Standing with my sister in front of our Defender

‘Throwing what I know’ from Africa

The gorgeous Plantation Lodge

A kate buffalo peering at us through the bushes

A jackal standing in an open field at the center of the crater

Thousands and thousands of flamingos

After a week of sleeping in tents, we headed towards the Ngorongoro Crater to our first lodge. As we pulled up to the grounds of the Plantation Lodge, I was completely overwhelmed at how beautiful it was. Everything from the unique decor to the lush gardens was just flawless. It was also nice to have running water again. The next morning, we spent about an hour and drove to the inside of the crater. It was much warmer at the bottom than it was at the Plantation Lodge, which was located at the top of the crater. In the crater we saw several different animals including flamingos, kate buffalo, lions, and even the black rhino (from a far distance). Before heading back to the lodge, we ate a traditional African lunch in the crater and snapped a few photos on top of our trusty Defender. The following morning, we packed up our things to split our separate ways. My dad and sister, Allie, got into another Thomson Safari car to head off to their climb. They will both be spending the next nine days hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro. My mom and I headed off to our fifth place on the trip- the Tarangire National Park!

Thank you so much for checking out my blog! I will be posting about our lovely experience at the Tarangire Treetop Lodge soon (and tons of pictures of the cute baby elephants we saw!). I am very, very sad that we leave Africa today, but I couldn’t be more excited to head to London!