Visitors to The Crater floor are witnessing spectacular hunts by both the resident black maned lions and the cheetah mother with her new cubs. It has also been fabulous rhino viewing with the shortened grasslands as they meet to socialise and graze.

The two rhino sisters that came through the Ndutu area in the west of The Conservation Area, have been sighted again, this time by "Twin Hills", along the well vegetated Oldupai Gorge.

An extra thrill for those visitors already fascinated by the wealth of fossils and information about the site of our findings of earliest man.

Days in Ngorongoro are filled with interest and excitement, endless photographic opportunities whatever the season and of changing horizons. And always a guaranteed welcome, "Karibu Sana", two words you will hear from the first day of your visit to the last.

It means, "You are very welcome indeed"!!

Light or "grass rains" as they are known here, have been falling in the north and west of The Serengeti bringing the wildebeest migration back from The Maasai Mara to The Grumeti area.

By the end of October, stray "gnu's" and zebras, criss-crossing the western reaches of Ngorongoro, fell prey to the lion prides roaming extended territories.

Giraffe become favourite game for hungry lions and in the Ndutu area, a huge herd of resident buffalo, have been plagued by the local coalition of three males and their females with five cubs which are beating all odds to make it through these hard months in surprisingly good condition.

The male who was seriously hurt in August and then tended by the Ngorongoro vets, Justice and Humphery, is secure within the brotherhood once again and once again fully participating in hunts and the mating game.

Now as the end of October nears, The Crater itself is just beginning to see the first showers.