NGORONGORO CRATER AND MESSERANI SNAKE PARK

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Left early for Arusha, took us a good 14 hours to make it there, along the way stopped for lunch. Arrived quite late at the Meserani Snake Park a lot of other trucks already camping there, our dinner was pre ordered at least we get to eat quickly and cook group does not have to set up. Played darts with Craig in the evening then went to bed.

Misty in the morning and rained a bit later on, we are moving on to the next stop which is Karatu, some of the group will do a village tour so we wait for them, in the meantime went to see the snkaes in the park, lots of pythons and cobras, quite scared of them so did not spend a lot of time browsing the glass window. Craig and I played best of 5 darts over lunch and beat hin for the first time which made my day!
Tony were doing maintenance on the truck so we left late, stopped at a small town and window shopped for crafts for 1/2 an hour, Di wanted some tamarind fruits for the recipe that night, found her a tree and someone climbed it and we have to pay lots for a 1/2 kg of the fruit. Our campsite is at Ngorongoro Safari Lodge in Karatu, there was a Guerba truck there and we found out that they haeve people to cook for them and even set their tents up, quite pampered compare to us.
The next day is chill out, went to town and internet, most of the shops were down due to service problems and someone guided us through the local market and found an internet that works. the locals are very friendly, too friendly sometimes they want your address and phone number, what they will do with it, who knows... Had lunch at a small restaurant with chris and they served a cheap and delicious meal of fish(tilapia) for me and chicken for Chris, with local spinach among other things, Chris did not like the color of the chicken he have and thought it taste different so I helped him eat it, poultry here is free range so they will be tougher but tastier in my oipinion and he is not used to the taste. We had a briefing on the next day's safari, a few including Craig will go to Serengeti as well and he has to take our tent, i have to share and put up with Marky Mark for one night! Craig will bring my D80 Nikon so he practiced the whole day how to use it and hopefully he brings back lots of good photos.

We got picked up early the next morning, our group divided amongst 4/5 vehicles, misty and a bit cool we drove towards the park entrance. Spent a bit of time at the entrance while guides sort out the permits etc. Drove on only to get stuck , some truck is blocking the road, broke down or slid on the mud and took awhile to get it off the road but we eventually are on our way. Beautiful view from the top of the crater, going down it's lips you start seeing animals, herds of zebras, buffaloes, just like what you see on tv, the grass was yellow and dry, you can hear the flamingoes in the water. We stopped for lunch at a hippo lake, the animals in the water making noises as we sit on the banks having our box lunch. From here the Serengeti people left us and we moved on and saw a few more animals then there was a disagreement between some in our group and the drivers, the drivers/guide wants to go back to camp already in Karatu but some like Cam and Helen wanted to stay some more after all it's all but 2:00pmish, war of words ensued, we eventually came back early and Di was furious when we got back and called the operators demanding explanation as to why we are back early. The owners were very apologetic explaining that night after dinner that they hired the 3 vehicles we used with drivers and they did not follow instructions, blah blah blah, towards the end we were offered free village tours and or lunch the next day at a hotel.

Next morning off to internet and I was there for most of the day, leaving only to eat, I did not go to the free lunch but all did and was told the food was delish. The next day is driving towards the Rwandan frontier.


WIKI INFO:

NGORONGORO CRATER:

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area or NCA is a conservation area situated 180 km (112 miles) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The conservation area is administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District. It covers an area of 8,288 km² (3,200 square miles) - about the size of Crete.


Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge, it is known that various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years. Hunter gatherers were replaced by pastorialists a few thousand years ago. The Mbulu came to the area about 2,000 years ago, and were joined by the Datoga around the year 1700. Both groups were driven from the area by the Maasai in the 1800s. Massive fig trees in the northwest of the Lerai Forest are sacred to the Maasai and Datoga people. Some of them may have been planted on the grave of a Datago leader who died in battle with the Maasai around 1840.

No Europeans are known to have set foot in the Crater until 1892, when it was visited by Dr. Oscar Baumann. Two German brothers farmed in the Crater until the outbreak of World War I, after leasing the land from the German colonial administration then in control of East Africa. Dr. Baumann shot three rhinos while camped in the crater, and the German brothers regularly organized shooting parties to entertain their German friends. They also attempted to drive the wildebeest herds out of the crater.

