Ngorongoro Crater National Park Safari
From the Tanzanian town of Arusha, the Ngorongoro crater national park is about 120 miles by road. The roads were not that bad / bumpy when compared to the drive to Serengeti from crater. Ngorongoro Lodware gate is the entry point if driving from Arusha. There are troops of baboons that hang around the gate that have mastered the art of getting food from the vehicles stopping at the gate while validating their permits. One has to be vigilant with locking the vehicle and while getting in / out of the vehicle as they could sometimes damage photography gear / passport documents if they manage to get in the vehicle. Also the vehicles need to have an entry / exit stamp while entering the park. So if you have a one day permit and are staying inside the park then it’s best to enter towards late afternoon and that gives you a full 24 hours entering/ exiting the park - we entered late afternoon and did a game drive the next morning and then exited out of the crater national park to proceed towards Serengeti.
A lot of tourists are now visiting the park and the management is trying to restrict the visitors visiting the park. The park is very strict about the vehicles used for safari - one cannot use open vehicles that we see in Serengeti / Masai Mara for game drives here. Off-roading and night drives are not allowed within the park.
The crater and the park is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Ngorongoro name is derived from the sound of the cow bells ( ngoro ngoro). You will see some of the cows while visiting the park and they will have bells around their neck and if you listen to the bells, you can distinctly hear them making the ngoro ngoro sound :)
The crater is the highlight of the park and the ecosystem provides shelter to an abundance of wildlife in a relatively smaller area. There are black rhinos at the crater and if you are targeting the big5, you could get to see them here. Not an assured sighting, but if you are spending a full day or more, you can try. All the lodges are located at the crater rim - there are no accommodations available in the crater floor. It gets very cold at the crater - so if visiting definitely carry layers and warm clothes. At the crater floor there are park managed restrooms - they might not necessarily be easily accessible depending upon where you are at the floor. We ran into a situation of the restroom closest to us being not operational and had to drive a bit further to use one.
There is a view point in the park at the crater rim where a lot of vehicles stop. It pays to take binoculars when going to the view point -we managed to see rhinos, herds of zebras, wildebeest in the crater through our binoculars.
We stayed at the Sanctuary Crater camp for 1 night. We spent very little time at the camp - reached after sunset and checked out early morning for game drive and subsequent drive to Serengeti. The camp has ensuite bathroom and heater / electric blankets were provided. The staff were wonderful during our limited time and we will definitely recommend staying there. One of the advantages staying here was that one could drive down to the crater early in the morning before it gets crowded.
Some of the bird and mammal species we saw at the park are Grant’s gazelle, Thomson gazelle, Kori bustard ( largest flying bird in Africa), Secretary bird, Lappet-faced vulture (dominant and biggest vulture of the species seen here), Rufous-naped lark known for it’s distinctive singing, Augur buzzard, flocks of red-billed quelea (small sparrow like bird), Tawny eagle, Ostrich, Serval, lion, Black-backed jackal, baboons, elephants.
It was pretty interesting to observe the Secretary bird and see why the name makes sense for the bird. It seems their name came from the secretaries in the past that wore long knee length pants. These birds also have long black legs. They eat snakes, lizards, mice etc. Their hunting technique involves killing the prey by stomping which can be compared to the typewriting skills of secretaries in the past. We usually saw them in pairs at most places. We were fortunate to see one of them roost before sunset high up on the tree. It was pretty cool to watch the bird organize the leaves (bed) on the tree before finally lying down and disappearing from our sight. The bird went to bed just as the sun was setting.
One of the highlights of our trip to the crater was observing a pride of 4 female lions. We saw that the lions had some blood on their face and knew that they had made a kill or ate some prey before we observed them. We came to know later from another group that hyenas came and got away with their kill. There were a lot of movement of wildebeest and zebras in the crater. The lions were not necessarily looking for a hunt and spent some time near some of the vehicles and were totally unbothered by vehicles. One of the younger females less than 2 year old was practicing her hunting skills. If you do observe the wildebeest move - they move in a line and one of the reasons they do that is big cats, for example, lions like to mark / identify their prey and then make a move to kill. When everyone moves in a line it becomes difficult for big cats to mark their prey. We saw this female stalking, moving ahead towards the herd of wildebeest, again stalking and moving. Our guide did mention that she might get unsuccessful given her age and usually they get successful at hunting as they grow older. Finally we see that the Wildebeests are moving and were usually running in the straight line and lioness is moving towards them. She finally identified her mark and then dashes - given her young age and limited skills she was unsuccessful. It was amazing to see her trying to make a kill when the rest of her family were resting and observing her. She will hopefully be an alpha female in the pride in future as she had all the markings of a leader.
We also saw a pair of mating lions. The male was one of the most handsome males we saw in our entire safari trip - he was of the prime age around 6 years and with a dark mane. We did not witness their mating interaction while we waited but was interesting to see the male trying to wake the female up by biting her tail. She just woke up looked at him, told him she was in no mood for it and went back to sleep. The male also laid down beside her ^^
Of all the wildlife seen I personally feel hyenas are the superstars - we saw them everywhere. They just show up wherever some activity is happening and then figure out what needs to be done. As we all know showing up is what matters a lot even in our daily life for a lot of things.
We spent only a morning game drive at the crater and were able to see a good mix of wildlife. The vegetation at the crater floor is very different from what you will find at the Serengeti - so definitely make a point to visit it once. Also photographing the animals at the crater in the morning light was very special and will recommend visiting if you are a photography enthusiast.
Watch our YouTube video on this trip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXIwnHWFSMs
