Day 9 - Ngorongoro Crater

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We were up and ready to go by 6:00. Leonce had insisted the night before that we are ready to go at 6 so we could get in the park early and hopefully see some lions hunting.

Our cook informed us that Leonce was a little late but was on his way. This was a hit we could take but we weren't happy about it. Around 6:30 Leonce had arrived. We put our breakfast and lunch in the car and were about ready to hit the road when Leonce gave us some bad news. The tour company hadn't put enough money on the park entry card. He had cash to put on the card but he needed a bank to do so and the bank didn't open until 8:30. And the parks won't take cash.

This was a crushing blow to start the day. All the problems with our tour company made it so hard to enjoy where we were and what we were doing. I hate to complain in this blog but the reality is we were beaten down and miserable with all that had happened. How were we going to enjoy our last safari in Africa when we were already bummed?

We decided to give the park entrance a try with the cash. Leonce lives in the area and knows a lot of people so maybe there was a chance we could still get in. While Sarah and I waited in the parking lot a group of ~50 baboons showed up. They were all over our van, trying to get in. They smelled the food. One of the baboons gnawed on the antenna. Baboons are strange animals.

Probably 45 minutes later Leonce emerged from the office with our pass for the day. It had worked! But it was already approaching 8:00 and we could feel our chance at active lions slipping away.

We drove along the crater rim in a thick fog before turning down in to the crater. Of course a massive piece of the car fell off as we were driving and we had to store it at our feet the rest of the day. One thing after another.

The crater is 600 meters deep and about 20 kilometers wide. It is home to year round animals because it has a good water supply.

Despite all of the delays we were still one of the first vans in the crater. We told Leonce that it was our last day and all we really wanted to see were lions. We were hoping by emphasizing this again he would understand and adjust his tour plan. Wishful thinking...The first place he took us was a hippo pool.....which was nice and all but hippos barely visible in the water isn't all that exciting. I did get a nice photo of a Marabou Stork, the same storks that were everywhere in Lake Naivasha.

We came across a couple very full hyenas walking back to their dens.

And finally, Lions! A very young juvenile male and a Lioness were close to the road (basically on the road) and the rest of their pride lay about 150 yards in to the distance. The young male and older female didn't mind us and walked back and forth along the road and in and out of a couple of culverts.

Off in the distance we could see the dominant male. He was beautiful with his big dark mane. There were another 5 lions with him, so 8 total. The male stayed separate from the group but not too far away.

A group of 3 Warthogs walked by not to far away. The young male noticed them and perked up. He crept into the taller grass and towards them. Would he move in for the kill? He is a male. Males don't hunt. Weird.

He crept down in to a drainage that kept him hidden as he inched closer and closer to the Warthogs. They seemed completely obvious to his presence.

Oddly the Lioness laid by the road just watching him. She wasn't helping with the hunt. Down in the drainage we couldn't really see him. We just knew the Warthogs were walking very close to the drainage. Every once in a while we would see the young males ears pop up as he gauged where the Warthogs were.

The male got closer and closer until he was right on top of them. He couldn't have been more than 10 feet from the Warthogs. He didn't pounce though. He lay waiting. Eventually the Warthogs noticed him and freaked. But not before they would have been lunch if that is what the lion wanted. Instead the male came out of the ditch and went towards the rest of the pride. He was just practicing his stalking ability and the Lioness was grading his every move.

A large elephant then approached the pride of Lions. Surely the elephant saw the lions? But after our experience yesterday in Tarangire maybe he didn't. The elephant walked right past a few lions grouped together. They wouldn't attack would they? It is only the lions in Kruger National Park in South Africa that will attack elephants, right? And this was a huge elephant. The elephant sure didn't think they would attack.

As the elephant approached the dominant male we were sure we would see fireworks. Surely the dominant male wouldn't just sit idle while this elephant invaded his territory? Nope, the lion sure wouldn't....but not in the way we expected...The lion got up and walked back towards the rest of the group. The elephant faced the male lion and made a sort of aggressive sound and lunge. The dominant male lion didn't look so dominant as he jogged away from the elephant. Crazy.

The lions were great and we were excited for a while. But then the game drive started to wear on us. It was a good thing this was our last game drive. We were ready to be relaxing in Zanzibar. Sarah laid down and tried to nap, knowing that I would wake her up if there was something of particular interest to see.

We got to see some hippos laying out of the water. That was a treat since we really had just seen them in the water. We saw a massive bird that weighs about 20 kilograms. Leonce told us there were 6 prides of Lions in the crater. We later discussed that and we think he meant the park, which is significantly bigger than the crater. We drove all around the inside of the crater and there weren't a lot of places to hide. Surely if there were 5 other prides we would have seen them.

All of the tour companies stopped at a lake for lunch. The crowds of people all walking around in the open just seemed like a recipe for disaster, especially with everybody going to the waters edge to get pictures with the hippos who were only a few feet in to the water. After lunch we went back to the group of Lions we had seen that morning. They were still roughly in the same spot.

All of the lions were sleeping, including the male who was laying on his back. He reminded us of Kali.

Lions are just fun to watch. We stayed watching them for a while. A large herd had accumulated not too far from where the lions lay. The lions were out in the open so the herd must have known they were there but were far enough away to be comfortable.

A group of zebras decided to press their luck and make their way past the lions to get to some water. Zebras have a great sense of smell and vision. They often serve as the lookout for big herds and the wildebeest rely on them. These zebras were quite daring. As they got closer to the lions (maybe 50 yards) the lions perked up. One by one they stuck their heads up, watching the zebra. The lions didn't seem hungry because they just watched the zebra.

The zebra approached the male Lion, still on his back. It was comical seeing them walk right by him without him even moving a muscle. It's like the zebra were well aware that he doesn't do the hunting and had no shot at catching them if he tried.

After about 20 zebra crossed through the gauntlet, the next zebra up got freaked and discontinued the path past the lions. The rest of the herd would take the long way around.

We climbed back to the top of the crater and got to a view point. Now that the fog had lifted we had a great view. An armed guard protected a large telescope. It was a super version of the kind of telescopes you see at viewpoints in the US. I used it to find the lions and we showed some other tourists.

We were back at the lodge around 3. We assumed our position at the comfy chairs, drank lots of tea, chatted, blogged, read, cleaned up, ate dinner and went to bed. We were in bed incredibly early, 8:00, but we were quite tired.

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