Ngorongoro Crater

Rusty woke up a little early this morning to go for a swim in the beautiful pool.  Here’s his IG shot.  The Tanzanians thought he was CRAZY.  The water was pretty cold, but he said as long as he was moving it was ok.  We enjoyed another breakfast with a view and then it was time to pack up.

It was a bout a 2 hour drive to the bottom of the crater. It was fascinating how much the eco system changed in that two hours.  We went from fertile farmland, to super dry, to tropical green along the rim of the crater, to completely brown and desolate on the crater floor.  We also ran into thick fog along the rim. We could only see about 20 feet in any direction. We were a little worried!  But not to fear—as soon as we started losing elevation, the fog cleared right up.  We stopped at a view point at the top and I said to Rusty, “I thought there were so many animals on the floor, but I don’t see anything,” 

Then, as we slowly descended, tiny specks on the ground started getting bigger and bigger and suddenly hundred and hundreds of animals were visible.  Wildebeests, Zebras, Buffalo, Tomson’s gazelles, Warthogs, an Ostrich, Grey Crested Cranes, and TWO RHINOS. They were sleeping under a tree.  So, within 30 seconds of being on the crater floor, we completed the big 5 with the buffalos and rhinos.  It was truly awe inspiring to see all those animals coexisting.  

We stayed in that spot forever just watching all the different herds and families interact with each other.   

We ate another fun picnic lunch at a spot not too far away.  Then we went searching for more animals.  

There is a huge saltwater lake at the bottom of the crater.  It is fed by some underground springs, but it has no outlet.  It’s salt water and so there were hundreds upon hundreds of flamingo.  We saw both greater and lesser flamingos.  And, we saw some flying!  I feel embarrassed to say that I didn’t know they could fly.  They look like missiles slicing through the air.  

As we were driving a little ways from the lake, we noticed some strange animal behavior.  We saw a zebra get totally spooked, and then a min later a whole herd of wildebeests, along with a bunch of gazelles took off running.  We were looking around trying to see what scared them, and Rusty, who is a crazy good animal spotter, saw two hyena prowling along the coastline.  Mystery solved.  Rusty also spotted two jackals and an eagle today.  

Next was my favorite moment of the day.  We pulled up to a waterhole and saw two female lions and one male sleeping near the waters edge.  But upon closer inspection, there were TWO LION CUBS. And they were the cutest things in the world.  One cub was snuggled up to each female.  But, we think that one lioness was the mama of both cubs, and the other lioness looked like she was pregnant.  Look at the lioness with her paw on the cub’s back.  Is that the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen? The lions rolled, stretched, yawned—we couldn’t get enough.  Then, dad lion decided to go have a real Lion King moment and survey his territory.  Then, he promptly laid back down, used his paws like a pillow, and went back to sleep.  

We ended the day by spotting several more lions, and then two rhinos who had be wallowing in the mud.  At first, Charles thought they were black rhino and we were all SO excited because there are only about 50ish in all of East Africa.  After some closer inspection, Charles said he was wrong and the were white rhino.  Halle told us she knew that all along but she didn’t want to contradict Charles.  Smarty pants.  

The next day Rusty said, “Ngorongoro is like a snowglobe.  You shake it up and all the animals fall in there together.  Charles didn’t know what a snow globe was, or we were doing a poor job of explaining so Rusty said, ‘’It’s like the fruit salad of animals.”  Charles laughed and laughed and said he’d be telling his guests that from then on.  

Our camp that night was…… and it was FOREVER away.  Luckily, it was in the direction of Serengeti, so it cut down on our drive time tomorrow.  We are in and out of these camps so quick that they are all blurring together in my mind.  But, I am super impressed to find they have flushing toilets andnhot water heated by solar panels. We had a late dinner and then went straight to bed. 

Plural Hippo are “A School of Hippo.”