Ngorongoro Crater... by Dominic and Maddie S

            Good morning, good afternoon, or good night. This is Maddie Schnettler and Dominic Gardetto here giving you an update on our Tanzanian adventures! Chilly feet, birds chirping, or people talking outside our tents woke us early. The campground had a delicious breakfast waiting for us before heading off on our second day of safari. After a brief car ride, we reached the entrance to Ngorogoro Crater (one anonymous person thought we were going to the equator). Here, we found some primate friends in the parking lot! Baboons were all over and not afraid of anything! One aggressively stole a candy bar out of my (Dominic) hand! After a while, we continued on our expedition over the rim of the crater. Saying it was extremely foggy would be an understatement! Our lives were in the drivers’ hands with a few close calls with cars going the opposite direction. After reaching the top, the top of the cars were lifted and we descended into the valley. Over the next few hours, we saw more wildlife than we’ve ever seen before! Some animals included zebras, wildebeests, lions, hippos, cape buffalo, ostriches, monkeys, and much more. We stopped for a boxed lunch by a pond and then embarked on our journey back up. As we neared the top, one of our cars broke down in the middle of a turn on a very steep incline. While the car was getting fixed, another car broke down right next to us. It caused a little bit of a jam, but it was soon fixed and we were golden. We stopped again at the top of the crater and after everyone had taken their fair share of pictures, we started on our long ride back. Sleeping was a popular activity in the cars because watching the crazy driving was too nerve racking. On one particular occasion, we were trying to pass a couple cars, so we were completely in the right lane as a semi quickly approached. We sped up because we were nowhere near passing yet! As we were one second away from a head on collision, our driver swerved back into the left lane! Mr. McMorrow looked back at me (Maddie) with the biggest eyes and I just laughed! It was so sketchy, but the thing is that there were so many other close calls especially in Arusha. We all made it back to the lodge safe and sound after at least 5 hours of driving. The safari was amazing, but it somehow managed to wear us all out! It’s not every day you get to go on an East African safari, and we are so very thankful for our drivers and anyone who made this experience as awesome as it was! It exceeded many of our expectations.

            Hope all is well at home, and can’t wait to see our friends and family soon!

Much love,

Maddie and Dominic