once opened the door to the men's room to find a male lion inside.
All too soon we were back on pavement, leaving the animals behind and heading back to the Arusha airport. We sort of finessed the fact that we were over the allowable weight limit for our Precision Air flight to Zanzibar. It wasn't actually the tiny plane we had expected. We were probably the only Americans among the 100 passengers, who were mostly Chinese with a few other random countries represented.
It was about an hour by car to get to the Zanzibar Retreat Hotel, but what a gem when we finally arrived. It is run by a guy from Finland and overlooks the Indian Ocean. This is our bed!
Here is the bar/restaurant, where we are hungrily awaiting dinner.