Ngorongoro Crater (skip the text and just see the pictures)

Friday 30-Dec-2005

The drive from E Unoto back to the main road seemed shorter but dustier. Huge dust clouds enveloped the Maasai herding cattle, barely visible except for their brightly colored clothing. We traveled back through Mtw Wa Mbu, which was still bustling with activity and bananas, and back past the entrance to Lake Manyara National Park.

The road from there travels straight up the escarpement. We saw several hearty locals riding bikes up this road, many carrying HUGE loads on the back of their bicycles. We passed souvenir shops, and Jaison kept asking if we wanted to stop. He was also driving strangely slow, waving for other cars to pass which was unusual since up until that day he'd been an aggressive driver who was quick to pass any vehicle that we encountered. I finally asked if something was wrong with the vehicle, and he explained that he didn't want to arrive at the hotel too early, because our rooms wouldn't be ready. It sounded king of like a messed up math test word problem - if you leave Lake Manyara at 9am, and Ngorongoro is 80 kilometers away, at what speed should you travel so that you reach Ngorongoro at noon assuming you spend no more than 1 stop of no less than 15 minutes?

We stopped at the visitors center for the requisite bathroom break. A sign noted the url www.ngorongoro-crater-africa.org - I bet ngorongorocrater.org was already taken and they were trying not to be confused with ngorongoro-crater-europe :) I also noticed that it was a conservation area, instead of a national park. We were told that the main difference was that conservation areas allowed conservation and pastoralism, in addition to tourism. So basically the Maasai are permitted to graze their cattle in conservation areas and not national parks.

Our first view of the crater was from a scenic overlook. It was huge - over 3,200 square miles - and contained several different distinct habitats (forests, plains, swamps, etc.)

We arrived at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge just before noon. The first thing I noticed was that it was about 20 degrees cooler than Lake Manyara. No rooms were ready, so they assigned us room #44 and said that we could pick up the key when we returned from our game drive. Now there's a logical plan :)

We drove another 15 minutes or so to the entrance to the crater, where Maasai were assembled in case you wanted to take their picture (for a fee) or buy some souvenirs. The women wear some pretty ornate beaded jewelry including wide collars that they move up and down (an attention-getter, we think, like the guys on the street in Vegas who flick their books). Both the women and men have huge gaping holes in the earlobes, and some of the ear jewelry is nearly the size of their heads.

There's one road down and one road up. Both are very steep, very bumpy, and somewhat curvy. It's a good thing that I was still taking Dramamine. The descent into the crater took about an hour.

Once into the crater, the roads inproved a bit in comparison to the descent road. We saw more Maasai herding cattle, and tried to imagine how they got there. Or how any of the animals got there. We were, after all, in a crater. It was amazing how much wildlife we saw - warthogs with babies (which are funny to watch, because when they run their tails stand straight up), wildebeest, hartebeest, zebras, black-backed jackal, golden jackal, bat eared foxes, hippos, and two cheetahs eating something that they'd recently killed. We saw a few very large elephants. The only thing the crater really lacked was giraffes (since there were no acacia trees which is a large part of their diet) and leopards (who are often found in acacia trees).We stopped at a picnic spot with about 30 other safari vehicles. We'd lost patience with the boxed lunches and weren't even pretending to eat them anymore. There was one tree, and the shade beneath it was already staked out. It was 102 on the crater floor. Jaison actually layed under the vehicle for shade.

After "lunch" we spotted some traffic and went to investigate. A huge pride of lions was attacking a cape buffalo. It wailed as two lionesses latched on to its hind quarters. Another lioness attacked from the front, first swatting at it and then latching on to its nose. The cape buffalo wailed some more but finally gave up. We thought it was over, but the buffalo stood back up and then several more lionesses jumped in and it was over for sure. When it was clear that the fight was over, the male lion finally got up and came over. We didn't stay to watch the meal.

The ride up the ascent road was steeper, bumpier, and dustier than the descent, and at one point we both thought that Jaison was going to pass another vehicle and we were going to go over the edge. It took about an hour and we returned to the lodge around 4pm.

The rock architecture of the Ngorongoro Serena makes it blend right into the hillside. Our room had king size bed, a desk, and a panoramic view of the crater. Our first order of business was to send the dirty clothes to be laundered. The laundry slip contained a few unusual items. One was "safari suit" - we debated this for a while. What constituted a safari suit and differentiated it from a pants/jacket outfit? We couldn't really verbalize it until several days later when we saw one walk by. The defining characteristic seems to be the belted jacket. Another unusual item was "khangas", which is I have since looked up and is the African version of a sarong (piece of cloth that can be worn in many different ways).

Our next order of business was to use the internet and post an update to the blog. The internet connection was horribly slow, so we didn't even try to recount all that we had seen since Amboseli. As a special treat I washed and dried my hair for the first time on the trip :)

The entertainment in the bar before dinner was really good. It was a group of Maasai children and Maasai men from a nearby village. Their rhythmic chanting is really interesting to hearand the traditional adumu dance where they leap up and down was interesting to watch. It's not considered polite to photograph them so I had to be kind of stealthy. I recorded a bit using our small camera and although it's cool to hear (Listen) it doesn't do the live scene justice at all.

Dinner was another buffet, and for the first time I really couldn't find anything intriguing. At least there was cream of eggplant soup.

Saturday 31-Dec-2005

By this point, the four hours of sleep per night wasn't even bothering me anymore. We were up at 6am and were rewarded with a brilliant sunrise across the crater rim and elephants grazing in the bushes right outside our room!

The omelette station at the Ngorongoro Serena was the best we'd encountered so far, and the toast was good as well. We met Jaison a 9am. Today there were several groups of Maasai hoping for tourists to take their picture. There was also quite a crowd at the the entrance to the descent road. A Maasai man appraoched the car and asked if we wanted to buy a spear. No thanks. He demonstrated how it comes apart nicely for travel, and mentioned that it would fit in our luggage. I half expected him to begin quoting TSA policy regarding spears. We declined, and he proceeded to the next car.

The highlight of today's game drive was the sighting of a rhino (although it was pretty far away and it took some imagination to see it's shape clearly) and watching the hippos and one elephant at the hippo pool. The boxed lunch today included yogurt - we were still staying away from the boxed lunches.

We returned to the lodge around 3pm and found that our nice clean laundry had been delivered to our room. The packing strategy was working well. Because it was New Year's Eve, the lodge had planned a special dinner. A tent had been constructed outside the lobby area and the interior had been festively draped with lots of Maasai fabric. As you arrived for dinner, the staff dressed everyone in a traditional Maasai cloth. We didn't take pictures so you'll have a bunch of tourists sitting around wearing red plaid togas over their usual clothing. We were both absolutely wiped out, so we made an early exit before the festivities began.

Sunday 1-Jan-2006

We assume that Jaison had a wild night at the guide's camp because he was late picking us up.

(click any image to see larger version)

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