Safari Recap: Ngorongoro Crater

 The Safari Continued...

Stampede!!!

The road to Serengeti took us over the southern rim of Ngorogoro Crater (largest intact volcanic caldera in the world), so we back-tracked our road to the crater rim again, but this time headed off the main route to spend the night at Simba Camp, a grassy clearing on the crater rim dominated by a huge tree around which were scattered the tents of the safari-goers. The camp was laid out very similarly to our Serengeti campground, with a "kitchen" where the cooks managed to construct amazingly gourmet meals over coal fires and without any modern equipment. It was even difficult to know where the food came from each night, as there was barely enough room in our car for our own bags. And yet, each meal would appear almost magically, tasting like it had been prepared in a professional kitchen (sorry to get distracted by the food, but it was definitely an unexpected highlight of the safari).

Carol and Joe at the crater viewpoint on the rim

Anyway, after our bumpy, dusty ride (imagine being on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland for 5 hours) and rescuing another safari vehicle full of Aussies by push-starting it down a hill (speaking of which, we had our own car trouble the previous day. Our guide disappeared for a few hours in the middle of the day while we kept ourselves entertained by running circles around the camp (approximately 450m per lap) since we weren't allowed to go on foot into the park for obvious (big cats with sharp claws) reasons. When he finally showed up again, he mentioned something about having to fly in a new front axle for the land cruiser the night before, and installing it that day. We still aren't sure exactly what happened with the car, but might have gone on a 4 hour game drive in a vehicle that had a broken axle).

Back to my own story now (Carol and I are trading off telling about each stage of our safari). Right. After our bumpy, dusty ride we refreshed in the quite cold tank-fed showers at camp which required walking through a herd of zebra feeding off the grass in the camp about 100 yards from our tent. The best part was that the zebra stayed there all night, so going to the bathroom at 1am also required walking (carefully) through the herd while trying not to be distracted by the incredible stars on display. That evening before dinner we had a lovely cup of hot chocolate (spiced up with some Drambuie that we might have brought along with us) while sitting in our chairs in camp watching the vast crater grow darker and darker, and enjoying the cooler, higher elevation air.

One of many many zebra in the crater

The next morning we had made plans to pack up camp before 6am so that we could get down to the crater entrance by sunrise (which we did), and enjoyed an amazing picnic breakfast on the hood of the car in a clearing of Lerai Forest on the crater floor with three lions watching us from a distance, a warthog (pumba) digging something up around the corner, and a monkey hanging out in the trees above. By this time, we had already seen a lioness that looked about to give birth, more elephants, a couple of small cat creatures (a caracal, apparently pretty rare), jackal, etc.

After breakfast, the day went by way too fast, during which we raced around with our heads sticking out the top of our land cruiser, watching wildebeest, zebra, hippos, flamingos, and a really tiny black speck in the distance which was either a mosquito or a rhino. We were told it was a rhino. Speaking of which, the driver/guides are amazing at spotting ridiculously well-camouflaged animals, while at the same time keeping their vehicles from rolling over or hitting nearby Masai Warriors crossing the road. An interesting moment at lunch was Joe almost getting his hand taken off by a Black Kite (scary big bird) which was extremely interested in his sandwich.

Changing a tire (tyre) with Mt. Doom in the background

Post-lunch we hit the road again and headed out the northern road to the crater rim, snapped some pictures from the panoramic lookout, and started the 6 hour journey to Lake Natron which lies just outside the northernmost part of Ngorogoro Crater National Park (part of the lake actually extends into Kenya) where we were to camp for the "night" (we were going to start hiking at 11pm that day, in attempt to summit by daybreak). Almost the entire trip was on dirt/sand/rock/pothole roads, and miraculously only involved one flat tire (see picture). As we left the main track between Arusha and Ngorogoro our guide said something like "this is where the real Masai living starts", and he was right. From that point on we saw very few wazungu, and a lot of villages that weren't there to cater to tourists. I think everyone in the car agreed that it was good to get off the beaten path a bit, but it was impossible to not think twice about whether we had made the right choice to try and climb a remote and active volcano. We probably should have had this thought much earlier (like when we were sitting in the safari office back in Arush, explaining to the tour director that we wanted to climb the volcano and he said: "Are you sure you want to do that? Why don't you climb Mt. Meru instead?").

Anyway, after going through two different Masai district boarders, crossing over a couple dry riverbeds that tested the limits of our means of transportation, and having the cab of our car completely black-out with dust once when we hit an especially mean ditch filled with the powdery red sand/powder that coated us thickly for most of our trip, we made it to camp at the (soda) Lake Natron. A relief for a few hours before starting our climb, and reassuring to be around human beings again until Elly told us that he needed another $150 cash before the guide would agree to take us up the volcano (which our Australian friends were kind enough to loan him). Anyway, we met our guide (a very nice but non-english speaking Masai), set up tents, dined, and then settled down for a couple hours of tossing and turning (for myself) waiting for 10:30pm to come so that we could get up and start heading for the base of the volcano.

Well, this is getting a bit long and overly theatrical, so the rest of this tale will have to wait for the next chapter. I can't wait.

- joe