Backdate: East Africa trip Aug 2015 Day 10 - 19th Aug - Serengeti + Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge

19/8/15: Power shortage at Serengeti Sopa Lodge just before we left to board our car at 7am... we almost had to eat in pitch dark, but thks to Alex's hp and a bottle of water haha. It was chilly outside too~ but we can't wait to see lions since Peace said there were quite a number of them in Serengeti. *A pretty impala upclose below!*

Peace had a in-car walkie talkie which he used to communicate with other peers of his driving in the park, so they could inform each other if there were sightings of the Big 5 etc. Once he got hold of any info, he would drive to the area straightaway. *我们好像一群随时会被卖掉都不知道的孩子啊～*
And yes, apparently, there were sightings of lioness and her cubs. By the time we reached, there was alrdy a row of cars thr, all eager to see the carnivores.

It's just non-stop camera snapping action once we saw the lioness and her cubs lol. They blend so well into the surrounding... no wonder it's a NO-NO to get down the car at anytime. *Even though they are said to be lazy, and eat probably only twice a day, once in the early morning and evening.* One of the lioness looks like she has blood at the side of her mouth too... juz finished with a meal I guess.
Two incidents I rmb about lioness in the parks: One was when a lioness attempted to creep up behind a Thomson's Gazelle in the morning, but the latter sensed it's predator's presence before that, and when the lioness tried to gave chase, it leapt high into the air and bounced away in juz a few steps! Another time was when a poor solo Zebra was out in the wild. We saw a lioness resting on a stone from afar, but the zebra hasn't realized that, until it stop right opp the lioness and turned it's head... definitely looked like it froze on the spot LOL. I wonder if it saw the lioness some 100m ahead, but the zebra still calmly (dunno on purpose or what) walked away in another direction... 厉害. *Maybe it knew the lioness wasn't hungry judging from the way it rested on all fours.*

Leopards, eagle, mongoose and Thomson gazelles above. Then, we drove ard and saw the many stonecorners, known to be slping and resting grps for many lions apparently. But we din get to see any lions yawning thr the first time we passed by. Saw a dik-dik that shied away real fast, and a Eland(?) too. Peace was telling us dik-diks would only hav one partner their whole life~ oh so sweet!

We have been on the main circuit on these while, but when Peace heard how we were "begging" for him to go nearer a tree to see cheetahs resting under a tree from afar, he decided to steer away from the main road for once! I was both nervous and excited!

We were really close, like circling the cheetah, but it was just too busy cleaning itself and sun tanning la. *Lucky cheetahs can't climb trees, but then again I was busy observing the tree too, just in case any leopards were thr and decided to jump down on us LOL.*

Aft a few encounters with carnivores, John was still disappointed he din get to see his "Sinba". Soon enough, lady luck was on his/our side, and Peace got news that there were a grp of them resting by a puddle of water. Peace said they were brothers... 有够懒的，看到人也不理不睬。Then again, this is the legendary "king's pride" ain't it? Haha.

Some of them looked skinny though~ wonder if they had enough to eat? Anyway, we automatically closed our windows for safety reasons haha.

Other animals we saw that day included hyena, kori bustard and buffalo. We had our packed lunch out in the wild, okie la it was a designated lunch area~ *so cool and dangerous at the same time...* The Thomson gazelles were so near to us... but the min we went closer, they ran further away.

Then, we continued to drive pass burning, burnt and barren lands, and the air definitely din smell gd ard the regions.

When Peace drove out of Serengeti, and headed towards Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, we experienced bumpier rides along the way. The stones were bigger, and at one pt of time, one flew and hit the windscreen. We were shocked by the loud smack sound, and the layer on the outside of the windscreen cracked~ no kidding ah!

We reached Ngorongoro Wildlife lodge at 3+pm! It took a long time to go up the
winding roads, and reached our hotel... 2300+m above sea level... cooling.

YJ and I stayed in rm47 this time, on the 2nd flr of the lodge. 

The view down looking at the whole crater was awesome! Breathtaking! 7 of us spent some time being a tourist thr, and it seemed like we were about the only guests ard in the afternoon. It's feels like Genting Highlands, but it was cooler and much more exciting cos animals pass by at lvl 1 sometimes! We felt like we shld climb over the metal fence to take some pics cos one don't really get to do "dangerous acts" in SG~ I had acrophobia but dang I did it lol!

We saw troops of baboons passing by, and they were pretty noisy. *No wonder we're advised not to open the balcony doors lest animals welcome themselves in!* Some say there were even sightings of leopards ard~ omg that sounds way too exciting erm.

While waiting for YJ to shower, I opened the curtain in our room. OMG, jus sitting thr and looking at the crater gave me much inner peace. *Imagine u're enjoying ur peace and nex min u see a leopard outside staring at u LOL.* Same as the night before, we went to the dining hall to have buffet dinner aft showering. Had some sort of western meal... okie la. *We saw a buffalo walked past at lvl 1! OMG~* Aft tat, we gathered at their lobby and wanted to hav some wine together, which we bought. We even took selfies with Peace. Halfway thru, the staffs saw and forbid us to continue, cos they sell their own wines, and he even called the manager over. That was some cold water but anyway, we were about to finish, and left the lobby area soon aft.