Ngorogoro Crater and Serengeti Safari

I arose at 4.30am, with a bright moon shining in a clear, starry sky, and sat down for an early, hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, pancakes with honey and a strange sort of savoury, eggy biscuit, all washed down with fruit juice and tea. Fully satiated we set off for the Ngorogoro crater under a brightening, clear pre-dawn sky, with the horizon going pale yellow ahead of the rising sun. The red soils of Africa painted a reddish pink light along the side of the road and the sky turned to salmon pink in sympathy. An orange, blazing sun began to break the fiery hills, just as a large troop of baboons, with infants clinging to their mother's backs, and large thick-set males, walked purposefully down the road towards us. We stopped in the information centre at the park gates, before driving up the outside of the crater through thick forest and arrived at the most astonishing viewpoint over the crater that I have ever seen. We looked out into an enormous green saucer of plains, rising up through misty clouds to the circular rim of the ancient caldera. In the enormous bowl of land before us we looked down over a large lake filled with the bright pink flocks of flamingos, and the small dark shapes of two elephants at the bottom of the crater rim. The scene was so epic and ancient that the mind's eye struggled to accept that it could be real and not some fantastical dream to wake up from. We then picked our way down rocky roads to the bottom of the crater with wonderful views of the crater all the way down. When we reached the crater floor we were met with the most incredible scene - the crater seemed filled with animals of all kinds like some kind of latter day Eden. Herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and antelope stretched out as far as the eye could see. The spaces were filled with ostrich, warthog and trotting jackals. We were surrounded with life with animals right next to the safari vehicle. We saw large elephants with long tusks and large flapping ears. We continued on through plains of animals with the constantly stunning background of the enormous green, wooded crater sides. We then drove up to an awe inspiring sight of three adult female lions lounging lazily on the road in front of us. They actually got up to actively seek the shade of our safari vehicle and one lioness laid down directly below the window of the car so that I was literally a few feet away from this magnificent animal, gently breathing with her paws stretched out and her tail gently swishing. Then she got up and moved on and another female lion did the same. With this proximity I was able to feel the sentience, breath and spirit of this great predator of the plains. Reluctantly, we moved on and then saw a number of large elephants in the distance. We turned off to a small lake filled with hippos dipping and breathing above and below the water's reflective surface. I stood under a large tree to film them with many tame small birds flying around me and a large kite landing in the tree. When the hippos surfaced in a group of four or five, they made a resonant sound akin to a loud rumbling frog call. We had our lunch looking over the lake with the high crater rim as the backdrop. We drove on to another area where there were large elephants with one very large old male with massive tusks making his way along the edge of a large marsh. We continued past vast herds of animals on the plains and then saw three rhinos in the far distance. We had reached the end of this amazing adventure and climbed out of the crater with more spectacular views over the crater as we left this wonder of nature.
I thought that this was the end of the day's adventures, but little did I know. We continued down the other side of the crater past traditional Maasai round houses and some kind of local celebration with people in colourful Maasai dress. We also had more wonderful views and saw ostrich and several giraffes together feeding from the trees. Then we started to cross the endless flat plains towards the Serengeti. We saw more vast herds of wildebeest, zebra and antelope. This was the last remnants of the great wildebeest migration heading west. We stopped at a monument on an enormous flat plain where fossils of ancient hominids were found and is believed to be the cradle of humanity. I took a moment to look out across the plains and imagine how distant ancestors had lived out countless generations among the animals on a long, long journey towards the human race- it was a deeply moving experience to be in such a place. We then passed more vast herds and rose up into the Naadi hills which is an ancient outcrop of volcanic mantle that has been weathered down and has more trees than the surrounding plains which have thin soils which don't allow trees to grow. We then drove through the Serengeti and more vast herds of animals. The stormy weather began to deteriorate with heavy rain ain falling and the road suddenly turned to rivers which the driver had to bravely negotiate. As the rain fell, we slowed to investigate a rocky outcrop for leopards, but instead we found two large male lions with wet manes, yawning and then standing and walking down the wet road. This was another wonderful lion encounter. We thought we were done for the day and saw some wonderful birds such as vultures, a falcon and a hooded eagle, but then we had the final wondrous highlight when we came across a very large herd of elephants right by the road. We were able to watch them for a long time very close up as they moved past us. Several males were chasing the females in an aroused state. There were young elephants staying close to the protection of their mothers. We watched the elephants bend down to dig for mud and then used their trunks to throw the cooling mud over themselves. You could see the eyes of the elephants looking at us. The elephants came so close that you could hear them blowing and breathing and feel their calm gentleness of spirit despite the feistyness of some of the males chasing the females. It was a moving and unforgettable experience to spend this time amidst such a large herd of elephants. We then drove on to our wild camp, Nguchiro Public Campsite, deep in the Serengeti park with no barriers between us an the animals. Our tents had already been erected for us. We saw antelope in the brush by the campsite and saw a baboon come up to the toilet and shower block. It was therefore with some trepidation that I went to get a cold shower before dinner, but fortunately the only animal encounters I had were with the moths and beetles. There was a gorgeous orange sunset which seemed to illuminate the entire horizon with oranges and pinks. We then had dinner which was prepared for us. As I went to my tent to write my journal and sleep, stars filled the sky and shooting stars fell through the black. Great lightning flashes from distant storms illuminated the night. As I settled into my tent the distinctive wooping calls of hyenas could be heard nearby and I felt in the midst of the deepest wild, evoking some form of ancient ancestral memory of living with such wild animals. I slowly fell to sleep, with crickets chirping and hyenas wooping bringing the timeless rhythm of the African night.Read more