I awoke earlier today than I wanted to, just lying and thinking on my mattress for a while, until finally getting up and with Jozef putting the tent away. We ate a little breakfast and got ready to board the Land Rovers, which we did and I rode shotgun in ours. As we drove out we had problems with the wheel and it was unmanageable for a long time, but eventually worked itself out. It was so splendid to be in these vehicles though, because it felt like and indeed was a real safari and I felt so good about it all. On the drive we stopped and got drinks and afterward talked about gossip, which was an interesting conversation. In our Land Rover, there was Kidae, Myoungsook, Matt, Maria and I, as well as our driver of course, but it was a great crowd to be with. Along the drive we entered the Ngorongoro Crater, which was simply amazing and I’m very eager to return thither. We saw many Masai villages, people and cattle including some herding camels.
We then left the crater (which means ‘cowbell’ by the way, from the noise it makes) and entered the Serengeti (unending plain). My God! I have never seen so many animals! Wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, impala, hartbucks. They say there are 1.5 million wildebeests alone here, which I doubt not in the very least, just masses of them all. Incidentally, we ate lunch in the crater earlier and saw some kite hawks. We also finally saw water buffaloes, heaps of them. The highlights of the day though, were seeing a leopard in a tree, and a pride of lions close up directly after the leopard. We finally settled in our camp, which is a fenceless place in the Serengeti. I took a picture of the sunset and about a hundred others besides, ate supper provided to us, thank God! And watched the stars, absolutely brilliant, never in my life have I seen the stars so well, as there is not a light in the sky to be seen here. I ended by writing this entry.