Day 45 2/28/99: Ngorongoro Crater Day 1

After a sumptuous breakfast buffet at the Lake Manyrara Serena Safari Lodge, we were on the road at 9:40 a.m. We were encouraged to ride in a different Land Cruiser everyday so we can get to know all four drivers, with his own personalities and guiding abilities.Yesterday we rode in Charlie's car. As an experienced driver and guide, he was very good. Today we had the pleasure of riding in Silulu's car. He was a lot of fun. Foremost on his mind was trying to teach Lois, Liza, Anne, Theresa, and myself the words to the famous East African tourist song: "Jambo, Jambo guana..." The song was about "Hello, how are you? I'm going fine." By knowing the words to the song in Kiswahili, a tourist at least can say "hello," " thank-you," and a few other key phrases. Well, Sululu kept his sense of humor despite the fact that we were very poor students at learning the song. Sululu was a Masai who was born in the bush but then raised in a town. He told us many interesting stories about Masai culture and himself.

Here is a picture of the Ngorongoro highlands. The land is fertile and good for cultivation because of the rich volcanic soil and abundant water. Though, due to El Nino, they were having a drought as the short rain that was suppose to happen in October and November of 1998 never did. Most of the farmland we saw were all plowed and ready for the long rain that suppose to start in mid/late March and then last through April and May.

After yesterday's bargain hunting, Theresa was ready to do more business. We stopped for gas at a small town in order to fill up both gas tanks in the Toyota Land Cruiser. Theresa bought some cloth. The street hawkers were trying to sell her just one more item.

We arrived at an interpretive center shortly after 11:00 a.m.

[National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife] "Ngorongoro Conservation Area/World Heritage Site (2,045,200 acres) protects wildlife habitat as well as the rights of local Masai who graze their livestock on about 75 percent of the area.

Ngorongoro Crater, 12 mile wide, is the world's largest intact caldera. Before the cataclysmic collapse of its cone 2 millions ago, this volcanic mountain may have been taller than Kilimanjaro." (Just think, just a few days ago instead of climbing to the top of Kili we could have been climbing to the top of Ngorongoro if events 2 million years ago have been different!)

Alex slowly and deliberately delivered the spiel on Ngorongoro Crater. He must have done this a thousand times, but we listened intently. I was most surprised by the fact that Ngorongoro Crater is incorrectly named--it should have been called the Ngorongoro Caldera. A crater is the bowl-shaped depression around the orifice of a volcano according to the on-line Webster dictionary. On the other hand, a caldera is a volcanic crater that has a diameter many times that of the vent and is formed by collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary violence. Look at the picture below to understand that indeed Ngorongoro is a caldera--a pretty darn large one.

[REI Panoramic] To show you how dramatic this Ngorongoro Crater (more properly called a Caldera) and how wide it was, this panoramic picture is composed with two frames from my disposable REI panoramic camera. We were at the edge of the rim looking down. The elevation of the rim is about at 7,600', and it was mostly montane forest and grassland.

We were impressed with the view.

We were riding in the back seat of the Land Cruiser; we could not wait to get down to the floor of the caldera.

We were driving along the rim of the caldera.

We descended from the rim to the floor of the caldera via this narrow, bumpy, twisty dirty road. We made it shortly before 1 p.m. [Audubon Field Guide] "At 5,600' elevation, the crater floor is primarily grassland, with patches of spring-fed marshes, freshwater ponds, a salt lake, and small forests. Harboring 20,000 large animals, it is a virtual Noah's Ark."

[EOS] Common zebras.

[EOS] Grant's gazelle, which does not have the black stripe like a Thomson's gazelle. Another distinguishing characteristic is that the white on Grant's gazelle's buttocks extends above the tail.

[EOS] African buffalo, one of the most dangerous animal--don't disturb these big fellas.

[EOS] A family of warthogs foraging for food.

[EOS] Here were a pair of elands (the largest antelope) in front of a lake.

