Backdate: East Africa trip Aug 2015 Day 11 - 20th Aug - Ngorongoro Crater + Karatu city + Tloma Lodge + Coffee plantation tour + night under the stars

20/11/15: And so we set off at 6.30am in the morning, when it was all chilly and at the verge of dawn break. The journey down the slope was pretty windy and "exciting"... in a sense pretty dangerous too. *Sometimes it worries us when we see Peace's eyelids drooping on and off while he drives omg...* 

We stop by halfway down the slope cos Alex wanted to take pics of the rising sun. The ambience was great, and it was truly relaxing. Ngorongoro Crater seemed so huge, and I felt so small when we were in thr. Unlike the plains of Serengeti and Tarangire, and as this is a highland, you feel like you do see ends of the Earth while surrounded by the clouds (that looked like waves coming down from the sky) and mountains. The sight was breathtaking, the air was great, and so I reckon it was the most beautiful out of the places in our Safari trip.

Nvm the fact that we alrdy saw many animals repeatedly, and that in fact there weren't so many animals seen in the morning, the nature and landscape itself is what we count ourselves lucky for being able to see it with our own eyes. *And yes we "somewhat" saw Black Rhinos... from super duper far away. Only managed to tell the two slow-moving silouettes when Alex zoomed his DSLR in to focus. Oh well, Peace mentioned thr's only about a handful of them left on Ngorongoro Crater, and they're not the friendliest of animals nor easy to spot at all. We can only count ourselves lucky... yeah 4.5/5 Big Fives we saw in Tanzania!*

Even the lion afar seems to be enjoying basking in the sun. Soon, it was breakfast time, and we ate at one of the most beautiful lakes I'd seen before. *Saw the "down-riding clouds" that look like waves~ scenic~*
Coincidentally, there was a car of ppl from National Geographics too.

The climate was still pretty cooling by noon cos we're high up on 2000++m. I couldn't take the cold aft a while and went back to the car, and happened to see a few lovebirds above our car roof~ so cute. 
After lunch, we continued on our "animal-sighting" journey, and taking in the beauty of nature along our way. The hervivores (I don't know about the carnivores okie~) mostly shy away when u reach out your hands and wanna try to touch them haha.

I can still rmb vividly how my jaws literally dropped at the place where I saw the herd of zebras drinking water. The view from my side was juz awesome to the max! A pity my photos don't do Mother Nature much justice~ Then, when we came to one large empty plain and saw the zebras and wildbeests migrating, moving non-stop in one direction, we couldn't speak... juz went "Whoa, whoa, whoa~".

Then, we passed a lake (from afar). Peace told us that's some salt water lake and it's "dead". It looked like one nv-ending white lining from our angle, juz sparkling in the wild.

Then, we travelled further, and marvelled further at Ngorongoro Crater...

Before we came to what the gang referred to as "Jurassic Park". The whole forest just felt like one. Think we saw troops of baboons inside and some bird species, other than that, nth much. Anyway, other animals sighted here included: fox, thomson gazelles, crown crane, Egyptian goose, lapet vulture and African spoon-beak.

Now for an interesting incident that happened at noon. Aft we drove to the entrance of Ngorongoro, we were having our lunch in the car. Peace warned us to close the doors and windows cos there were army of baboons passing by and jumping onto our car. I rmb back in the safari, a car of tourists complained baboons stole their personal belongings from the car~ in the blink of an eye!
Then it happened to us: while ST was eating, and wasn't in time to close her side window, one baboon took away a packet of Lay chips of ours in a quick flash! He held his hand inside, snatched it and jumped away real fast... tearing the packet as he went away, and sharing with his mates. ST got the scare for a bit LOL~ and we were all stunned too. But we tot the banana beside the chips was his real aim... juz he couldn't get that haha. *故意snapped the shot below to引诱them with food KEKE!*

We have got some time on hand, so Peace drove us to Karatu city, whr there's a nearby post office that we could get Big 5 stamps. We saw a salon service by the roadside, and the auntie commented that Asian's hair don't suit African braiding haha~ cos it's either too thin or too thick haha. There were like sec sch kids coming up to us and trying to sell us stationaries and accessories. *One boy kept following me ard, and then intro-ed himself, so John teased小弟弟看上我了lol~* 

We saw ppl crowding ard newspaper stand juz to read the news for free I reckon, and they had to wait some time at the post office because the staffs apparently don't come back on time aft lunch. But in the end, we gave up cos it was getting late, and had to get back onto our car fast enough cos those touters were all ard, and they come to u once they see tourists. Peace took us to our next destination: Tloma Lodge, which was the best lodging we had for our whole Safari trip. We had to pass some villages before we reached Tloma Lodge, which was also on a high land.

The room for two is huge beyond words! We've got 3 extra single beds leh~ There is a fireplace too, and the bathroom was really big as well. Ours was a connecting room with Jenny and ST's. They sell coffee powder at their lobby, and I bought two packets of coffee powder (USD10). There were free daily wi-fi too, userid and pw obtainable from the check-in counter. The staffs were friendly and helpful too. This resort sure gave off a diff vibe as compared to the previous ones we stayed in. 
We went for a tour at their coffee plantation, and they grew their own crops too. *Felt like pri sch field trips all over again~*

Nvm the scorching sun at 4+pm, cos our guide was informative. *He himself studied wildlife in Uni thr, and had been "on the grds" in the Safari~ armed with gun wow!* Then, we walked up the villages, and saw the neighbourhood's only clinic at one high end. It sure was tiring gg all the way up thr, and it's closed alrdy.

We headed back to our "villas", and there was alrdy afternoon tea ready for guests. Dominic, a real Maasai warrior works thr and he concocted "Dawa" (TsH10000) for us. It's a cocktail, but since I don't like alcohol, I had the mocktail instead.

There were small snacks to go with Dawa, and the mocktail tasted gd! I headed back to shower while the rest waited for me in front of the campfire before dinner started. Nvm I forgot to take a pic of the buffet dinner, but I rmb our table was nearest to the campfire, and John, who was fine at first sitted back-facing the fire, began to jump aft 5mins lol. All of us were in such gd mood that we ordered one bottle of red wine to share~ Dominic was our personal server, and I'm pleased cos he's polite, and has got great service attitude. *Dang just some praises and they went joking "Dominic's my African bf later on..."* Anyway, he does look young to me haha. The food wasn't fantastic but it was a pleasant meal aft all. 
We ordered for firewoods in our room at night (the cost goes to charity over thr), and the rest came over to HTHT for a bit. So warm!

Aft SS, John and ST went back to slp, the 4 of us continued talking in YJ and my rm. Dunno how but the topic of constellations came up, and as we realised there were loads of stars outside, we decided to "brave the cold" and go admire the stars outide. Alex explained how to tell the stars and milky way, before he and YJ started snapping photos, and we decided we shld hav a photo under the stars for remembrance sake too. The whole process was super hilarious cos we had to pose still in front of the cam for 15secs aft the shutter clicked, and I jus found it too funny when the surrounding gets so quiet~ so I can't help but giggled loads during those poses which we took like 6, 7 times! I couldn't ctrl myself, and so the rest were affected by me too. *Noisy kids aft 12am LOL.* 

The photo came out pretty gd, except the fact that I find us a bit elongated LOL. The milky way was so clear! I saw two shooting stars, and Alex was blaming me cos I kept on talking to him and he lost focus on the skies, so din get to see any haha! Staying up till 2+am for this was all worth it. A tad too bad the other 3 were in la-la land alrdy... thier loss keke~