Day 29 - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

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The day was just dawning over the crater rim as I emerged crysalis-like from my tent. As I had now not showered in 2 days, I was not, however, a beautiful butterfly, more like a dirty brown moth! We left at 7am for our morning's game drive in the crater. But first we had to get into it on a long narrow and very twisty road, well track. The view was spectacular with the crater lit by the early morning rays and the mist from the forests rising up the sides. It was hard to beleive that the volcano was not erupting again!Suddenly we were at the bottom and it was flat but over on the other side of the crater were some lush green hills.

One of the first animals we glimsped was a cheetah, sat very far away on a small tussock, sunbathing. Through my binoculars I could make out the huge tail (2/3 of the body length) and the head but not much more detail than that. I wish it had been inclined to come a little closer!

We saw some warthogs close by and I amanged to get a nice photo. Unfortunately our silly driver drove right past a family with little hoglets - I was livid!

After seeing the cheetah, we headed towards the hills and spotted a couple of lion cubs among the tall grass. As we watched, tmore and more poked their heads up, until there was a mother and 4 biggish cubs. We moved location and they strode down towards us. Four went in fron of our vehical (within 3ft of me!) and one behind - so close that my camera wouldn't focus on them!! The cubs were lovely, with big eyes and ears and beautiful whiskers and huuuuge paws! Later we saw one more lion sunbathing (I spotted it!) making eight yesterday, three the day before and six today! Seventeen lions in 3 days!!

We spotted some hyenas not far off that were chewing on some bones. A couple of jackals were hanging around, hoping to get a look in, but the hyena kept lunging at them. The delicate jackal didn't stand a chance against the ugly and thickset hyena. They trotted off soon, probably with rumbling tummies. the hyenas crunched on. Nearby three vultures were picking on another part of whatever unforunate it had been (maybe an antelope or zebra by the size). Some other vultures sat waiting for the hyena to finish.

Further on several vultures were stripping out the ribcage systematically and a white necked crow waited. A black kite circled above but neither stood a chance of a nibble with the larger vultures about. Over at the previous three vultues , the hyens had spotted them chomping and loped over, casually dragging away the meat and the vultures stood back humbly and let it. One flew right past us to the ribcage and then there was some squarking ad wing flapping before they all started snacking again!

Again we saw loads of antelopes and gazelles and some crowned cranes and secretary birds, as well as Kori bustards. There was a huge colony of white egrets on the banks of the lake where we briefly stopped for a loo break. They are so white, I wonder how they keep so sparkling! We saw many hippos lazing in the mud pools. They were so close - maybe 2m away. They snorted to each other and rolled around happily. The birds, including egrets and a grey heron were using them like little islands to fish from.

We proceeded to the hills in the crater and encountered many buffalo. One section of a herd was on the flat and the other up the hill. For some reason, the herd up the hill started galloping down it and the flat group started charged towards them... with us in the middle!! Fortunately they all passed right in front of us. although they were completly silent, no grunting or mooing and very little noise from their hooves. If you closed your eyes you would have never of thought that there were about 60-100 buffalo about 10 m away. A few of them inspected us carefully - they really are very ugly (but they were probably thinking the same about us!).

Huge herds of wildebeest and zebra were dotted around the crater, including a tiny tiny zebra on spindly legs. We stopped right beside a big bunch of zebra who weren't bothered by us at all. They sometimes stand nose to tail so that their tails keep away the flies from the other's nose and vice versa. Also they put their necks on the other's back, like they are hugging each other - it's a sign of affection, much like horses.

We spotted a black rhino and calf in the distance. I could only see them using binoculars, but now I have seen both rhinos, which is quite rare. The white rhino is so-called because it has a wide mouth (a translation error from the Dutch "weide"). The black rhino (which is grey like the white rhino) has a hooked lip and browses rather than grazes on grass.

Just before heading into a slightly forested area we spotted a family of baboons. There were several adults and a few young of various sizes. The older ones were replicas of the adults but smaller and more playful, pulling each other's tails as they scampered around. There was a smaller darker baby pottering around and a tiny black baby with a little hair clinging to mum's back! In the forest we saw seom elephants with large tusks. I was also watching the birds flittering around and wishing I knew what they all were - such beautiful red, blue and green feathers, like jewels flashing around in the dappled light.

Before heading back to camp we stopped for a loo reak near a watering hole. There were some hippos snoozing in the middle and a flock of snowy egrets, but also a collection of skulls from the crater area. The buffalo skull was enormous and very heavy. They were quite interesting and really gave an impression of the size of the animals up close.

And so we headed back up out of the crater along a steep track. We took a few photos of the view, but notices a storm cloud advancing steadily towards the camp site. I had just finished taking my tent down when the rain started. We ran to the lunch building, and boy did it rain. At one point it was so heavy we couldn't see the trucks parked outside or the huge acacia tree about 15m away. The thunder was booming away and the rain came down in stairrods. The maribou storks on the campsite looked very annoyed and wet. With their hunched backs and red chin pouches they looked like old men shuffling along. The rain dripped off their beaks as they mournfully stared into the distance.

Eventually it began to clear and we raced to the trucks. I fell asleep soon after we left and awoke to bright sunshine a couple of hours later. It was a beautiful day and I watched the scenery slip by as we headed back to Arusha.

Almost as soon as we got to the campsite I went for a shower. It was so nice to feel clean again (the Serengeti is very dusty) and to put clean clothes on. As it was our last night on the tour, I put on the red dress I had bought in Zanzibar and one of the Maasi necklaces from the village. Until dinner time I tried to cram all my gear into my bags, not very easy with all the extras I have now! Still it was only really my sleeping bag that didn't fit. I have decided to buy a hard shelled case in Naironi to transport delicate items home. After a couple of hours of squeezing and re-folding I was finished!

We had nyama choma for dinner, which is spit roasted goat, which potatoes, salad, veg and garlic bread. The meat was like lamb but it was tugh to cut by strangely alright to chew. It was quite a small goat so we didn;t get very much each, but I can now say that I have eaten it! After dinner we finished off the t-shirt for the bar and had it hung up among the hundreds of others, including some fire departments from the USA, a Scotland and All Blacks rugby shirt, a women's rugby shirt from Harvard and other tour t-shirts. there were also bank notes from all over the world. Richard showed me a one billion dollar note from Zimbabwe, which I had a photo taken of me holding it, and another five hundred million dollar note. These are worth less than one dollar!

We then played Poker (Texas Hold Em) and guess what? I won the tournament! It was great and I actually quite enjoy playing it (when I can remember all the tricks). After some photos with the danish girls I headed for bed. I did a little of my diary before falling fast asleep on my last night under canvas in Africa.

Sally
xx

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