Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater

This morning we climbed the crater wall in heavy fog, typical 5 days out of the week. The altitude of the rim is 5000-7000 feet, then we descended into the crater, the third largest in the world. The sky cleared and we went from dense forest to dry plains. After seeing an Auger Buzzard and Kori Bustards, we came upon four female lion lying in the sun near a herd of Cape Buffalo. Looking across the crater we could see the clouds lining the highlands. Then we came upon two male lions with big manes lounging near a swampy area with a huge flock of Blacksmith Plovers. We continued on to the lake in the crater passing hyenas in the distance until we could see a flock of flamingos in the lake. By now it was lunch time and we stopped near a wallow of

hippos with kites swarming above us. Leaving the lake, the terrain got greener and here were the large herds of zebra, wildebeest, and elephants as well as a few cheetah. The crater is its own ecosystem with about 22000 mammals, most of which never leave the crater.

Two lions

Leaving the crater, we exit into dry country. The road is one that continues through the Serengeti to Lake Victoria, yet the road is a rough two lane washboard. We continue on to Olduvai Gorge, the site where the Leakys found footprints from 3.6 million years ago and a skull from 1.6 million years ago. We wander down to the excavation site and find fossilized bones and plant roots from 1.6-1.7 million years ago.

After our visit here we continue on into desolate dry plains, encountering Maasai tending their sheep and goats as well as the occasional village. This is where the government moved many of them when they created Serengeti park. It's allowed to graze cattle, but farming is prohibited in this conservation area. It's approaching dark and we turn at a sign pointing to our lodge 28 km. away. It's not clear that we're on a road, we just continue west along the plains. Eventually we see Acacia tress and about 10 minutes before dark (6:40 PM) we arrive at our very isolated lodge on Lake Masek. It's our group and three other people in the entire lodge. But the food is good and beer and wine come with the meal. It was a long, tiring day, bouncing on that road all day long.

During our drive, Flo and Joe were conversing about where they grew up in New York. After some back and forth about neighborhoods, they discovered that they had graduated in the class of '64 from the same high school! It was a class of 1600, so they hadn't known each other. Mary was so worn out from the dirve that she skipped dinner and went to bed at 7:30.