A day in the Ngorongoro Crater

Dec. 28 - Day 13

At the entrance to the Ngorongoro conservation area, a few baboons sat in the road, hoping no doubt from handouts from tourists.

 

While Samson went to get our park permits, I got out and wandered over to where another half dozen were feeding around a large tree. Again, I am so close I could touch them, and when a large female clambers down the tree and leaps to the ground, she practically lands on my foot.

This place is also heavily forested, and again looks like the backdrop of a Tarzan movie. We are driving up the side of a dormant volcano, and the valley to our left is absolutely jungle-like; thick foliage, towering trees, twisting vines.

On the right side, we spot a few holes dug into the mountainside. Samson says they are made by elephants seeking the minerals available in the volcanic soil. He said due to the availability of the minerals, the elephants in the crater live longer than others.

Not much further on, we spot two elephants, half hidden in the thick verdure

After a good 45 minutes, we arrive on the edge of the crater. Holy crap! This was once a volcano whose rim collapsed, creating a crater within that is home to its own eco-system. Kinda like ‘The land that time forgot!’

 

The rim is around 2500 meters high, and the level of the crater is, I think, 800. That’s a deep hole. The view from the top is spectacular. Two lakes are visible, and the entirety of the surrounding walls. The crater is 18 kilometers by 20 kilometers.

 

We are not long on the bottom before a major traffic jam indicates the presence of something exciting. A full 23 Safari vehicles crammed with people have encircled a group of seven lions.

The lions are totally blasé about the trucks, and several actually get up to move into the shade provided by the vehicles. It is relatively comical. In front of one jeep, with two lionesses hogging the shade, a young male walks up and just sits on top of the others, claiming his portion of coolness.

 

Wildebeests and Zebra are here in abundance. The beasts within the crater don’t join in the annual migration, but interestingly enough, during the same time, they DO migrate within the crater. We witness some very cute Zebra behavior as they stand side to side and apparently groom each other.  They also frequently stand head to butt without any of the chewing, and it made me think of the phrase “I’ll watch your back and you watch mine.”

Everywhere you see Thompson gazelles, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, and warthogs. These are so numerous as to become almost ordinary. We also saw jackals, hyenas, and hippos, and a few elephants in the distance. There are no giraffe within the crater.

 

 

 

 

Also saw the Eland, that massive creature that appears to be part cow, part deer. (but did not get a good photo) And actually, warthogs never become ordinary as they are so ridiculously cute, in an ugly sort of way.

 

 

 

 

 

We picnicked near one of the lakes where large hawk-like birds would swoop down and pluck food from people's hands. Also, we saw pelicans here, a whole group of them swimming together with their ludicrously large bills. The lake was teaming with flamingo though we did not get close enough to view them individually, only a long wall of shimmering pink.

 

All day, we were searching for Rhino without success – in fact, Samson asked every driver we passed and no one had seen any. Finally near the end of the day, we spot three! They are quite the distance away, and the pictures will never match the close-ups we lost, but we could see them well with the field glasses; a male, female, and young.

Then Samson said he wanted to drive us through the forest. The crater is mostly one vast plain with a couple of high alkaline lakes, but there was one section with rich forest.

As we neared it, we spotted a family of black-faced monkeys in the field and as I never get tired of viewing primates, I directed Samson to stop. There was a VERY young baby, almost hairless, clinging to his mommy’s belly, and while I tried to get the perfect picture, another vehicle pulled up behind us. This car had a bunch of bananas on the dashboard.

WHAM! A couple monkeys leapt on the hood, grasping for the food, totally baffled by the glass. One gripped the windshield wiper and tried to use the end to dig through the window. No good.

The largest of the 3 assaulting the jeep, a mother with a young clinging to her belly, now vaulted across to our vehicle. We were snapping photos with her face about a foot away when she suddenly crawled onto the roof.

Now we are standing on the back seats of a land rover, our bodies jutting out about waist high through the open roof. The monkey is inches away from dropping into the vehicle. It has crossed away from me to Kathryn’s side.

“Don’t let it in the car,” I hiss. Gamely, Kathryn extends her left forearm as if she bears a shield, her water bottle coming into guard position as she hefts her “sword.”

Samson starts the car and we begin to move, and between all this stimuli the monkey opts to depart.

The funniest part about this little adventure came back at our lodge. Understand there are about 300 vehicles within the crater on any given day, so this seemed like a remarkable coincidence to me. We are sitting on the veranda enjoying our gin and tonics when we hear some people excitedly relating their day’s adventure to some other travelers.

“…and on the car in front of us, this monkey jumped up and walked right up to these people, and they didn’t even move! We were freaking out and they just STOOD there like nothing was happening!”

I looked over and said, “Did you have bananas on your windshield?”

The woman says yes, then looks at me closer and says, “Oh my god was that you???”

We affirmed it was and later even viewed the video their boy Logan shot of the monkey on our truck, who, unbeknownst to us, had paused to poop on our spare tire before clambering to the roof. They have promised to send us a copy.

Here's the video from inside the truck. You can see Kathryn and I through their windshield.

After the monkey incident, we cruised through the forest which is just gorgeous scenery with fabulous trees that just scream “Africa!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as we come out onto the plains again, there in the distance is a cheetah!

Again, it is so far off that undoubtedly our pictures will suck (Cropping does wonders!) but we can see it clearly with field glasses. It’s just sitting there about 200 yards off. We watch it for awhile, marveling at its beauty then it rises and strolls away. We get to watch the play of its muscles underneath its coat as it moves off to about 300 yards then plops down for a nap, virtually vanishing from view.

So, in one spot, we saw 4 of the Big 5, and 6 of the Big 8 – all we needed was a leopard and a giraffe. (No giraffes in the crater.) We have yet to see a leopard, but the Serengeti beckons tomorrow.