Today we explored the Ngorongoro Crater, a 20km diameter volcanic crater that houses an incredible density of wildlife, making it perfect for game viewing.

After checking out of the inn at 6 AM, we had a 45 minute drive to get to the crater. While cold in the morning, it quickly warmed up. We had boxed breakfast en-route, and lunch in the crater. The atmosphere inside the crater was really impressive. The sky in Africa just seems to be bigger than in the US, and it was especially obvious in this vast expanse. After descending into the crater we spent a few hours getting really close to some amazing creatures.

After lunch in the crater we started the 5 hour drive to Kilimanjaro International, to fly to Cape Town, South Africa for the next leg of our trip.

Continue to Day 12 – Arrival into Cape Town, South Africa

IMPORTANT! Click on any of the pictures below to go to the full photo/video album for Day 11. We highly recommend clicking on the “show info” button at the top right of the album page if you’d like to see our description of each picture. Also when videos play, be sure that the HD box on the bottom right is lit, or the video will look terrible!

(Note: If you are clicking through the pictures manually, be aware that there is a Flickr bug that causes a video to play if you’re looking at the picture preceding the video). We apologize for the inconvenience, but you can mute the audio if it gets annoying.

Continue to Day 12 – Arrival into Cape Town, South Africa