The Ngorongoro Crater is a world heritage site, the world's largest intact volcanic caldera and is commonly referred to as the 8th wonder of the world. Its walls are 2000 feet high and are at an altitude of 7000 to 8000 feet while the floor, which contains about 100 Square miles of territory, is at 5500 feet. It reminded me of Crater Lake N.P. in Oregon, but instead of a deep lake there are shallow lakes and up to 25,000 animals present. It is famous for the presence of Black Rhinos, which have become very rare in all of Africa. There were about 108 of them here in 1964 and between 11-14 in 1995. Our guide said there are now 23 in the crater. We saw about 1/3 of them, including a young one at a distance.
Our guide said that the original mountain here was higher than Mt. Kilimanjaro which has a peak altitude of over 19000 feet. Obviously, something happened several thousand years ago to change that!! With all the animals present here , the crater has the highest density of predators in all of Africa; and we saw quite a few.
Into the Crater We arose as usual at 6 AM, took pictures of the sun rise over the crater rim and had a good breakfast and joined our guide at 7:30 for a long half day tour of the Ngorongoro Crater floor. At the gate entrance we were surrounded by Maasai men offering to sell us all kinds of jewelry, mostly beaded. Carolyn declined to be tempted. As we descended the steep road into the crater Eustace heard on the radio that a Cheetah had been spotted just ahead and we could soon see a number of vehicles stopped up ahead.
The cheetah was sitting in tall grass about 100 yards off the road. Two Kori's Bustards and several Zebra were quite nearby, but the cheetah didn't seem interested in stalking them. A little farther on we saw a displaying Kori's Bustard. they stand very tall and puff out their neck feathers, something like a Turkey. Very beautiful, but sort of weird looking (see pictures).
Later we saw five adult lions and three half grown cubs. When a vehicle stopped the lions sat down in the shade it created. Soon there were a dozen or more vehicles surrounding them. ( A Lion Jam) Nearby we visited a small pond that contained Hippos, Hottentot Teal, several shorebirds and one pure white Flamingo. Around 11 we headed for the one bathroom stop in the crater. There is also a geocache here, so after our bathroom stop we climbed the hill behind the toilets to the one tree there and found the mini-cache hidden at the base of the tree. We took our driver with us so he could understand a little, about our other hobby. The log was signed by people from around the world, but mostly US and German. The cache was uphill from the old toilets and could be embarrassing as the mens had no door and was open to the uphill side where, of course, no one would go unless they were seeking a small container with a log, a US penny, and a 5c Euro piece. :-) The satellite reception here was amazing 11 Satellites and "high bars" on all of them.
Leaving this area we saw several species of vultures feeding on a buffalo carcass and later found three lions that had just killed a large warthog. When we arrived the male lions were still panting very hard and they hadn't started to eat yet. We talked to some ladies on our afternoon walk that had witnessed the kill, heard the warthog squeal, and stayed to see the lions start to eat. (rather gruesome according to them). We later saw a recent Cape Buffalo kill done by lions also.
As we continued around the crater we saw three Rhinos(black) 3-400 yards off. They appeared white, or gray as they had coated themselves in gray mud. One was quite small and with its mother. Continuing, our guide spotted three more black rhinos approaching our road on a diagonal through a herd of Zebra. Our driver drove ahead and positioned us to get good pictures as they passed and crossed the road ahead of us. Of the 23 remaining ones here , we saw at least seven today.
As we started to leave the crater we had to cross a marshy area and a road crew was working on the road, building culverts and building up the road. It was still quite bumpy as they use fill of all sizes of rock and dirt. As we started up the crater wall the road was almost impassable. (There is one road down and a different one up out of the crater) The road was often over bare rock, steep, and narrow with many sharp switchbacks to navigate, some required our Toyota Land Cruisier to back up several times to make the turn.
We made it back to our lodge, the Serena Ngorongoro Crater Lodge around 1:30, washed up a little and enjoyed the buffet lunch. We then rested for 1 1/2 hours before taking the nature walk around the lodge. On this walk we saw a number of interesting birds, trees, and native and non native plants. One plant resembled wild marigold, but is apparently more closely related to Marihuana and could be smoked. It was an introduced plant by the English and is very prolific here and elsewhere. (Gibb Farm for one) Another plant that stood about 3 feet tall had pretty deep blue, small flowers on it but our guide said close contact with it or its pollen could cause blindness and often did so to small Maasai children who would contact it at eye height.
One bird we saw 5 or 6 of is called the Hartlaub's Turaco. Picture a dove sized bird with a long tail and bright red wings with a blue back. When one flies by it is quite a sight that even the non birders in the group appreciated.
Our guide pointed out many birds to us all without benefit of binoculars. He is a "Maasai Warrior" as he called himself and graduated last year from a one year course in nature and ecology in Arusha. As we circled back to the lodge we saw a large male elephant not far away and within 300 yards of our lodge. As we approached our starting point he asked me if I could identify two birds flying by high over head with my binoculars. When I identified them as Abdim's Storks he was very happy and high fived me and shook my hand. He knew from talking to Eustace that I was interested in birds and I guess I passed his test. Of course, he had identified these high flying birds without benefit from 8X binoculars.
After our nature walk we showered, napped then enjoyed a good supper. The entertainment tonight was done by local Maasai dressed in their traditional clothing. They sang and jumped (males) while the women sang and somehow tipped their large neck ornaments back and forth.
Returning to our room we watched the full moon rise over the crater and star watched for a while. Here on the equator Orion was almost straight over head. due to the clear, unpolluted sky star watching would be great anytime there's not a full moon to cover them up.
Most safari groups only spent one night here and several people mentioned how lucky we were to have two nights here. We picked up another 16 species of birds today that I remembered to write down. Here at 7200 feet above sea level the nights are cool and our guide said that there are no poisonous snakes or insects here. I had wondered why this Serena Lodge didn't provide packets of insect repellant like the other Serena lodges we had stayed at--none is needed :)
We learned about the numbers game in Africa: The big five:Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Rhinoceros and Lion. For The Big Ten add Giraffe, Crocodile, Hippo, Cheetah, and Eland. The "Ugly Five" Crocodile, Baboon, Wildebeest, Warthog, and Hyena.
