Blogs from Ngorongoro Conservation Area, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 8

Geo: -3.2077, 35.4628Bugger.. we must learn to ask is this camp site going to invaded by overland trucks heavily laden with tourists.. once again we had the place to ourselves until about 4:00pm then 2 loads bumped in. The upside is Lisa and I orientate our seats to watch the tent erecting sceptical. Good for a laugh, pity we did not buy popcorn... read more

Matt has almost finished his war and peace Kilimanjaro account so in the meantime I’ll try and come up to date with what we’ve been doing. This blog account is for Aug 18 to Sep 9th While Matt was up the mountain, I organized our Ngorongoro Crater trip. I looked at the camping option but after 7 days in a tent in the cold, I figured matt would probably want some comfort so we stayed in the Ngorongoro resort instead. The crater is about 4 hours away from Arusha and is hailed as a natural wonder as it contains a perfect ecosystem within about 20 square kilometers. Because it’s quite compact, there’s a huge density of wildlife coexisting. Our guide Akio was brilliant - by far the best we’ve had yet (let us know if you ... read more

Geo: -3.2077, 35.4628DAY FOUR (Monday, September 7, 2009)The rhythm is gonna getcha.We awoke at 4 am. Guess our body clocks are having trouble adapting to East African time.At dawn we sauntered to the main lodge only to find we were STILL too early for breakfast. But we found coffee and a few new friends so we were happy. I also found some more things to photograph, including a black-and-white casqued hornbill that was humongous, with a very large, very loud mouth. Highly entertaining, however.Breakfast was a buffet. We chatted with Ed Mershon and Joy Difilippo of Ocala. Following checkout, we had another group briefing on the lawn. We had a group photo taken on the front steps and then loaded into our safari vehicles, which are custom Toyota Land Cruisers that seat 7 behind the driver ... read more

After the remoteness and small population of Soki camp in the Serengeti, it's shocking to arrive at what appears to be a tent city on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. Simba A campsite is a much bigger operation and there are already 30 or 40 tents erected in its scenic grounds, dominated by a large, spreading tree and views into the crater. Our tents are pitched in some available spots and we see a few faces familiar from our game drives. A lone zebra potters past the toilet block on its way into the crater. The camp is at 2,000m and exposed to a keen wind, meaning it's damned cold even before the sun goes down. I put on two T-shirts and two fleeces and am still far from toasty. Pretty much every other group has ... read more

June 27th passed into Tanzania. On the drive to the border crossing we encountered a road block of Massai warriors. They had drug acacia bushes into the middle of the road and were standing there with machetes. We didn’t actually get to see any of this but that is what our driver and tour leader said happened. The first town that we went to in Tanzania is called Arusha. The campsite that we stayed at was called Snake Park and this is located about 20km from Arusha. The campsite was not that great. The cool part was they had a load of snakes, crocodiles, and different birds. The camp takes in animals that cannot be rehabilitated and released into the wild. While were there, the entertainment provided was a local Massai museum, which Jen, Irene (another ... read more