The Ngorongoro area originally was part of the Serengeti National Park when it was created by the British in 1951. Maasai continued to live in the newly created park until 1959, when repeated conflicts with park authorities over land use led the British to evict them to the newly declared Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority is the governing body regulating use and access to the NCA. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Land in the conservation area is multi-use, it is unique in Tanzania as the only conservation area providing protection status for wildlife whilst allowing human habitation. As such land use is controlled to prevent negative effects on the wildlife population, for example cultivation is prohibited at all but subsistence levels.

The area is part of the Serengeti ecosystem, and to the north-west, it adjoins the Serengeti National Park and is contiguous with the southern Serengeti plains, these plains also extend to the north into unprotected Loliondo division and are kept open to wildlife through trans-human pastoralism practiced by Maasai. The south and west of the area are volcanic highlands, including the famous Ngorongoro Crater and the lesser known Empakai. The southern and eastern boundaries are approximately defined by the rim of the Great Rift Valley wall, which also prevents animal migration in these directions.

The annual ungulate migration passes through the NCA, with wildebeest and zebra moving south into the area in December and moving north in June. This movement changes seasonally with the rains, but the migration will traverse almost the entire plains in search of food. The NCA has a healthy resident population of most species of wildlife, in particular the Ndutu Lake area to the west has strong cheetah and lion populations.



Wildlife:

Wildebeest are one of the ungulates found in the CraterA population of approximately 25,000 large animals, largely ungulates along with reputedly the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa, lives in the crater. These include the black rhinoceros, whose local population declined from about 108 in 1964-66 to between 11-14 in 1995, and the hippopotamus, which is very uncommon in the area. There also are many other ungulates: the wildebeest (7,000 estimated in 1994), the zebra (4,000), the eland, and Grant's and Thomson's gazelles (3,000).


Male and female lions in Ngorongoro CraterThe crater has the densest known population of lions, numbering 62 in 2001. On the crater rim are leopards, elephants - numbering 42 in 1987 but only 29 in 1992 - mountain reedbuck, and buffalo (4,000 in 1994).

However, since the 1980s the crater's wildebeest population has fallen by a quarter to about 19,000 and the numbers of eland and Thomson’s gazelle also have declined while the buffalo population has increased greatly, probably due to the long prevention of fire which favors high-fibrous grasses over shorter, less fibrous types.

In summer, enormous numbers of Serengeti migrants pass through the plains of the reserve, including 1.7 million wildebeest, 260,000 zebra, and 470,000 gazelles. Waterbuck occur mainly near Lerai Forest; servals occur widely in the crater and on the plains to the west. Common in the reserve are lions, hartebeest, spotted hyenas and jackals. Cheetahs, although common in the reserve, are scarce in the crater itself. The African Wild Dog has recently disappeared from the crater and may have declined elsewhere in the Conservation Area as well.


Ngorongoro Crater

Black Rhinoceros in the craterThe main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera. The Crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610 m (2,001 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 km² (102 square miles).Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from fifteen to nineteen thousand feet high.

Although thought of as "a natural enclosure" for a very wide variety of wildlife, up to 20% or more of the wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and half the zebra (Equus burchelli) populations vacate the Crater in the wet season. However, an effect of this 'enclosure' situation means that the population of Ngorongoro lions is severely inbred, with many genetic problems passed from generation to generation. This is due to the very small amount of new bloodlines that enter the local gene pool, with very few migrating male lions entering the crater from the outside. Animal populations in the crater include most of the species found in East Africa, but there are no impalas (Aepyceros melampus), topis (Damaliscus lunatus), oribis (Ourebia oribi), giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), or crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus).

The crater highlands on the side facing the easterly trade winds receives 800-1200mm of rain a year and is covered largely in montane forest, while the less-steep west wall receives only 400-600 mm; this side is grassland and bushland dotted with Euphorbia bussei trees. The crater floor is mostly open grassland with two small wooded areas dominated by Acacia xanthophloea.

The Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source draining into the seasonal salt lake in the center of the Crater. This lake is known by two names: Makat as the Maasai called it, meaning salt; and Magadi. The Lerai Stream drains the humid forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the Crater floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Magadi as well. Extraction of water by lodges and NCA headquarters reduces the amount of water entering Lerai by around 25%.


Fire is being used to manage vegetation in the CraterThe other major water source in the Crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the eastern Crater wall. There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lions, and many others. Many other small springs can be found around the Crater floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Masaai, especially during times of drought.

Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "big five" of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater.

Following the recommendations of the ad hoc committee of scientists convened after the 2000 drought, an ecological burning program was implemented in the Crater, which entails annual or biannual controlled burns of up to 20% of the grasslands. Maasai are now permitted to graze their cattle within in the Crater, but must enter and exit daily.

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