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Published: October 20th 2008
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After visiting the Masai yesterday we headed out for a few hours drive to another campsite as tomorrow we are going on our first safari into the Ngorongoro Crater.
We are away for a few days in a land rover so we packed light, meaning no extra clothes other than a change of underwear,and 'wet wipe' showers as there would not be an actual shower seen for a few days. When we arrived at our new campsite after a fairly uneventful 2 1/2 hour drive over, our tents had already been set up for us by our guides and tea and coffee were ready to be poured. I could get used to this!! Whilst drinking our tea we heard rumbles of thunder approaching us, the sky turned incredibly dark and a double rainbow appeared. Before we knew it the sky opened up and I swear I have never seen rain like it. Diving into our tents we rode out the storm for two hours before heading under a make shift cover for dinner (the joys of camping). Dinner was made by the guides and it was GORGEOUS. We had cucumber soup followed by a really nice vegetable stew and pasta.
I got talking to one of the guides about his Mount Kilimanjaro t-shirt and he told me he had now reached the summit 8 times and had done all of the routes. The 'Coca Cola' route is the easiest and he assured me I would be able to do it with no real preparation as long as I didn't try to do it too quickly. He has inspired me and I may just come back one day to take on the challenge. I asked him about the rain as I thought it was the dry season at the moment. He said this was the first time it had rained at all in 3 months! I blame Marion as she had warned me that the Irish rain seems to follow her wherever she goes.
We went to bed really early as were leaving at 5:00am this morning which meant getting up at 4:00am. It was a struggle but it was definitely worth it. Today has been amazing!!!
Julius is our driver and guide for the time we are on safari and is very knowledgeable and really keen for you to ask lots of questions. As it was so early
the drive to the Crater was incredibly foggy/misty so we couldn't see our surroundings much at all. The roads down into the crater were really bad, very windy and had a steep drop on the one side. I cannot see how anyone gets up and down them in the wet season at all as I am sure you would just slide right off the side. We kept passing signs that said 'Pole Pole' which means slowly slowly. Thank god Julian stuck to them. Julius told us about the Crater on the way. In 1961 the Serengeti was split into the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro National Park. At the same time, 45,000 Masai people were forced to leave their homes to make way for the Serengeti National Park and there are no longer any Masai in the Serengeti. 'Ngorongoro' itself means 'the mountain with a hole' in Swahili as the Crater is actually a volcano which erupted and collapsed in on itself about 8 million years ago. The national park is huge but the crater itself is only 21km in width, and the walls of the crater are 610 meters high.
When we got down into the crater
we had the tops down off the land rover so we could stand up and see out the top of it. We were told we would be sticking to designated tracks and that it was strictly forbidden to go off of these as we might destroy small wildlife and vegetation. Also it is better to aim for seeing the animals without disturbing them too much. The whole day was amazing. We saw loads of animals including herds of Wildebeast, Impalas, Thomson Gazelles, Ostrich, Water Buffalo, Zebras etc. I also saw my first lion! Well in fact it was a lioness and her two tiny little cubs. They were only about 5/6 meters from the edge of the track lying in the shade of a tree. I have great photos and will get them on here ASAP. We also saw Wart Hogs, Cranes, Black Backed Jackals, Hippos (loads of them all in a big pool - they stink!!!!), Hyenas, Flamingos on Lake Magadi and possibly a Rhino. Let me explain this Rhino ..... I personally think it was a big rock but others are convinced in was a Rhino as apparently they saw a horn and some flapping ears. If it
was a sleeping Rhino, they look remarkably like rocks!! Needless to say I am not counting it!! On the way to our picnic spot in the crater we saw a flash of a cat. We all got really excited as it was spotted so could have either been a Leopard or a Cheetah. It turned out to be a Serval Cat which is the smallest cat and apparently a bit of a scavenger!! Shame! As we gotto the picnic spot we had to wait for some Zebra to cross the road which I was so happy about as it meant I got a photo that I can call 'Zebra Crossing' he he!
In our picnic spot we had no fences or anything and just had a few guards looking our for anything that may disturb us. We did need to look out for baboons though. Some people forgot about that and had their packed lunch quickly spirited away by them. A sign helpfully pointed out to us 'Don't feed the animals'. Seeing a lion in the distance I just wanted to eat and get out of there asap.
The N. Crater was amazing. Such diversity in scenery and
despite needing to stick to trails we still got to see loads of animals. Now onto the Serengeti .....
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Sam
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Sounds amazing Von! I am loving reading your blogs x