Moshi to Ngorogoro Crater and Ngorogoro Crater Safari - July 20th-21st

July 20th-21st, 2008:

Short: Errands in the morning, Meet Ashante’s guide on the road to Ngorogoro, See the Masii herders, Stay in “luxury” tents for the night. Drive to Ngorogoro Crater gate, See LOTS of tourists, See LOTS of animals, Decide this is the best park we have been to yet, Get attacked by birds at lunch, Drive to the Snake Park outside of Arusha.

Long: Yesterday Nikolai and I learned that a trip to Ngorogoro Crater, one of Tanzania’s most beautiful, and most expensive, parks would be just that…Expensive. It would have cost us upwards of $400 just to enter the park for one day. Zhalisa, Christine, and Caroline had booked a two day safari with Ashante that included Ngorogoro crater, and so we negotiated with Methley to join their safari vehicle into the park. We explained to him that we did not need transportation, or lodging, and simply wanted to hop on the safari vehicle in the morning, and off in the afternoon. He initially turned us down, but after a second call, and a discussion about marginal revenue (our professors would have been proud!); he agreed that we could join. Luckily, we were able to negotiate a price that was much less than what it would have cost us had we gone alone.

This morning Zhalisa and Christine left on the safari early, while the Nikolai, Carolina, and I ran errands in the morning. After saying our goodbyes to Tricia and Liam we headed east towards Ngorogoro. The drive was fairly uneventful, but did offer us our first views of the Masaii herders who are indigenous to this part of Tanzania. We regularly saw Masaii along our route and they were easy to spot as most wore very colorful dress, large earrings, and other ornaments. We were surprised to see that many of the Masaii herders begin herding at a young age. On multiple occasions we saw children between the ages of 5 and 7, in some cases alone, herding small groups of cattle and goats.

Around 6 pm we pulled into a viewing area above Lake Manyara that Methely had given us directions to. A few minutes later we met Tricia and Zhalisa, right on-time. We were introduced to Elias, the guide we would have for Ngorogoro, and the girls informed us that he is full of interesting information. In particular, he seems to favor information pertaining to the intricacies of mammal reproduction. They learned today how much semen an elephant can ejaculate at one-time…I think it was something like five liters. After learning a few more “interesting” facts, we followed Elias to Ashante’s tent camp, a short distance off the main road. Nikolai and I were surprised to find that Elias fully expected us to stay in Ashante’s tents, not our own. This was not part of the original deal with Methley. Despite this, Elias told the staff to prepare dinner for us and allowed us to stay the night in the tents. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of these tents, but take our word for it; they were very nice and included a built-in bathroom complete with a hot shower.

Unlike other game drives we have been on, we did not have to wake up too early the next morning. Ngorogoro Crater, as its name implies, is the crater of a dormant volcano. Over thousands of years the caldera has filled in with grasslands and now contains a large, dense, population of animals. Cooler temperatures, and limited tree cover, allow for good game viewing throughout the entire day, rather than just the morning and afternoon. Our group woke around seven, loaded into the Safari Land Cruiser, and we found ourselves at the park gates shortly thereafter. Tanzania, like Kenya, is a more mainstream African safari location, and this was evident as we waited for our park permits. Safari vehicles, filled with tourists, many with their families, lined up to enter the park. The infrastructure at the gate was great, with clean western bathrooms and even an information center. Many of the tourists were older, and we assume fairly wealthy. Most of the nicer, western standard, lodges near the park go for $300-$1200 a night. Similar to Botswana and Zambia, there seems to be a strong market here for luxury safari travel.

After attaining park permits we began the drive up the outer slopes of the caldera. The circumference of the crater is complete, and therefore you must navigate up the steep sides of the caldera, and then descend back down. Our first question was, “Can the animals escape the crater?,” and the answer was yes. All of the animals, including the elephants, have their own migration paths that can take them up and over the crater rim. As we ascended the rim it became increasingly cold and foggy, with visibility dropping to only a few meters. We were told this cool, wet, weather is normal and that the fog typically burns off by midday.

After driving along the rim for a short time, we began the steep decent into the crater. Once we broke out of the clouds we began to see what everyone was raving about. The park is absolutely beautiful. It is my favorite park thus far, and in my opinion, worth the money it takes to enter. As can be seen in the pictures the crater is filled with grasslands, lakes, and a large number of animals. The crater is large enough to offer a complete day of safari driving, but small enough so that the entire crater can be seen at any point in the park. We immediately drove to the shore of one of the lakes where we could see wildebeest and zebras against a backdrop of pink flamingos.

Shortly after visiting the lake we came across a hyena and its cubs feeding on the remains of what looked to be an unlucky wildebeest. It was here we began to realize the downside to being in such a small park with so many tourists. Many of the safari vehicles can see each other in the crater, or can radio each other, and therefore any “special” finds, like a hyena feeding, or a lion, are quickly surrounded by masses of safari vehicles. Despite this influx of vehicles though, everyone is orderly and it isn’t difficult to see and photograph the animals. We came across a huge number of vehicles shortly before breaking for lunch and found a female lion was lying near the road, eyeing a few nearby Zebras. We also found quite a few vehicles around the Hippo pond and for good reason. The Hippos were a lot of fun to watch, as they tend to flip over in the water, as well as listen too, as they also tend to fart a lot.

After a few hours of productive game viewing, we had lunch at one of the lakes in the park and Elias warned us that the birds were known for stealing food. These were quite possibly the most aggressive birds I have ever seen. At one point a portion of my sandwich was taken directly out of my hand. We ate very quickly, and took advantage of the picturesque location by taking some great pictures. We left the lunch area before many of the other vehicles and were rewarded for doing so. A short distance down the road we spotted three females lions, and our first male lion of the trip.

We began the drive back out of the crater less than an hour later, but managed to spot a few elephants before doing so. Nikolai and I were both very happy we took the time to see this park.

Once back at Ahsante’s camp we bid farewell to Elias, Zhalisa, Christine, and Carolina, and Nikolai and I drove to Meserani Snake Park, a camp just outside of Arusha in northern Tanzania. We have put almost 10,000 kms on Betsy, and Twende, the company we purchased the car from, recommended this place for a 10,000 km servicing. The snake park is so named because it offers a snake park, which we never actually saw, but includes a campsite, restaurant/bar, and a truck service center. The place is run by a South African couple, Ma and PJ, who have lived in Tanzania for quite sometime. We spoke with PJ after arriving, and were relieved to hear he would be able to service the car first thing in the morning. After a beer we went to bed hoping that Betsy would be given a clean bill of health the next morning.