Exploring Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Taking a Game Drive into the famous Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Africa

Sunrise over the crater

  One of the highlights of any visit to East Africa is a chance to explore the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. It is the world's largest inactive, unfilled volcanic craters at around 2,000ft deep and 100sq miles in area. It was voted as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, not in small part to the fact that the huge crater is packed with wild game. Dubbed a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979, everything from prides of lions to herds of buffalo can be seen living down in the crater year round.

  We started out from the Crater Lodge at 6:15am, determined to get down into the crater before the rest of the dawdling safari goers. This worked out in our favor, especially since it was New Years Day and most people were still sleeping off the big night before. On our way a couple of our cars had a brief encounter with a serval. It was hunting next to the road and darted across when we drove by. It was too quick for me to grab a picture but I knew I would be hard pressed to get a better photo opportunity with a serval than two days before at Serengeti. We caught the sunrise over the far side of the crater just before heading through the gate and down the crater access road.

Hungry Lion Pride

Lion cubs on the prowl

  We brought our breakfast for a final big bush safari meal for the group but we had plenty of time to explore the vast crater before our meet up time. We drove by a lake filled with pink flamingos, hyenas sauntering across our view, a large pride of lions chomping down on their New Year's Eve kill. We saw a lone black rhino relaxing out in the open with its two large horns showing proudly in profile. This was an important sighting because it complete the 'Big 5' for anyone who missed the rhino encounters in the Masai Mara. Then just before meeting back up for breakfast one of our cars saw a bunch of tiny lion cubs next to a river bank. Their moms may have been just on the other side of the dense foliage but we never saw the adults. By the end of the day we would have an amazing 32 count for lions.

The hippo pool

Toast and champagne

  Breakfast was next to a beautiful waterhole in one corner of the crater. It had a few hippos in it, but no crocodiles, so it was deemed a safe enough place for people to stop, get out, and set up for bush meals. The group had come a long way in getting comfortable eating their meals out in the bush, especially when you think back to that night on the Mara airstrip oh so long ago.

Weaver bird

Noel and Peter with breakfast

  But the family would need all their animal training up till this point because this was going to be one of our wildest bush meals yet...thanks to the local bird residents. Beautiful golden weavers and fire finches fluttered around the picnic site snatching up little bits, but (except for Sherry's close encounter with one of these small denizens inside a vehicle), it was the bigger bird perched up in the tree when we first arrived that gave people the most grief.

  I had noticed this beautiful black kite perched regally on a nearby tree when we first came up. However, no one noticed that at some point in our meal the black kite had left its perch and had zeroed in on Connor, namely Connor's breakfast calzone. Before anyone realized the thief had struck, the breakfast calzone was gone, effortlessly lifted up into the air after a surgical strike from the kite. It was an incredible first hand experience of a bird of prey in action. I thought the group was quite lucky to have experienced it. However the breakfast did descend into an outtake of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' for the next 15 minutes. Anytime one of the kites would swoop overhead everyone would shout and duck for cover. No calzone was safe...as Connor's brother John would also find out. 
 

  We soaked up every minute being around that waterhole, in the middle of this amazing world heritage site, especially since this would be our last wildlife safari drive on this trip. So we made sure to get some group pictures (I even made it into one) and set off to find more wildlife on our way out.

Feisty zebras

Flamingo in flight

  After we were back at the lodge I asked everyone what their favorite parts of the drive were, and I was quite surprised to hear so many 'wildebeests' as an answer. Everyone agreed that one very special thing about the crater is that the animals let you get so close to them. Even though you are not allowed to drive off road here, the prey animals who are normally very skittish in other parks would walk right next to our safari vehicles here. We had some amazing up close looks at zebra, gazelles, wildebeests, warthogs, and buffalo.

Bath tub looking over the crater

  One of my favorite parts was that so many of the animals today were feisty. Zebras were play fighting with each other, wildebeests were locking horns in battle, and even the tiny little Thompson's gazelles were all fired up, chasing a secretary bird around their territory. Once everyone heard that hot bath's with rose petals and bubbles had been drawn for them back in their rooms the group disbanded quickly. There was a lot to take in from this past week and a half and there is no better way to do it that a bath with a view.

  And more exciting things to come tonight!