[EOS] More warthogs. They were so cute especially when their tails were straight up and waggling a bit when they walked.

[EOS] A lone young male elephant. Theresa and I were spoiled rotten by the many elephants we saw at Amboseli and Samburu on our 1991 Kenya safari; on this trip we have to be satisfied with just one or two. We're going to Botswana next time to see more elephants.

[EOS] A pair of male (left) and female (right) busbucks.

[EOS] Most of the baboons were habituated to cars and people; they usually went on with their business of feeding or grooming, as in this case.

[EOS] An olive baboon was trying to figure me out, or was he waiting for me to groom him!

After a short game drive, we had lunch at about 2 p.m. Here were Doyle, Alex, Theresa, and Anne looking at something. What? A herd of wildebeest? A lion chasing a hapless baby zebra? A family of elephants walking toward us? It was actually a troop of very aggressive and hungry black-faced vervet monkeys ready to grab our lunch. You need to keep the car doors closed and windows rolled up, because they were very opportunistic. There was another van from another tour group that had its door opened accidentally, and sure enough a mother monkey and its baby went inside. Theresa had to closely guard her banana. It's been raining on and off, so Theresa had her hood up.

All the drivers once again prepared our lunch just like yesterday. The sun broke out briefly, so we did not have to eat soggy sandwiches. All the drivers, especially Alex, were effective in chasing away the monkeys because they know that these dark-skinned people meant business. However, they paid no attention to the fair-skinned tourists. I don't know how they would react to Asians.

[by Bruce] I did not want to take a chance, so I stayed away. Thank goodness for my 200mm zoom lense!

[EOS] A black-faced vervet monkey, resting in the tree after successfully grabbed a banana  from us despite our best efforts at guarding our food. Actually it may not have been him, but I needed a little story to go with his picture. I'm thankful for poetic license. :-)

I'm just a sucker for acacia trees. I think they are so beautiful. You are going to see a lot more acacia trees for the rest of the photo journal. Maybe I like to take pictures of acacia trees because I don't need a 500mm zoom lense to get a good picture, and they do NOT move! :-)

[REI Panoramic Camera]

[EOS] Can you see the elephant in this picture? A hint: look for his right white tusk.

[EOS] Here is a Superb starling. I was lucky to get this picture as it was about to fly away because Brad was about to scare it with his feet!

[EOS] A vervet monkey said good-bye to us after lunch as we started our afternoon game drive. Or was he just mad that he did not get a peanut butter sandwich from us? :-)

Maribou storks. Theresa and I were familiar with them during our 1991 trip to Kenya. Okay, they are not the prettiest birds in the world, but they serve an important purpose in this ecosystem as they are scavengers.

One of the highlights was seeing a black Rhinoceros mother with its baby. The mother was calmly resting, while the baby was excitedly and curiously checking out its environment.

Another lone rhino came close enough to our car for me to snap this picture. I was so excited that I could not even hold the camera straight.

  Do you really need to caption for these pictures?

A flock of flamingoes feeding in the soda lake.

Here is a Tommy--Thomson's gazelle. It has a black strip along his tummy. Unlike a Grant's gazelle, the white on Thomson's gazelle buttocks ends below the root of the tail. "Hi Tommy, please turn around. I need a picture for the WEB," I pleaded. It did not hear me or chose to ignore me :-)

  Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences that afternoon in the Ngorongoro Crater was all the rhinos that we encountered. We saw perhaps 50% of all the resident 2 dozens or so rhinos.

  Our afternoon game drive continued until about 5 p.m. and concluded with an encounter with a large herd of wildebeests. Wildebeest is also called gnu, because that's the sound it makes!

There were many wildebeest calves this this was that time of the year. In fact, the next day we saw some 20-minutes old Wildebeest calves. How could we tell?  The after-birth were still attached.

We also saw Hartebeest, silver-backed jackal, striped hyena, and ostrich. What a wonderful afternoon at Ngorongoro Crater!