Tanzania Part 4 Ngorongoro Crater

We had 2 or 3 more flights to get from Grumeti to Manyara. On arrival we were met by Ernest who gave us such a great tour of Tarangire. In our original plan we would have done this part and then gone to Grumeti, but after needing to move our itinerary by 2 days due to the canceled flight from Seychelles, this sequence was changed. Ernest seemed happy to see us. He told us later that he did not have other work while we were in Grumeti. He might have mentioned this to get a larger tip, but he was so good we tried to be generous.
We told Ernest that we wanted to see some Tanzanian crafts, so he took us to some shops to look. We were not terribly impressed because most things we saw were more like "trinkets", though they were not bad ones and they mostly seemed to be made in Africa rather than China or Malaysia or Indonesia. We bought a few little items and hoped to look more on our last day.
We took a very rough road to Gibb's Farm for lunch. This is a coffee plantation that is also a nice Inn. They had a very good lunch buffet and Ernest joined us for lunch. They also had a nice gift shop though the prices seemed a bit high. We saw some nice crafts on the walls here for decoration too. The grounds were very pretty and it looked like a nice place to stay.
After lunch Ernest took us to meet Daniel Tewas. He is a local man who is a member of a tribe called the "Irwaq" or something like that. He was obviously very bright and told us a lot about the Irwaq and how they came to this area about 2000 years ago. He told us about his farm and some of the customs of the people. He showed us how he built two underground tanks where he puts the cow manure and that these tanks supply methane gas to burn in his kitchen and supply light in his house. He learned how to do this by attending a local agricultural fair some years ago. He also showed us how people lived in huts mostly below ground level in the past and he demonstrated how to throw a spear and a club that the Masai used. Ernest and I tried throwing the spear too and we were only successful in showing that it must take a lot of practice for both accuracy and distance! Daniel's wife also made crafts that were for sale. We greatly regret that we could not afford to buy one of the Irwaq "wedding skirts" she made. They are made from goat skin and have a lot of beadwork on them. Daniel explained a lot of the symbolism used. Janet wore one of them for a little while. They are great folk art.
In Tanzania and many other parts of the world, the preferred currency is US dollars, though they have their local currency too. We had a shortage of dollars on this trip because we were not allowed to get much in India, which is very annoying.
Daniel also told us a lot about how Tanzania got its independence in 1961. We said that we remember trying to learn the names of countries in Africa in those years, but they kept changing names!
Ernest said that we had to leave so we could go into Ngorongoro conservation area to our camp before they closed the gates at 6PM, so we left Daniel and his farm. The ride to the park was hurried, but we got to the gate about 10 minutes before 6PM. There was then a fairly long ride up the side of a mountain on somewhat rough roads to the "Crater Lodge". This is a wonderful place with great accomodations! We saw zebra roaming the grounds as it got dark. At all of our camps were were instructed not to leave our tents after dark without getting an escort. The escorts were usually Masai who carried a flashlight and either a steel spear or a large stick. Problems are rare, but but they have more experience in what to do in case of some danger. It was actually quite chilly at the camp. The temperature probably went below 50 degrees F at night. They had a nice wood stove in the room and had a fire going to warm the place before going to bed. It was very cozy!
Ngorongoro crater was formed long ago when a volcano collapsed on itself. the top of the mountain is long gone, but the sides are still there and the inside is the crater. We read that the inside is about 100 sq. km in area and richly loaded with wild animals. The animals have no really good reasons to leave the crater, but some roam out from time to time. Ernest was worried that we would come across an elephant that decided to take a walk out on one of the exit roads- it is then a very long and slow journey as the elephants go at whatever pace they wish. This area is part of or close to the "rift valley" and to Oldapai gorge. The rift valley was and maybe still is a very "active" area in geological terms. The Oldapai or oldavai gorge is where, in the 1960's Louis and Mary Leakey found ancient bones of human like ancestors. So, this was about as close to "home" as any human can get.
We did not mention this yet, but one thing we learned from this trip is that African elephants are "bullys"! They push every other animal around- we witnessed them as they push Zebra out of the way in Tarangire and then at Grumeti we saw them pushing lions and later hippos out of their way. They are really the "kings". We saw a film on our plane trip about how elephants in southern africa were actually killing rhinoceros!
We had a good dinner at the Ngorongoro lodge and then had a good breakfast there in the morning too before we headed out with Ernest to the bottom of the crater around 9AM. We wanted to see Rhinos. We read that there are 13 here, but Ernest said he has seen babies so he thinks it is more like 20 now. These are "black rhinos" which were almost hunted to extinction by poachers in the 1980's. They were no longer in Tarangire because of that poaching.
The drive into the crater was a little slow and rough. There was dense fog near the top of the crater. Near the bottom we saw some Masai minding their goats and cows. They still use the crater from some grazing, but the amount has been decreasing over the years. We understand that there were agreements that allow them to do this, but those are being abolished or reduced over time. We presume the crater will be a park some day with fuller protections from humans.
