Thursday, November 11, 2010

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

We flew into Kilimanjaro, Tanzania after about 24 hours of hard travel which allowed for about two hours of sleep (flights in Africa are not only expensive, but not well thought out). After one night in Arusha at a nice lodge recovering, we hopped in our Land Rover with our guide, James, and started out on a 10 day safari!

We drove for hours passing villages, donkeys, and the Masai people. Bananas! It was not only fun watching them be transported (on bikes!) but also eating them. It’s amazing how good a fresh from the tree banana tastes….

Ngorongoro Crater…a natural amphitheatre created by 600 meter high cliffs and full of an amazing cross section of wildlife. Our first day of game viewing would be in this crater. The white in the middle is soda lake….full of pink flamingo. A remnant of the once volcanic crater.

Zebra…not afraid of us at all! Even with a baby at her side. Herds of wildebeest in the background. The zebra and wildebeest tend to hang out together...safety in numbers.

The Wildebeest herds are huge! The most amazing part is that this is a small herd. Our guide said that in the migration there are millions.

The critically endangered black rhino. We were EXTREMELY lucky to see some. They are being poached to extinction for their horns which are worth more than gold. The horns are used by the Chinese as an aphrodisiac. These animals are so protected, that if they want to leave the crater they are given an escort until they reach another protected park. The poachers are getting more high tech- now using helicopters, darts, guns, etc.

All the safari trucks that arrive when an “exciting” animal is spotted…such as a big cat or Rhino. The guides all have radios and they definitely put the word out! Luckily, this was only the case in Ngorongoro as it is a smaller area.

Our first lion spotting! He basically played “King of the Mountain”….rolled onto his back, slept, surveyed his land. Not a bad life. Turns out the males don’t even really hunt. The female lion is the huntress.

The crater is so picturesque….tall grasses and Acacia trees…and a ton of animals!

A view of the crater from our window at the lodge. We cracked open a bottle of wine and watched the sunset…after a much needed shower. Safaris are a DUSTY affair. On to the Serengeti!

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