Ngorongoro Crater

The view from above the 12 mile wide and 2000 foot deep Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is impressive, the Crater being the remnant of an ancient volcano that erupted and collapsed more than two million years ago, creating a huge stone-lined bowl.

The Crater has been compared to Noah’s Ark and the Garden of Eden, but as the Lonely Planet guide remarks, Noah may be a bit disappointed by dwindling animal numbers these days. However, in our opinion Noah would have no trouble finding Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Thomson’s Gazelle, Zebra, Reedbuck, Hippo, Hyenas (spotted and striped) and thousands of Flamingo wading in the shallows of Lake Magadi – the soda lake on the Crater floor.

The Maasai have cattle grazing rights on the hillsides surrounding the Crater – hence its designation as a conservation area rather than a national park. This was one of the Government’s grand experiments to maintain the integrity of wildlife in the Crater while giving the Maasai as much freedom as possible.

We were unable to get a specific translation for “Ngorongoro”. All meanings relate to its shape - a Maasai word meaning “cow bell”, “grinding bowl" or "mortar”.

Our Lodge was located on the rim of the Crater and next morning we set off in Land Rovers to begin our descent down through the bush to the Crater floor and were thrilled to see Elephant grazing on the side of the road.

Leopard spotting began in earnest. Leopards hunt at dusk and dawn and attempt to get their kill up into a yellow acacia or fig tree as quickly as possible where they spend the day. Leopards are harder to see in acacia trees because their yellow and black coats blend in so well – they are slightly easier to see in green fig trees, but sadly today was not to be the day.

We crossed the Munge River and resting by one of its streams were several lions who casually walked towards us, plopped themselves down for a few minutes in the shade of our vehicle and then interested by something else, meandered away over a narrow stream and out of sight.

The numbers of wildlife in the Crater were astonishing – no sight greater than when our vehicle stopped in the midst of countless Wildebeest and Zebra. Wildebeest is the Lion’s favourite food. The Wildebeest is referred to as “the joker” because it has the horns of a buffalo, the body of a giraffe and the tail of a horse.

At such close quarters the Zebra looked very fat and our guide explained that they produce large amounts of gas and were not necessarily pregnant, although some were. Zebra manes in this group were reddish in colour whereas on the Serengeti the manes were shorter and darker. Lions hunt Zebra too, but have to be careful because the Zebra’s kick is vicious and can smash a Lion’s jaw. Zebra foals are able to walk within minutes of being born and are capable of running within ten minutes in the event of danger.

And then a special sight – a hippo pool containing two dozen of these seemingly loquacious creatures. We couldn’t decide whether they were yawning or just plain talking to one another as they opened and closed their enormous mouths, some of them appearing to bite one another. The Hippos’ underbelly is pink and they spend their days in the water to protect their skins from the sun, coming out to forage by night.

Approaching Lake Magadi, Flamingoes congregated on the water’s edge. A lone Hyena padded through the shallows in the hope of catching an errant Flamingo.

A Jackal had been successful earlier, crunching happily on an unfortunate bird, feathers protruding from its mouth.

The circle of life continued.