Up early for breakfast so that we could be on our game drive early. Watched a beautiful sunrise then had our toast and tea (what passes for breakfast with this safari company - very frustrating when you can smell the French toast, bacon, sausages, etc. from the other groups' breakfasts). Then we sat around and waited for the other guys to get ready - it was after eight by the time we set off. Then our driver insisted on driving slow - very slow (around 10 miles per hour) - our first thought was that something was wrong with the car and he didn't want to tell us. But I think that he was trying to save gas - wherever he went for so long last night probably wasn't factored in to how much gas he was given. It was pretty annoying creeping along and we certainly didn't get to see any far corners of the park.
Right at the beginning of our drive we came on a big group of cars looking at something. When we wormed our way near and searched for a while we found another leopard - way up in the tree, barely visible. I have no idea how the first car sighted him unless they watched him climb up! The rest of the drive wasn't that great. There were some lions, the usual zebras and antelopes, and elephants. The highlights were a large male lion and a group of elephants. The lion was huge. He wandered through the grass then settled down for a nap in the shade - he wasn't that close, but he was majestic. The elephants were a large family group (maybe twenty of them) which included a number of babies as well as young and adults. We stopped to watch them drink then they spread out and slowly wandered up to the road and crossed in front of us - then stopped! They wouldn't move, and after waiting half and hour we gave up and backtracked to find a different road back to camp.
Our morning drive was over at noon. That meant the we got less than four hours to see the Serengeti - even counting that we had some great sightings on our way into camp yesterday, it's not nearly enough time. At camp the cook had made a local staple - ugali (a maize flour paste). It was a delicious meal (finally!). Packed up the car and headed for the park exit. The car stopped a few times, but the driver always managed to get it started with some slight adjustments under the hood (good thing there weren't any hungry lions around).
Drove back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and up on to the crater rim. Set up camp, admired the view, and went for a short walk among the zebras. As it got dark it got cold! We huddled in the tent until dinner was ready (beans and pasta - back to sub-average meals), ate quickly and went to bed.
