Tanzania 2012
It's not a long drive past more small villages to the gate of the Ngorongoro Crater conservation area.
Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa's most famous sites and is said to have the highest density of wildlife in Africa. Sometimes described as an 'eighth wonder of the world', the Crater has achieved world renown, attracting an ever-increasing number of visitors each year. You are unlikely to escape other vehicles here, but you are guaranteed great wildlife viewing in a genuinely mind-blowing environment.
As we pull up to the main gate and registration for Ngorongoro, our driver Freddie has to go into the office and file the paperwork for us crazy Canadians. While we are waiting we see a couple from New York that we met in Tarangire. We get out of the car and are talking to them when a large baboon goes wandering by... The girl jokingly says "Hey Monkey", he looks at her and gives a military style salute and continues on, hilarious. A minute later she starts yelling, "That baboon is in your car!", and sure enough he has climbed through the slightly unrolled window and is inside our Land Cruiser. He grabs a box of cookies that our driver had, and heads off into the trees to eat them. It's a little ironic that the Baboon thief is sitting in the trees eating our cookies behind a sign that clearly says "Please do not feed animals".
It's a bit of a steep and winding road to the top of the crater, but the view at the top is stunning. It's hard to believe that inside of this crater is an entire eco-system, thousands of animals, and probably just as many tourists.
We finally make it to the top and then drive around the crater rim to get to our hotel (one of the few hotels we would stay at on this trip).
It seems to be a long downhill walk to our room, it seems private as we are almost at the end of the row of rooms, but it's a long walk back to the restaurant and pool. After settling in the room, we make a few interesting discoveries. After washing our hands they stink... the water has a slight brown tinge to it, and we assume it is the water that smells. Further investigation as we worry about having a shower points to something else... the soap! The bar of soap smells just like a urinal cake. Looks like we'll use our own body wash instead.
The other thing we discovered on our long walk back uphill to dinner, is that we have no stamina, and are apparently in terrible physical condition... at least we thought so,, we are huffing and puffing, sucking wind and then we noticed this little sign about halfway there.. Apparently we are at 7800 ft. above sea level, it's not us, it's the altitude, yeah, that's right, not us, the altitude!!!
After an amazing dinner, we head back to the room and crash, I am startled by some crunching sounds right outside our window, and look out but it's pitch black. I get my flashlight and shine it out and right against the window is a gigantic Hairy Butt, apparently a Buffalo has made it's way up the crater and is wandering the area. Scared the crap out of me. Good thing we have guards to take us to our rooms in the dark.
DAY FIVE
Early in the morning we met Freddie and headed down into the crater. When we checked in at the gate we found out we were the first ones into the crater, as it turned out that was a great thing.
Just as the sun is starting to come up, we find a group of 3 female lions finishing off the carcass of a buffalo, I kind of wonder if it's the same one that was outside our window the night before. We watch the lions for a while just like the Jackals waiting for scraps.
Grey Crowned Crane
African Hawk Eagle
Vervet MonkeyAfrican Hoopoe
After a lovely tailgate breakfast in the crater, we jump back in the Land Cruiser for more crater time, man there is a lot of animals here!
In the middle of a national park you wouldn't expect to find a traffic jam, but welcome to Ngorongoro... One of the great things is the amazing concentration of animals, but one of the terrible things is how popular it is, even Amazing Race spent time here. When there is a Big Cat or Rhino sighting, all the vehicles head to the one spot. We saw the cars, then saw the 2 big male Lions.
Our guide Freddie, being a very wise man, suggested we leave all these cars, and come back later. Turns out he is brilliant.
As we drove away from the mayhem, we spent some time alone watching a large group of Hyenas waiting in the background for the Lions to finish whatever they are up to. Then, a fair distance from the gridlock, we spot it, 2 large Rhinoceros trekking towards a small forest. Driving a little further we see another Rhino just kind of grazing at the back of a large field. Since there was very few vehicles here, Freddie suggests we eat our lunch in the car, and wait, was he ever right. After a nice boxed lunch sitting in the sun, the Rhino starts wandering again, towards us. While everyone else was quadruple parked to look at the Lions, we got front row seats to watch one of the rare Rhinos wander past us.
After having a great private viewing party, word started spreading to all the other vehicles that a Rhino was out and about, and we could see the train of vehicles heading our way, time to leave and head towards the Lions.
Now that most of the vehicles were gone, we could clearly see what all the interest was, not only 2 big male Lions, but also a female Lion, several jackals, and oh yeah... a big dead Cape Buffalo being eaten. The most fun watching this somewhat gruesome scene was watching a Jackal square off against a Male lion when he was trying to steal bites of fresh Buffalo. The Lion won.
Having witnessed some real carnage and seeing the circle of life first hand, we moved on to more pleasant topics... like the difference between a Thompson Gazelle and a Grants Gazelle, and how they are different than the most populous of critters, the Impala. Tanzanian guides just don't understand when I keep calling them El Camino's.
Thompson Gazelle Grants Gazelle
Guinea Fowl A Yellow bird
As we head out of the crater after a long full day of safari, we make one last stop to check on our early morning lion pride.
Mostly they are napping, their bellies are full, and there is not much left of the buffalo.
Another beautiful sunset and our time at Ngorongoro is quickly coming to a close.
All that's left is some dinner time entertainment from a local choir doing traditional Tanzanian songs like "Hakuna Mutata", finally wrapped up with a nice dessert and a Kilimanjaro Beer. It's hard to believe it hasn't even been a week yet.
DAY SIX
Early in the morning Freddie picks us up for the drive to the Manyara Airport. Unlike the day before it is completely foggy on the drive back down the outside of the crater, makes it a little exciting as we go from the dark of night to the light skies of dusk.
We don't have to wait long before we board and head from the lush green of Manyara to the dry Savannah of the Serengeti.
