Safari day 3: Animal Utopia

We got up at 530 to a now expected delicious feast and piled in the truck to drive into the Ngorongoro Crater which is appropriately described as animal utopia. Prior to leaving Chewy had to fix our vehicle pop up top. The a post had broken off the day before. 

While this was happening we began watching the sun begin to rise in camp and then finished at the Crater's entrance.

Descending into the crater requires 4 wheel drive low by all by all vehicles. The road is rough and steep with intense switchbacks.

Part of the way down we noticed a vehicle had crashed into the bushes.

It turned out to be the group we had shared our banana fritters with the night before. Their brakes had failed. We briefly acquired two more passengers while their driver maneuvered their vehicle into the crater.

About 50 feet after the crash we ran into a pride of lions feasting on a recent kill. I asked what they were eating and one of our new people looked at me and said, "An animal."

From the looks of it it looked like a wildebeest or a buffalo. The pride was separated and completely focused on their food. Chewy got out of the car to fix something.

Flashing back to yesterday, there are wildebeests everywhere. We saw thousands and thousands as far as we could see with what seemed like as many zebras. I never thought I wouldn't need to stop to see these animals but as Chewy would say we were "Good to go (G2G)". What we were seeing was the wildebeest migration. They migrated from Kenya because they follow water. In late January and early February the hang out in Ngorongoro conservation area to have their babies. 3 million wildebeests migrate every year. They estimate over 500,000 births with only a third surviving.

Next we went to "pay" his bill to me which equaled getting close to elephants. On the crater floor there are usually only male elephants, the bachelors.

We watched 4 of them who were very close to our car for over 45 minutes.

On a related topic, yesterday in the Serengeti we had seen army ants which Chewy described as ferocious. These guys give the elephants problems when they get in their trunks. He also said if they were to get in your tent, you immediately leave your tent. They eat whole chickens. 

Then on to find black rhinos. On the was we saw a cervil hunting. 

Black rhinos are one of the most highly endangered animals in the world. There are said to be 37 in the crater. Each one has his own ranger at all times. Chewy says there are cameras everywhere. We ended up seeing 10 of them, some male and some female. None were very close to our vehicle. Black rhinos are notoriously solitary. They are wanted for their horns by mostly the Chinese.

One thing we learned that upsets me is in the Serengeti hunters lure animals out of the protected lands with bait. 

As we drove we saw ostriches, baby zebras, buffalo, Thompson's and Grant's gazelle, cranes, and male lions. Then we saw a large pride of lions (17 crossing a small pond). All of the animals around them were on super alert. Standing like statues just staring. According to Chewy, the lion hunt takes hours (sometimes 5-6). They pick their prey and then proceed to wait and watch patiently. Lions when they can sleep up to 20 hours a day and hunt once a week. The females do the hunting, and after the kill the male gets first pick. 

Lunch was at a picnic area near a lake with hippos. We were told to eat inside the truck because of the aggressive hawks.

 We almost got to see some unsuspecting women get their lunch eaten but another guide warned them as two hawks began to circle closer and closer. After lunch we made our way out of the crater.

We went back to camp and William had packed everything. We loaded the truck and headed back to Arusha. We had to check out of the ngorongoro conservation area and learned that if you were one minute late you would have to pay for another whole day.

This wasn't our issue but the truck whose brakes had failed was apparently 6 minutes late. 

On the way home we learned that branches in the road equal a problem ahead. They are used like we use flares or those triangle road hazard things.

Also on the way home we stopped at a shop. TG bought a fair amount of things.

C and I got Stoney's Tangewuisy, a really tasty ginger beer.

The store wanted its bottles back but Chewy convinced them we could not be expected to drink it so quickly and that he would bring the bottles back next time. 

We made two other road side stops: for Chewy to get a type of delicious potatoes (there are 4 types in Tanzania) and for A to get bananas.

The next stop was Muzungo (white people) square and the finally back to the hotel for dinner.