Ngorongoro - a dream

The last full day at Rhotia Valley was Safari into the NgoroNgoro Crator. 

The route:



We woke up at 6am, ate at 6:15, boarded our tank of a Land Rover at 7:15 and we’re off. 

Fun facts about NgoroNgoro crater:
  1. UNESCO world heritage site 
  2. It is the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera
  3. 610 meters deep and 260 square kilometers.
  4. Estimates put the higher of the original peak higher than Kilimanjaro - Africa’s current highest point. 
We were told that this is a jewel second only the the Serengeti.  We’ll see about that. 

We saw some very playful (but secretly hateful and menacing) baboons. Think raccoons but with more speed, manual dexterity, intelligence and malice. Yeah. 



To appreciate the ride from the (baboon infested) gate to the creator understand a few facts
  • It’s the dry season 
  • In the wet season rainfall is so intense they cut out drainage gaps 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall
  • Almost everything here is done by hand because human labour costs less than machines in almost all cases. Unseen depressing thoughts here. 
  • The main road is as wide as a Canadian one way street.
  • There are pot holes that would make the most curmudgeon Canadian pick up his rife and a 6 pack of beer and start a revolution 
  • In both directions are vehicles that can run over 6 inch trees with no ill effects
  • All vehicles are going at least 40 kph
  • The road has a cambour - it arches so rain drains away - the trucks lock like they’re in a perpetual state of falling over. 
  • ... and then you reach the one-way 600 Meter decent portion of the road where you can clearly see previous catastrophic washouts. 





It was the most white knuckled ride of my life. The girls were listening to an audio book about Egyptian mythology.  Caitlin was on the not-impeding-death side of the truck and I cleverly distracted her by asking about the geology of the rocks in her side. There was noon for 3 inches preventing us from falling down on my side.

In the crator was an oasis unlike anything we’ve seen so far. Grad grew everywhere. 100 Head herds of wildabeasties roaming the plain. Thompson and Grant species of
Gazelles. Hounds of Hell / Hyenas. Birds and a thick Wakanda type mist blocking our view of the top crater ridge. 



More wildlife - all in a small place. It was like the louvre of creatures you’ve only read about in books when you were learning the alphabet. 






Hippos...about 20 of them nose to nose. 


Cookes


Squat toilets






The big highlight for me was seeing a male lion lying with his one female (for that day, playa is gonna play)


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