Gotta catch 'em all - Safari, Day 6 (31 July 2008)

On Safari you'll hear reference to "The Big 5." This is the list of animals that supposedly define a successful safari experience, and you'll be asked if you managed to see all of them on your trip.

The Big 5 are:

1. Lion
2. Elephant
3. Cape Buffalo
4. Rhino
5. Leopard

If, like me, you look at this list and say "Wait, Cape Buffalo? What about a Cheetah, or you know, something that doesn't chew its cud?" Then it will help to know the origins of the list.

The list was created by big game hunters, and is indicative of the difficulty in bagging each of these animals. The Cape Buffalo makes the list because it is especially difficult to kill, and because it has a tendency to ambush hunters who think they've fatally shot it.

I bring up the big 5 because before today we saw everything except the rhino. Rhinos in Tanzania are only found in Ngorogoro Crater, so where do you think we spent today?

Evidently there are only 16 rhinos left in the park, they all have names, and are tracked closely by the rangers. We did spot one, and watched it for quite some time, but the the pictures fall into the "gray blob" category.

We also saw a bunch of buzzards, which led us to a recent lion kill of a zebra. Again, no good pictures, though. I've really got to get that telephoto lens.

The night was spent at the Ngorogoro Farm House, which is very nice. It's similar to Tloma, which I raved about several days ago, but much larger. I did get roped into taking the farm tour with Jen. It's targeted more at old ladies, though, and I felt a little out of place. I was especially embarrassed to not know what nastertiums were, since evidently that's common knowledge.