Here is the detail we received from our safari company for our safari today: After breakfast you will head out for an en route game drive through the Serengeti. You might be able to spot the “Big Five” – lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard – before embarking on your journey to Ngorongoro Crater. This UNESCO world heritage site, formed millions of years ago, is 600 m deep and covers roughly around 260 square kilometres. Due to its dense animal population of approximately 25,000, the Crater offers the best game viewing of all the parks in Tanzania. You will arrive at the Crater rim before lunch. You will descend into the Crater and very quickly, you will be able to see wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, elephants and some of the more than 500 bird species in the area. With a little bit of luck you might catch a glimpse of the endangered black rhino through the grass.
We got an early start today for our en route game drive. We started just as the sun was beginning to creep toward the horizon. As we drove, we were treated to a glorious sunrise over the Serengeti. Along the way to Ngorongoro we saw many birds, including ostriches that were close to the road and other animals. One of the cooler things we saw en route was a giraffe walking across an alkaline lake. That was quite a site. Richard told us he has never seen that before.
Serengeti Heritage Luxury Tented Camp
Hyena
Banded Mongoose
Our guide, Richard
Black-backed Jackal
Common Ostrich (female)
Lappet-faced Vulture
Giraffe
Zebra
While the description above, and the official name of Ngorongoro Crater, both reference a crater, Richard reminded us this is not geologically accurate. This area is actually a Caldera. We arrived and descended into the Caldera. From above the Caldera looks large. Once you are inside it feels 100 times bigger.
Part of the road down into the caldera
Some of the diverse landscape within the caldera
When we arrived in the caldera we stopped by the bathrooms. We ran into another group of tourists who recognized us. Apparently we both have a similar safari program and they noticed us in some of the other parks. They nicknamed us “the honeymooners” because we are young and they assumed this must be our honeymoon. We told them we have been married for 10 years. They couldn’t believe it. We couldn’t believe they recognized us. We did not recognize them at all. We haven’t been looking at the other tourists. We have been more focused on the animals.
We were immediately impressed by the wide range of herbivores all around us. We saw herds of wildebeest, gazelle, zebras, and African buffalo. They were seriously everywhere you looked. We enjoyed driving around and observing their behavior. We saw wildebeest butting heads and zebras running and playing.
Warthog
Golden Jackal
Bloat of hippos, dazzle of zebras, and confusion of wildebeest
Dazzle of Zebras
Grey Crowned Crane
Confusion of Wildebeest
As we drove we were on the lookout for predators. We found one gnarly looking Buffalo carcass that was super picked over. Then we found some predators. We saw a couple of lions sitting in the grass. Not far from the lions, vultures were circling, so we headed that direction to see what was going on. There was a hyena feasting on the carcass of a wildebeest. It was likely killed by the lions. Since the lions already had their fill the remaining carcass was left to the scavengers. In addition to the hyena, there was a pack of jackals, and a wake of vultures all trying to get at the remaining meat. The hyena was the biggest and no other animal dared to challenge it. We watched as it ate its fill and then broke off a leg and loped off. At that point the jackals were all on top of the carcass. Occasionally some of the vultures would try to sneak in and a jackal would run them off. It was good watching.
Picked over remains of an African Buffalo
A lioness in the grass
A Hyena, Jackal, and White-backed Vultures
Pack of Jackals run off encroaching vultures
A Wake of Vultures impatiently waits their turn
The Wake of Vultures move in
We moved on to see what else we could see. We drove around the nearby alkaline lake where we observed flamboyances of flamingos. We saw many more wildebeest and zebras. We saw zebras rolling around on the ground to get rid of parasites and warthogs wallowing in the mud to cool their body temperatures. We also came across a solitary elephant with long tusks.
Blacksmith Lapwing
Lesser Flamingo
Glossy Ibis
Sacred Ibis
A Flamboyance of Flamingos
A Sedge of Grey Crowned Cranes
Sounder of Warthogs wallowing in the mud
We made our way away from the groups of animals and into an open grassy area. We were on the lookout for the elusive black rhino. They are endangered and there are only around 50 in Ngorongoro, but we had our fingers crossed. We covered many kilometers of dry grassy trails with no luck. Today was pretty dusty and everything in the vehicle ended up covered in a fine layer of dust.
Augur Buzzard
Saddle-billed stork
We made our way up a small hill to get a better vantage of the surrounding area. The view was incredible. We could see all kinds of wildlife below. The most incredible were the elephants. You could easily see them from this distance without binoculars or anything. While we ate lunch, we watched two elephants chase away zebras and wildebeest. It was an incredible lunch view. From our vantage point we spotted a rhino. It was way in the distance. I couldn’t really see it with my camera, but with binoculars you could see it fairly clearly.
That grey dot in the middle of the picture is a Black Rhinoceros
These elephants chased away the dazzle of zebras
How many elephants do you see?
We headed in the general direction of the rhino, but we knew we were unlikely to find it. Instead we ended up at a deep pond. Here hippos could fully submerge. They would periodically pop up for air. It kind of looked like they were playing a game. We drove around a little more and saw an ostrich and an elephant. Then we decided to try something new.
A Bloat of Hippos
Common Ostrich (male)
We went back toward the entrance to the caldera to drive through a forested area. This is another area rhinos can be seen sometimes. We slowly drove through the forest for about an hour. We didn’t see any rhinos, but a big parade of elephants did walk right by us. We love elephants so that was cool.
A Parade of Elephants
Hammercock
Once we made it through the forest it was time to leave. We ascended out of the caldera. We stopped by the overlook point on our way out. This time it was clear. We used our binoculars to see if we could spot a rhino. We spotted a couple of elephants and then we saw it. There was a rhino. At first it was laying down and then it got up and walked around. When it stood up we could clearly see the shape of the body and the head. We saw a rhino. We would have loved to see one closer, but at least we saw it, if even from a distance. We saw the big 5 on safari.
A Black Rhinoceros is at the edge of the large grey section above
Then we headed back to Eileen’s Trees Inn to overnight before our last safari day.
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