It's Down in the Crater Day

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POOR TIM

As excited as I am about today I am so tired, I was freezing cold last night so got very little sleep and poor Tim had a really, really bad tummy so was up most of the night.

I set the alarm early so I could see the sunrise and when I got up it looked amazing, you could see the whole crater and there was a little bit of cloud just below the rim. But it was so cold outside and I was already freezing so thought I’d have a shower get dressed all snug then go outside. It was only 15 minutes that passed and when I went out a huge fog was rolling in and you could see only half the crater. By now Tim had woken up so I chatted to him for a few minutes, went outside and the whole crater was covered in a thick fog, I could actually feel the dampness on my face as the mist went passed. Hopefully it will clear before we head down, if we go, Tim is looking and feeling terrible.

We’re supposed to be meeting Roman at 8:15am and it’s now 7:50am, it’s looking a little grim. After Tim has a shower we go to the dining room armed with his trusty tube of vegemite and he tries a bit of plain toast with home grown vegemite. He’s still not feeling great so he brings his toast with him in the car, he has decided to see how he goes in the crater, and at least because it’s a private tour we can change and cancel things as we please. So if we decide to come back to the hotel after half an hour we can do so.

So it is with much excitement on my behalf and much trepidation on Tim’s that we head to the Ngorongoro Crater…

It doesn’t take long to get to the Ranger Station on the rim but the road is very steep taking down over 600 metres in a very short distance. Because the descent is so steep they have a separate road to get in and to get out. There are a series of tracks within the crater that you cannot go off, because it is so large the wildlife is never struggling for privacy from the prying eyes and camera shutters.

THE CRATER AT LAST

Finally we are in the crater, the first thing that strikes you is the enormity of it, and the next is the abundant wildlife. From up at the hotel you can’t see any sign of life because it’s so high up, but we’re barely at the bottom and immediately we see hundreds, if not thousands of Wildebeest stretching as far as the eye can see, then we see 4 Hyenas feasting on something that didn’t make it through the night, then finally we see them, 2 Lions, a male and his mate, right alongside the track!

At least this has helped perk Tim up, I’ll need to take a few lions around in my pocket in case he gets sick again!

We are among the first vehicles to see them, next there is approximately 20 vehicles all trying for a look, all the tops are up and there’s lots and lots of heads with cameras all poking out, like wilderness paparazzi!

The Lions just lay down and are having a nice little relax until 3 huge Water Buffalo see them and take offence at them being there, so they chase them away. But they don’t stop when they get up and move, they chase them until they’re across the track and well on their way to the lake. What an amazing thing to see!!! There are zebra and gazelle all in the path of the lions but hold no interest to them as they’re still too busy keeping a safe distance from the Buffalo.

We were warned that here and also the Serengeti seems overly commercialized because of all the vehicles that dump into one spot when there is something to see. But I see it a little differently. The crater (can’t speak for the Serengeti yet…) is a huge area and because the access for vehicles is heavily monitored you are no doubt going to have all the vehicles congregate at the same spot at times, especially when there is something truly spectacular to see. Also with what happened in the case of the lions and the Water Buffalo, it happened right at the start of the crater, so everyone is very excited to see anything, it could have been a flamingo coming out of the lake and it would draw a crowd, but to see 2 lions so close to the road and then have them be chased, well you have to expect people to stop and take notice, after all this is the reason we all flock to Africa!

But it gets better, we soon have another two more Lions come along, again a male and his mate, but this male is much bigger than the first.

Fortunately for them the Water Buffalo are still keeping an eye on the first two lions so are nowhere in sight. These ones just saunter along with no particular place to be. The female actually walks down the road in from of the cars and then comes along side one and rubs herself all the way down the side, just like your pet cat at home would do to your leg to say that it owns you, well those tourists are now owned by the lioness!

Then we see a hyena stalking a wildebeest in the lake, the wildebeest makes a run for it with the hyena following closely behind. The wildebeest manages to get away, perhaps because the water is a little deep for the hyena.

What a day already, it’s taken us 2 hours to not even go a kilometer!

At lunchtime we make our way to a picnic spot (again somewhere deemed to be ‘safe’), it’s right next to a smaller lake with loads of Hippo, maybe 20 or more. We are even lucky enough to see one on the other side of the lake heave itself onto the shore. We watch them for ages in the pond, in all the TV shows with hippos, they seem so tranquil and calm just laying in the water. But in fact, there are very noisy, splashing water over themselves, making hippo noises (really can’t describe this noise, not a growl, perhaps like a muffled version of Sylvestor Stallone calling for Adriane in the first Rocky movie…), all in all, I had a great time because I love hippos!

At the picnic spot there are lots of birds called Black Kites flying around. These birds are very quick and will steal your food right out of your mouth before you finished biting off your piece of sandwich! We start eating our lunch on a rock by the lake, about 5 minutes in, our driver Roman says that he thinks it’s time to finish eating in the car, Tim takes his cue and we follow. Perhaps not quick enough because suddenly out of nowhere a Kite flies down and grabs Tim on the neck, fortunately because of all the good food on the trip he was too heavy for it to carry away, it was hilarious! Don’t worry, Tim wasn’t hurt and was only left with a very small mark on the back of his neck. He says it didn’t attack him; it just gave him a little kiss! Needless to say we went pretty quickly to car after that.

After lunch we went to the far side and saw a rhino, it was so close! Another 2 cars pulled up to have a look. One of them had a tool of a tourist that decided to pretty well hang right out of the passenger window, idiot. Lucky for him nothing happened and it was only luck as the rhino passed right in front of their car to cross to the other side.

I could go on and on and on about everything we saw, but you would soon fall asleep on the keyboards of your computers and wake up with funny little squares imprinted on your faces, so I’ll just give you a list of everything we saw, well everything we remembered to write down anyway!

THE FINAL LIST

Warthog
6 lions
1000’s of wildebeest
Thompson’s gazelle
Hyena
Zebra
Loads of elephants
Water Buffalo
Jackal
Grand gazelle
Hartebeest
Black rhino
Hippo

And not to forget you bird lovers!
Crown crane (the bird on Uganda’s flag)
Kori Bustard (it weighs in at up to 16kg and is Africa’s largest flying bird)
Ostrich
Weavers
Starlings (beautiful blue birds that stand lout rather than blend into the landscape)
Black Kites

Just want to add there was so much more that we didn’t get the names for or was just too excited to write down!

Got back to our room in time for shower and dinner. Tim really wasn’t up to much so it was a very quick dinner and back to our room. We were already back and Tim was in bed when housekeeping came to turn down the bed, so I asked if they could just fill our hot water bottles, they were very concerned and asked if we wanted a doctor called, it was nice that they were caring. Have had extra blankets sent to room so hopefully tonight will be a better night sleep for everyone and Tim feels better tomorrow for Serengeti.

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Comments

[Kelly Brice]

WOW!!!
Hey Sam, I keep logging on every now and then to see where you are and how things are going.....this is the most amazing trip EVER!!! Super jealous of the incredible memories you've made with your new hubby!! Enjoy!!