Tanzania - Ngorongoro Crater

Wednesday, September 11'th

Eight O'clock in the morning and Freddy is making a real feast of a breakfast; Sausages, Bacon, Scrambled eggs. I think we all woke by the delicious odour, there was a race to the plates. I almost forgot my Palundrine tablets to prevent getting Malaria. One of the drivers told us a horror story about this Australian girl that went into unconsciousness within hours from being bitten by a mosquito. Then it went down hill and she had three heart stops, but she made it through. This is the worst case scenario,

Still no view of Kilimanjaro, well that is one Kodak moment we must learn to live without, at least for this holiday.

We left the 'Masai Camp site' at 9 going into the center of Arusia to do some shopping for the next four days. I hadn't exchanged any money yet so this was the perfect time. A 100$US gave me a modest stack of Tanzanian bills (57.000 Tsh). Afterwords we went for a walk around town, nothing much to see. A lot of African arts were on sale but we were told that later that day we were to go to the best place for buying souvenirs so we just browsed round.

At 11AM we left Arusia going west on the last piece of decent road we would see for quite a while. After an hour of driving we turned right onto a very dusty unpaved road with huge potholes. Well, this time was as good as any to get familiar with the conditions of central Africa, and after a while you get used to it, almost enjoying the switchback ride in the back of the truck. The landscape around us slowly changed its character and color. From dark green to brown, from trees to no-trees. At 1PM we made a picnick stop in the middle of the desert-like area, but within minutes 15-20 Masai children surrounded the truck, taking a great interest in our lunch preparations. I wonder where they came from

After an hour of lunch and the children making fun of us, we went on towards the mountains and the extinct volcanos of which Ngorongoro is one. We made the town with the souvenir marked beneath the mountains at around four and parked just opposite the market. It was clear to us that the tourist season was declining, I think we were the only truck that day by looking at the T-Shirt selling boys and how eager they were to make some money. At some point a fight was going on about who saw the truck first and who had the right to be number one to try his luck. The only thing I bought was a huge Masai knife to my collection (from Thailand and Brazil). Perhaps I would have bought some other stuff but the hassle was too much to make the bargaining any fun. The town is just on the edge of the volcanos so we started our ascent a few hours before sunset. We passed several viewpoints with a staggering view of the plains below. From up the side of the mountain we saw Elephants and a flock of Giraffe. Far out to the south we could see a lake with a lot of birds.

Just before sundown we made the 'Zafari Junction Camp' and most of us headed straight for the shower or erected our tents. On the site there are small open huts with fireplaces. Freddy began preparing the dinner and the rest of us helped with the cleaning and chopping of the vegetables. When the carrots, Oubergines, Green pebber and tomatoes was ready for cooking, I got the sensation that there was a beer in the bar with my name on it, so we all went there until Freddy came to inform us, 'Dinner is served'.

Later we returned to the bar and as the sun went down, so did the drinks. There was a local danse group performing and selling T-shirts and Masai blankets. They were really good and got lots of tips. Well, it's time to hit the sack.

Thursday, September 12'th

At 8.30AM we are ready to go into the crater. The truck has been packed and the drivers have an easy day ahead. They are just going to drive the truck from the eastern part of the Ngorongoro rim, to the western.

Our Jeep is ready and we head for the entrance to the park on the south side, where the edge of the crater is less steep. The fog is very dense this time in the morning, which makes it impossible to get the panoramic view when entering the crater.

At the UNESCO World Heritage entrance, guards suddenly demands an extra 50$US for our entrance, apart from what the driver has been paid. We discuss this but agree that as long as we get a receipt, we can get the money back later. Sheila has enough $US in cash, so we proceed into the wildlife reserve below.

Suddenly the mist cleared and we were below the clouds on our descent. All at once we could see all across the magnificent plateau at the bottom of the volcano. On the steep we saw Masai cattle, graze. The Cows and goats must have been born with either the left or right par of legs significantly shorter than the other pair in order to balance on these hostile fields.

At the bottom we took a break to remove the roof of the jeep. This would enable us to get some good photos standing up, a real photo-safari. Just next to us a flock of wildebeest and Zebra was looking for food, they were rather curious to see what we were doing, but then again, they must be pretty bored with all those tourists driving by each day.

