Lost World and Endless Savanna
Ngorongoro and Serengeti

A wavelike cloud was breaking in a crest to run down the far wall of the great Ngorongoro Crater and, looking over the rim, it was hard to get any idea of scale…until my guide Humphrey spotted a herd of elephants – mere dots on the lush carpet beside the gleaming Lake Makat. I struggled to grasp the significance of the life-and-death dramas that were being played out in the 160 square-mile ‘Amphitheatre’ that lay before me.
Ngorongoro Crater is renowned as one of the best places in the world for wildlife viewing, and many connoisseurs - who say that a safari can be judged solely on the all-important sightings of elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino and leopard - say that it has no equal. Nevertheless, to have ‘bagged the Big Five’ by lunchtime struck me as just a shade too convenient and left me anxious for a taste of the unpredictability and wildness of Africa.
Beyond the walls of the crater the sunburnt plains of the Serengeti (derived from a Masai word meaning ‘endless savanna’) stretched for nine thousand square-miles towards the heart of Africa. As Humphrey drove, for hours, through amassing herds of wildebeest, zebra and buffalo to the shady kopjes where the big cats waited for the migration I began to get my first real feeling for the light, space and natural splendour of Africa.
It was a feeling that was emphasised that night, as I lay beneath an immense canopy of stars - undimmed by anything but the faintly glowing embers of the campfire - and listened to the nearby cough of a hunting lion and the wicked cackle of hyena, wishing him luck in the kill.

The End