The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and World Heritage site, with a crater that’s the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, with a 2,000 foot descent to the crater floor. Home to about 25,000 animals.

A beautiful lookout gives you an idea of the vastness of the crater, but our accommodation on Lemala Hill gave us spectacular views. We left early in the morning and it took us 10 mins to get to the crater floor, well ahead of other tour operators – we had the place to ourselves for a whole 30 mins before there were another 100 vehicles touring around.

A local vet was chasing (with a view to tranquillising) the rare, and only black rhino in the area, as it was limping badly. Local lions were seeking the shade of tourist vehicles until they had to be made to ‘move on’ (drops of water on their backs from water bottles held by tourists). Zebras canoodling. Male lion listening out for calls from his harem some 300 metres away. Pink legged ostriches making like ballet dancers…and a very rarely spotted black winged bishop (because they flit so quickly) , but I did and took a pic! Haha!