Ngorogoro Crater

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The Ngorogoro Crater is spectacular. It sits about 7000 ft above sea level, at least the rim does. Our hotel balcony overlooks the crater, it almost looks like a satellite map or that you are looking at it from the plane. It is a LONG way down. The Maasai, a famous African tribe, live on the craters edge and often graze their cattle in the nutrient rich grass. Actually, Ran was on the balcony today when he heard bells and talking. The Maasai warriors were bringing their cattle by the hotel. The crater is so rich because of its history, millions of years ago it was a huge volcano, but it erupted and collapsed upon itself, creating the crater. Almost all of the animals in the crater are born and die there, the bull elephants are the exception as they leave to mate with females. There are 7 lion prides here. The animals have no reason to leave, the grass is rich and endless on the savannah, water is available, there is plenty of space! The endangered black rhino is here, missing are impala and giraffes.

The savannah is flat grasslands with occasional purple flowers here and there. I could not believe how wonderful it smells as you go into the crater. The animals are used to the vehicles and seem fairly unconcerned with them. Randy took photos today with lions walking around the vehicle, not because they were hostile, just because they needed to go around it. What does Simba (the name for lion in Swahili) need to worry about? Absolutely nothing.

I saw my first jackal, I was surprised at how beautiful it was. We saw a male and a female. Also the hyena made a few appearances. Everyone says how ugly they are, but I don’t know, they can look kind of cute in the flesh. Obviously, this is African animal heaven in northern Tanzania. It seems as if we are in a documentary! Tomorrow we leave the crater and head for the Serengeti! We are excited to see it, we are spending an entire day game driving. Two more days of safari!

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