April 16, 2015 - Ngorogoro Crater

Thursday, April 16, 2016

Checking out of Ndutu Lodge this morning, we first took advantage of a hot breakfast before hitting the road at 7:30am. One last drive by the edge of the lake for some bird sightings. We saw some Spotted Thick Kneed Plovers, a Yellow Billed Stork, African Harrier Hawks, & a Cardinal Woodpecker. We are enjoying all of the beautiful & unusual birds here. Even the "common" Superb Starling is gorgeous with it's iridescent glossy blues!

Driving the rather soggy road.....

Our destination today will be Lion's Paw Tented Camp, one of only two camps inside the gates of Ngorogoro Crater. 

Cheetah passes just in front of car when the meal is done

We left the woodland area & ventured on the Serengeti plain once again. After driving about five minutes, Peter spotted cheetah #20 near a herd of wildebeest. As we got closer, we could see that she was feeding on a recently caught tommy (Thompson's Gazelle). We parked about 40 ft from her & watched her eat dinner until she had eaten her fill & walked away. Her tummy was very full! Lots of pictures & a couple videos were taken. 

We drove for quite a while & then crossed over the main dirt road from the southern Serengeti entrance all the way to Ngorogoro Crater and headed straight east to Nasera Rock completely off roading....there isn't even a path here to drive on. Peter said that we could go because the ground feels solid, it's not too wet. If it was wet & we got stuck, it could take three days to get someone here to pull us out..... Yikes! They said we wouldn't see anyone else.

Headed towards Ngorogoro Crater now

We drove through massive herds of wildebeest again interspersed with many tommies ( they say that there are close to one million Thompson Gazelles). At a distance we saw a Masai temporary settlement and some of their herds of cattle & sheep. Sometimes I think we have seen most of the 2 million wildebeest they say are in the Serengeti area! We even ran into a group of eight giraffe walking across the treeless plain & looking a bit out of place...Peter said they are headed across from one wooded area to another.

Temporary Maasi settlement

These giraffe looks a bit out of place...no trees for miles!

  Once we arrived at Nasera Rock, a 100 meter high giant granite monolith, we got out of our vehicle & walked around the rock to stretch out legs.

Ouch! Big thorns on an acacia tree

Beautiful colors on a Roller

Ahhhhh! Perfect place for our box lunch......

 After eating our box lunches, we headed off again on the long drive to the crater passing through the famous Olduvai Gorge, known for ancient hominid ancestors discoveries. 








After ascending the Ngorogoro Crater (really a caldera not a crater), we stopped at the entrance gate on the west and saw our first view of the vast caldera floor. It took over an hour to reach the other side and our camp for two nights, Lion's Paw Tented Camp.

We finally hit the main road to the crater

Our first glimpse of the caldera floor at Ngorogoro from the lookout 

 We stopped multiple times to photograph the abundant wildlife. We were amazed at the thousands of flamingos on the lake. Unfortunately, the road doesn't go very close to the lake & you can't off-road here...big trouble if you do! Apparently, there are powerful binoculars trained on the caldera floor 24 hours a day. This is where there are just a few very endangered rhinos & they are protecting them. On on ride across the caldera this afternoon, Peter spotted a mother & baby rhino laying in the grass quite a distance away. Hopefully we will get a closer shot tomorrow.

Our tent at Lion's Paw Tented Safari Camp inside the gates of the crater

Pretty sunset while enjoying a glass of wine at Lion's Paw while overlooking the crater