We drove off just before 10AM, having about 6 hours of game watching ahead. Being so early we had most of the park to our selves, the other visitors would probably arrive at noon. We circled round in the forest below the southern edge to catch a glimpse of the larger animals. We saw one of the very few Rhinos in park but in the distance, only visible through a pair of binoculars. We heard the roar and cached a glimpse of a flock of Elephants, again quite remote.

We decided to come back later

But where were the remains of the kill - just 500 ft. away we saw two flocks of hyena fighting for the remains of the dead wildebeest or buffalo. It must have been the prey killed by the two Lions. The fight went back and forth and both groups got their part of the beast.

Around two PM we went to the center of the park, to a small lake where the hippopotamus of the crater has their refuge. We took out our huge lunchbox with sandwich made before departure but it did not take long before the first impertinent bird spotted our meal. Apparently this spot is often used for lunchbreak and this bird really mastered the art of stealing a tunna-sandwich out of your hand/mouth almost without you

We tried to get a photo of the bird but it was simply too darn fast. After half an hour we headed out to the almost dried out lake to see the flamingo but two weeks later at Nakuru we really saw Flaingo.

Around three PM we drove back to the eastern side of the crater to get a view of the elephants. They supposedly had their territory in the small forest there. On our way a flock of Zebra's crossed the gravel road and I got this picture of a Zebra taking a dust bath to get rid of annoying insects.

In the background you can see the clouds being pushed up over the rim and. into the crater where they dissolve. During the day the weather got more windy but what a mesmerizing sight. It looked like a giant waterfall. It is amazing how well the Zebra-stribes work in a flock of animals. It is hard to spot the individual in a group when the are moving. It just look like a Black/White blur and this help to confuse a hunting predator. The young ones use the patterns to identify its parent, almost like a finger-print.

Inside the dense growth of trees an other Jeep was parked on the shoulder of the road. Apparently they had spotted something in the high vegetation. We stopped as well but couldn't see anything. We could hear an American woman talking in a squeaky high pitch voice: "I

Suddenly there was an elephant out to the right of the Jeep, a few hundred feet. This picture is the best I can do with my camera, thanks to Adobe Photoshop for a good zooming effect. It was moving in a parallel line with the road and we followed it and hopefully we would get some better photos of it close up, but no luck this time.

We drove around for two more hours until the sun was low over the rim and we decided to ascend. Meanwhile Steve and Steve had driven our truck to "Simbad Campsite" on the western side of the crater.

They had found a good spot under an old tree that would give some cover from the wind. It was comming stong across the crater and with no clouds it looked to be a chill evening.

We erected our tents at the perimeter next to the scrub at the edge of the rim. Meanwhile Fredy started a fire to prepare dinner and as soon as we were ready we helped in preparing the vegetables to speed things up. Our small expedition-group now had some common experiences, and the talk continued vividly about the recent safari, we had already seen The Big Five: Elephant, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Lion and almost a Leopard - A woman in the other Jeep had seen spots, that must count for something. After dinner we told jokes and campfire-stories from our own adventures elsewhere on the planet and we made a significant inroad into our storage of beer. The group was now almost formed, we were getting to know each other. The tale-swapping continued until the fire died out and we were out of beer.

This was my first overlandtrip but Ian, Craig and Ann had been on several. They had played this game that I found particularly fascinating. The entire group is playing. One person is assigned to be the gamemaster and is as such not part of playing. This person point out the 'murderer' and the plot is to guess who is the killer. The murderer approach one of the other players, without anyone else notice it, and say to him/her: 'I am the murderer. In five minutes you will get a lethal injury with the kitchen knife' or whatever suits the situation. If you are still 'alive' and have an idea who is the killer, you tell it to the gamemaster. If you are right you have won the game, but if you are wrong you are out. If noone have found the killer and everyone but five is out of the game, the murderer have won.

The drivers knew this game as well and told of a clever plot. The murderer had informed every player that he/she would die in a driving accident at 1PM, including the drivers. So at 1PM the truck made a abrupt halt and all the players ran out of their seats and 'died' - the killer had won the game. Unfortunately we were too few to play, you have to be at least twenty to begin with for it to be any fun.

Well out of the big cities and when the night-sky was clear I couldn't stop to be amazed by the immense sight with all the stars. Back home in Denmark (northern hemisphere) I think you can only see the outer milkeyway but here close to the equator the light was more intense and I imagine that I was looking towards the

Crescent-moon

That night it was really freezing. It took me an hour to feel warm and comfortable in my sleeping bag before I got some shuteyes. then it was an hour past midnight.