Our car was stopped and they walked right by us. There is a delay with the viewfinder after a photograph is taken, and when it opened again, one of the mature lions was about 2 feet from me. The camera went shooting skyward, the picture was of the overcast sky and the photographer fell back very quickly. The lion was not dangerous, but who knew?

Here is another picture after composure returned.

Not long after this, these two mature lions almost caught a zebra. The lions split up, and one drove the zebra towards the other. A near miss, and the lions went back to the cubs.

Here is a view of three zebras staring toward something they think is dangerous.

Zebras are cautious, and in a herd, if there was a problem, some would stare at it to alert others.

What do they sense?

Here is what the zebras sensed from about 150 yards. There were at least seven lions all waiting for a zebra breakfast.

Alas for the lions, they were upwind of the zebras.

This zebra was scratching its side on the rock, with a sound of whoompa, whoompa, whoompa.

The car was five feet or so from the zebra, and it just did not care.

At last, a rhino! We saw four adults and a baby today. The government keeps people some distance from each rhino, so this picture was taken with a telephoto lens at maximum. There is a big effort to keep rhinos from poachers and to let them come back from near–extinction.

The other animals in the photograph are zebras and wildebeests.

This creature is a black–backed Jackal, the same creature the hyena frightened away from a carcass the other day. 

This is a black–faced vervet monkey preparing to consume a cucumber.

Next—from our lodge at the rim of the Crater, we took a short drive down and off of the volcano and head to a coffee plantation for the night, on the way to Tarangire National Park.

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