Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic crater about 20 kilometres in diameter. It’s packed with wildlife, they can’t escape. It’s also home to 26 critically endangered black rhino, and we saw two of them. They were about 100 metres away, in long grass, behind a bush, but thank goodness for the binoculars and the good zoom on the camera. We also, finally, saw flamingos, about a million live on the lake in the crater at this time of year. We also saw a pair of lions gorging themselves on a zebra and guarding their kill from a pack of hyena. They will guard the meat for about three days, until it starts to go smelly , then abandon it to the hyenas. This was our first sighting of hyenas, usually nocturnal, but this variety is also active by day.

I forgot to tell you about Achmed. I had been corresponding with him over the last few months. We organised the safari and the Zanzibar layover through his company, Basecamp Tanzania. They also do Kilimanjaro climbs. Imagine our surprise when he turned up to greet us at our hotel. He is a rather eccentric, beer guzzling, chain smoking, maasai blanket wearing Englishman with a big handlebar moustache. He’s an adventurer who married a local and converted to Islam for her, though he doesn’t believe. He gave us lots of tips, entertainment and beer.

Highlights:

1.       Rhino sighting.

2.       Lake of flamingos.

3.       The view from the hotel, though it was misty and the photos didn’t turn out very well.

Observations:

1.       When we saw the rhinos, the ranger was there with his rifle. They are empowered to shoot poachers, who have killed many rangers.

2.       Germans smoke too much (again)

3.       Language – when on safari and talking about animals, the singular seems to also denote the plural – hyena, elephant, waterbuck, hyrax can all be one or 300.

A few of the million

With our guide, Chris,and the cool pop top safari vehicle

Rare animal