We drove around various parts of the crater seeing many animals of species we had seen before. At one point we came closer to some buffalo than we had seen before. A little further along the road we saw a couple other vehicles stopped and then we spotted two female lions in the tall grass. As we watched them watching for possible prey (none in sight) one got up and walked right past our vehicle- largely ignoring us. Then we saw it going toward some other tall grass and 2, then 3 small heads of lion cubs poked up! The second lioness came over and escorted the 3 cubs to a stream where they all drank and rested.
We drove more and saw many more animals all over. We stopped to take pictures of a group of hyenas and jackals that were cleaning up the remains of a wildebeast. Eventually, we saw a black rhino, but it was far away. One end of the crater has a large lake where hippos live. As it got near lunchtime, Ernest said he was sorry but he forgot to pickup our picnic lunch from the lodge. He then drove on a rough little road to a quiet place under some trees where there was a table set up and a crew of people preparing lunch for us! It was excellent food and in a very special place!
After lunch we went back on the road and past - or through- a large herd of Zebra. On another road we stopped to take pictures of a group of 5 lions lying right next to and ON the road. They were sleeping during this part of the day.
We continued to look fo a closer view of a rhino when we saw 2 far from the road. We waited and watched as they eventually walked closer to us and the road. We could see well enough that it was a mother and her calf who was about 2 years old. The calf seemed nervous, but mom eventually brought him across the road a few hundred feet in front of us. Unfortunately, we could not see them so well because some other vehicles came along and got between us and them, but we saw well enough.
Ernest took us through a forest area in the crater. The leopards like this area and the elephants, and we soon found that the baboons like it a lot too. there was a large troop- perhaps 40 in and near the road. We watched them for awhile. There were several babies that were very funny to see playing by jumping on twigs and on bigger baboons. One female picked up a baby like a ragdoll and held it upside down by one leg as she pulled insects off of the baby- it was funny to see!
We left the crater up the steep road and made our way to a Masai village on the crater rim. We were wary of this because we read taht many such experiences are unpleasant because of the pressure to buy trinkets. This one was ok from that perspective, but some other tourists had arrived just before us and after the "welcome song" and "welcome dance" we went into the compound where they showed us the inside of one of the little huts. The huts are made from sticks and cow dung, which is a little hard to believe, but it did not smell bad. However there were a lot of flies. The inside was very dark except for a small slit to let in afternoon like and let smoke out from a small cooking fire. It was warm, but not hot inside. As mentioned, it does get quite chilly here at night. When we left the hut we viewed hundreds of bracelets and trinkets made by the Masai women and some wood clubs made by the men- we presume. We did not see any we really had to have. As we were walking around, a women from the other group was arguing with the Masai about her missing camera. She thought she had it in the kindergarten school room they showed us where we saw kids from 3-6 years old reciting the english alphabet and counting numbers. They also learn Swahili and their own language as well. The women was adamant that someone- probably a child took her camera. The village elders got into the picture- the elders normally are relied upon to settle disputes. The Masai have little use for cameras, so it seemed unlikely it was taken, but we continued looking at the trinkets. That group left and we later learned that the women's camera was found in her bus. We did not see anything we felt we wanted. We would have bought some beaded bracelets if there were a really good one or we might have bought one of the wood clubs, except that our travel agent had a very fine example given to us as a gift at the Crater lodge. So we left empty handed. There was a group of Masai by our car and we think they were asking Ernest for money, but they did not bother us.
We left the village feeling a little guilty that we had come from a place so much better off in terms of daily risks and health worries, but we also realized that here in India there are millions upon millions of people who live in equally primitive conditions. We see "tent villages" near every construction site where poor people live while they work at dangerous jobs for little money and then their plastic tents are pulled down when they move to the next place.
We returned to the camp and enjoyed its luxury as we packed up to leave for Masai Mara in Kenya in the morning.
We road with Ernest in the morning on the long road out of the crater conservation area and toward the airport. We stopped at a couple places to shop for crafts. One was very nice, but actually a bit overwhelming as it was huge! We bought a few more small items and continued to the airport. We did stop at an ATM and got money to give Ernest a good tip- in Tanzanian Shillings instead of our precious few dollars!
We had NO tickets for our flights from Manyara to Masai Mara, but Ernest assured us that we would be met at each airport and everything would go smoothly. He was right. We had a total of 4 flights this day- July 24. Manyara to Arusha, Arusha to Kilimanjaro. From there we went through immigration and got some help changing our remaining TZ shillings to dollars. We boarded a larger plane from "Safari Link" which took us to Nairobi and then one to Masai Mara after we paid our visa fees in Nairobi. It went smoothly- as Ernest promised!