Lunch With A Pretty View. And An Ugly View Too.

We headed to a picnic spot.  It's where a lot of  safari vehicles end up for lunch.  It is a beautiful and unusual scene.

It's hard to know where to start, so I'll start with the bathrooms.  A separate building out of sight of both the main dirt road, the bathrooms are huge and clean.  I've never seen such a large bathroom before.  Added bonus -- they are spic and span clean.  (Most of the bathrooms we used were VERY clean, although those that weren't clean were pretty grim.

The next mention goes to the ice cream and bar truck and trailer.  Painted in zebra stripes, it is the only commercial part of the crater that we saw.  It struck me as both incongruous and welcome.  In terms of things I saw in the N'gorongoro Crater that I expected to see, I must admit it was at the bottom of the list. We did walk over after lunch and bought/enjoyed tasty ice cream bars.   I'm just disappointed in hindsight that I did not take a picture of the truck and trailer.

I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight the view.  We parked overlooking a small lake that featured a hippo and multiple birds.  The caldera rose up behind the lake, and to the side of the lake there was a lone tree in all its majesty.  

The highlight of the stop was the Marabou Storks.  There were three of them, and they are part of the Ugly Five.  They are a bit unnerving, and they stand in an intimidating, threatening pose, and slightly hunched, look like a cross between Vincent Price and Alfred Hitchcock.  It's no accident that these two famed masters of suspense and horror came to mind.

At one point, one of the Marabou storks walks up close to another group eating their lunch.  I think I would have run, but they calmly shooed the stork away.

My safari book has four paragraphs on the Marabou that includes nuggets such as these:

"With a face that only a mother could love the marabou is considered the ugliest bird in the world."  (Writer: I'm not going to argue with that point.)

"A large wading bird with black cloak-like wings over a white chest and underparts, and long skinny white legs (almost like you imagine an undertaker.)"

"It is known to be quite ill-tempered." (Glad I didn't know that at the picnic spot.)

"It is considered to have the largest wing-spread of any living bird."

Hassan set up chairs and a small table for us to enjoy a tasty box lunch from the lodge.  After that, as mentioned above, we wandered over and enjoyed some ice cream.  It's probably the most unique picnic spot Carol and I have ever eaten at.

Meena and Sanjiv.

Lake and caldera selfie.

And the group.

Hippo and caldera.

African Crowned Cranes, also

known as Greater Cranes.

There's a reason wildebeests

are one of the Ugly Five.

The Alfred Hitchcock of birds.

Marabou stork stalking another group.

Enjoying our ice cream dessert!