Ngorongoro Crater - Todd pisses off more wildlife.

We woke up with the sunrise as usual. Lots of awesome animal noises all night, and the stars are amazing.

We packed up camp and left around 7:00 for Ngorongoro Crater. We stopped at a Maasai village, where they did the tourist thing, doing the Maasai dance for us, then showing us the school (a small shack with a blackboard), then a house (tiny mud-built house with cooking fire and two beds). Then we got the opportunity to buy handmade crafts. I bartered down from 75,000 shilling to 40,000 shilling. I'm pretty proud of myself, as I'm not particularly good at bartering.

Then we headed to Ngorongoro Crater, which was fine. The views of the crater were spectacular, but we've seen so many safari animals (including the rhino), that there wasn't really anything new to see here. When we were in the crater, the guide turned on the CB radio and was listening to all the other tourist guides all talking about trying to find one of the rhinos in the crater. There are 20 in all, and there are none in central Serengeti, so this is the only chance many tourists will get to see a rhino. Our guide laughed at them, because we got our rhino (the black rhino at that!) in the northern Serengeti. (In the end, they couldn't find any of the rhinos today.)

We stopped at a picnic area for lunch. I was eating a pizza pop-type thing (but much better than a pizza pop), and had about one bite left, and was holding it my left hand at the side of my head, as I was chewing the previous bite. Suddenly I'm enveloped in shadow, I feel something touch my left hand, and I heard a woosh. I was completely startled and probably screamed a bit. I totally freaked me out. I then looked at my left hand and my food was gone. WTF? Not understanding what just happened, I looked up and saw a large bird of prey fly off with my food! I was freaked and we all then climbed in the truck and finished eating. Danford (our guide) said it was a Black Kite, a large bird, a fair bit larger than a hawk. I'm shocked it didn't cut my finger open, they have large, sharp claws.

We then left for Karatu, and the Panorama Inn for the night. It's a very nice place in a totally non-touristy part of town. I asked Danford if it was safe to walk around here, and he said yes, totally safe, no worries at all. After showering for the first time in almost a week, we went for a walk around. Dirt streets, tons of local shops all over (hair dressers, welders, little convenience stores, auto-body shops, clothing, etc.), not touristy at all. We weren't bothered at all, except for one Maasai guy came and started chatting us up in English, he ended up wanting to sell some handmade stuff his grandmother and him makes, so he can pay for schooling. We got a couple of nice necklaces for 10,000 shilling.

As we were walking around, three young boys (maybe 5 or 6), came walking along, and one of the came over and rubbed his hand along my arm. I've noticed the locals (and the Maasai) are fascinated with the hair all over my body.

We then went to a restaurant across the street (Karatu Corner Bar) and ordered a couple of beers. The lady working there spoke no english, but we managed to convey what we wanted, and it was nice sitting outside watching the world go by.

We also got a load of laundry done.

Back to the hotel for supper.

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