The flight over to the Lake Manyara Airstrip was a bit bumpier than the others we’ve taken but it was short so we didn’t mind too much. As we were leaving the airport, our driver told us about a recommended gift shop that featured high-quality carvings and Tanzanite. If you know Aasma, you know that there was no way we weren’t stopping at the store. One loose stone and two carvings later, we were on our way. The hour-long drive to the lodge passes through a town called Karatu. That may sound familiar to any fans of the show Amazing Race as it was a stop during one of the episodes. Along the side of the road are some quite famous gift shops — the Barak Obama Gift Shop, Michelle Obama Gift Shop, the Hillary Clinton Gift Shop (a clue stop in the show) and the John Kerry Gift Shop.
As we continued en route and climbed the outer rim of the crater, the landscape changed to lush forest and the temperature began to drop. The crater is an extinct volcanic caldera, which prior to its eruption, stood higher than Mount Kilimanjaro. It erupted and collapsed on itself an estimated two million years ago. The rim of the crater is more than 7,000 feet above sea level and is the most intact of any caldera in the world. The caldera lies 1,600 feet below the rim and covers more than 100 square miles, with the highest concentration of wild animals anywhere in the world. The caldera is part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and is a highly protected reserve and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We didn’t arrive at the lodge until just before the time when the afternoon game drive would have left, so we decided to just have a leisurely lunch and enjoy the lodge. Back in the 1930s when the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was built, it was the only lodge on the rim of the crater. The lodge is broken into three almost completely separate lodges, each with it’s own restaurant and lounge area. Each of the thirty rooms provides a great view of the crater below. After lunch, we spent the afternoon enjoying the view and trying to get caught up on the blog now that we finally had internet access again.
At six the next morning, we, along with a charming couple from Britain, were brought into the crater by our guide Erick. We started our descent from the mist-enshrouded rim with the vehicle fully enclosed which was quite comfortable. Once animals, the first being lions, were spotted in the caldera, Erick popped the roof for easy picture taking. Having the roof open was great for taking photos but also gave us an idea of just how cold the crater gets in the winter. It was only just a little above 40 degrees. We were having flashbacks the the long Boston winter.
Our goal for this drive was to find mature male lions. Erick met this challenge only a few hours into our drive as we came across four sleeping in the grass just off the road. We were able to get some nice shots after Aasma jumped out of the truck and poked the beasts. Oh, ok. Maybe she didn’t really do that. We were still able to get some nice pictures.
Erick had a wealth of knowledge about the area. He explained how the original two countries, Tanganyika and Zanzibar combined to form Tanzania back in the mid-60s (the first three letters of each word plus the word nia which in Swahili means purpose, a country with a new purpose). He told us how the country has strived to be welcoming to all ethnicities and religions. He also told us how white rhinos got their name. No, they didn’t get the name because they are white. They are actually grey. What happened is that the British colonialists thought the locals were calling the animal white when in fact they were using the local word for wide mouth.
We saw a number of the usual suspects like wildebeest but also spotted a few new birds including flamingos, Egyptian geese and cattle egrets. Unlike the other parks, the animals in the crater are all resident so it was interesting to see the differences in their behavior. For example, the wildebeest, zebra and gazelles were not as skittish and did not run when vehicles came closes to them. Our last game drive was a very enjoyable one.
After another leisurely lunch, we and our British friends decided that it would be fun to do a Ngorongoro Crater Lodge pub crawl. Hitting the three lounges over the course of the afternoon isn’t that impressive but it was a lot of fun. The next morning we enjoyed our final safari meal and began our long trek to South Africa.
For more Ngorongoro Crater pictures, click here.