I awoke before 5am today, we went and had breakfast at 6.30am then met Zoya at 7.30am, for a day exploring the Ngorongoro Crater. It is 14.5km across and 264km square and one of the largest Calderas in the world.
The Maasai lived in the crater until 20 years ago,until last year they were able to bring their cattle down for a drink from the lake but they are no longer allowed too. They now live outside the Caldera, there are 60,000 Maasai in Ngorongoro. The women in the Maasai villages build their houses, cook, clean, look after children and everything to do with the home. Men look after the cattle! ??
The animals in the crater are the residents. Animals that come from the Serengeti don’t stay at the crater for long, the animals that are permanently in the crater have claimed it for their own and quickly move the intruders on.
The roads going down into the crater are very steep and in very poor condition, we were in 4wd first gear most of the way.
While in the Crater we saw Caribou, Hyenas, 100’s of Gnu and Zebra, Gazelle, Warthogs,
Golden jackal, Geese, Ostrich, Yellow billed Stork, Crown crested crane, 4 Black Rhinos at a distance, one was a baby. There are more than 25 black rhino here including babies, there are just over 5000 left in the world. In the 1970’s 90% of the population was killed ?
There are more than 150 lions in crater, we saw 12, 10 were together as family 2 males, 5 females and 3 cubs, we saw them in the distance. Later we also saw a male and female very close to the road. Evidently they had just had sex as she is on heat and the male was fast asleep recovering. After a while the female headed off to stalk a Gnu, the male lion woke up and decided to follow. It was game over, it is hard for the male to hide, the Gnu saw him and quickly got up and headed off. The lions kept walking a bit further to a group of Gnu and zebras and sat watching them. Well the male actually fell asleep again. For a while 3 Zebra came to the front of the pack and it looked like they were standing watch. After a while the Gnu and Zebras moved off and so did we.
We also saw Elephants, Hippos at the Hippo pond where we had lunch, a few flamingos,
Brown cranes, a pink and a white Pelican and many other birds. There are no trees in the crater, because the crater was made from the eruption of a volcano, the lava underneath the ground prohibits the growth of trees, so we did not see as many birds as other days.
On the way out we saw a zebra with cuts and blood on the back of all 4 legs, maybe from a lion attack, Zoya said he wouldn’t live long, even though it didn’t look too bad to me, the Hyenas would smell the blood and track him down. And he further added, that is the Cycle of life!
We headed back out of the Crater up a very steep one way 4wd switch back paved road, very smooth, no bumps there, for the hour drive back to our lodge, along the way we came across 40 Baboons running about on the road, as you do!
We got back after 4pm, we were both tired. Nice to sit down and put our feet up before dinner.
Tomorrow we leave at 7am, for a 9am flight to the Serengeti. Zoya told us that we will get off the plane and do another Safari on the way to our accomodation. I am hoping to see the Wildebeast in the Serengeti.
Tomorrow, Wednesday it is Greg’s 60th Birthday. We started celebrating about a month ago with family. I am looking forward to more celebrations with him in the Serengeti and beyond. ???❤
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