April 17 & 18, 2015- Ngorogoro Crater

Friday, April 17, 2015

Wake up call & coffee at our tent at 5:30 am. Also, it was time to start the heater as is chilly at the rim of Ngorogoro ( & I hear it's even colder in June & July here). There are just the two of us at Lion's Paw Tented Camp right now....there are six tents. It feels really special to have this beautiful spot under the acacia and umbrella tree forest overlooking the caldera floor all to ourselves (& it's very special for Gary's birthday today though he won't let me tell Peter...). Hot breakfast was served at 6 and we left on safari at 6:30. 

Buffalo

Even though the tented camp is just inside the east gates of the park, we had to drive the 3 minutes there, turn around, do paperwork, & then re-enter the park... You have to chuckle at that but they are serious here about protecting the animals especially the black rhino who has been poached almost to extinction. There are a few here & if we are lucky, we'll get to see them. We saw two laying in the grass yesterday afternoon but they were so far away & hidden, we couldn't get a good photo but Peter, the expert spotter, saw them. 

Pride of lions dots the hillside

Early morning sunning 

We were on the caldera floor in a short time. This is much shorter and less bumpy than the road we took yesterday from the main western entrance. Within just a few minutes we found a pride of lions sunning themselves on an outcropping of rocks. We were able to get a few pictures but they were quite a distance from us & no off-roading is permitted here! 

Three black rhinos very close to the road, one male & two female

The male marks his territory

We cut our lion viewing short when Peter got a call on his radio that some black rhinos had been spotted. I love how all of the driver guides here in Tanzania share information with each other either on the radio or by stopping & chatting when they spot each other. All of the safari companies do this, at least the ones we saw. It is of benefit to everyone. 

Sure enough, there were several safari vehicles parked & all were watching three black rhinos who were very close to the road, one male & two females. Peter says this is highly unusual. They hung around for awhile & then headed their separate ways... We were all quite excited about the spotting including Peter & very happy they were in such a close viewable spot for photos. I guess that means we have now seen the "Big Five"... African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, & the Black Rhino. 

We got our share of more great photos of hippos, hartebeest, gazelles, bull elephants ( the females & babies stay in the protection of the forest at the rim), jackals, ostriches, baboons, buffaloes..... There are even wildebeest & zebra here that don't participate in the great migration.

We were also quite lucky to find a pride of lions, 4 cubs & 3 female adults on the grassy area of the caldera. They were sleeping beside a dead wildebeest. Obviously, the wildebeest had been easy prey & they were not hungry enough yet... Will check back with them later. I've heard that Ngorogoro can be a real zoo of safari vehicles but we have seen very few, I'd say between yesterday & today there have been no more than a dozen so I believe we were just lucky to pick April for our safari dates. It is low season because it's the rainy time, there are less tourists so it's not crowded anywhere (except maybe some hotels), & therefore the prices are better, you get much more for your money. 

Getting a lift from mama

We took some time to drive through the small forested area on the caldera floor. We didn't see any animals in this area but enjoyed the beautiful trees & flowers including a very fragrant wild jasmine. On our way out of the forest area we found a very large group of baboons with many babies. 

It had been a couple hours since we had last visited the lion pride with the wildebeest so we headed back there. The lions had all moved except one adult female who seemed to be guarding the carcass from a couple of jackals who were hiding nearby. At one point, three of the cubs wandered off slowly & after they had been gone a while, the mama who was guarding the prey started calling them back. She did it for a long time but they turned around & then plopped down in the grass. The other two adult females were nearby but no action there. We realized that the carcass was already partially eaten when we saw mama take a few more bites. We watched them for over an hour but we will never know the ending to the story of the three defiant cubs, worried mama, & the hungry jackals tho we can guess....

After a box lunch by a lake (& defending our food from several birds including the beautiful mustard weaver) that had quite a few hippos, we decided to drive out to the Maasai village.


We had seen a couple of Maasai villages on our way into the more popular west entrance with a couple safari tour vehicles parked. We had passed on visiting those. I am very glad because we ended up going to one just outside the east gate that isn't visited as often. We were shocked to learn their last visitors were on March 23rd....that's a long time.

Our welcoming committee... the ladies were amused at my feeble attempts... was fun though!

I try to get my necklace to jump up too

We were greeted by Alias Mollel, a Maasai man who spoke great English. A group of Maasai men & women greeted us with a welcome song & dance. One of the ladies put a beaded neck ring and another beaded necklace on me like all the women who were dancing were wearing and had me join the dance. It looked like their dance basically was to make the necklaces bounce way up and down with what I would call upper chest movement. Was fun & would have been easier for me if I hadn't been wearing my jacket & thick scarf....lots of smiles & laughing from all the ladies.















 Alias then took us inside the village and his small wooden home built out of wood sticks and then sealed with cow dung. There were two beds covered with leather and a small fire pit on the ground in the center which they used to cook over. Their entire diet consists of meat, milk & on occasion, cow's blood mixed with milk. They do not eat vegetables though they do use some plants as medicine. We asked how he had learned to speak English so well & he said he had a sponsor from the US when he was a boy who had paid for him to go to school in Arusha for six years. Apparently, this couple had met him when he was tending cattle when he was a young boy. He decided after his schooling that he should return to his village to help them... He is now 39 years old. 

Alias helps with the calculations of what I bought......

  The ladies set up an immense display of their handicraft items, mainly beaded things. I tried to choose items from different ladies... After our purchase, they were very eager to show us their school which is for the younger children before they are old enough to walk to the next village to primary school. The kids, ages 3-7 sang for us a song which included the ABCs...so sweet! Then they showed us that they could count to 40 in English. Quite impressive. English is the third language here. The first language is not written, only verbal, & the second language is Swahili. I'm so very happy that we chose to visit the Irkeepusi Village. 

The kids check out the photo on Gary's camera

Meanwhile, back at Lion's Paw...... apparently someone knew it was Gary's birthday and there was a surprise greeting on our bed written in beans & corn & flowers...very sweet. 

Path to the dining room & bar

We spent a pleasant evening watching the sunset, drinking some South African merlot, munching on peanuts, & putting the pictures we had taken on to our laptops & iPads.  Then we enjoyed a nice evening meal with Peter and, of course, birthday cake!

View from the front of our tent

Happy Birthday Gary!!!!

Hot water bottles in our bed....ahhhhh!

Saturday, April 18, 2015



    Enjoyed a hot cup of coffee while preparing to leave camp this morning. After a hot breakfast, we departed around 6:40 & left & re-entered the gate once again. This is certainly the better entrance into the crater as the road is much shorter into the crater. 

Our first animal sighting was a herd of buffaloes on and close to the road. Next we spotted three lions laying in the grass. We drove a bit further down the road & saw an amazing sight & sure to be the highlight of the day....many lions on the road in front of us & on the side!!! When we stopped we counted 17 lions!!! 12 of them were cubs, tho quite grown up...probably 6 mos to just under a year old. A couple of the cubs were curious and checked out our vehicle quite closely. One even put it's front paws on the front hood of our vehicle for 10-15 seconds. We were able to get photos of them checking out our tires and playing on the road & grass right next to us! Amazing! I even remembered to take a short video. We stayed for quite a while just enjoying the show they put on for us. A lot of play fighting between some of the cubs which is their way of learning how to catch prey. We certainly feel lucky to be seeing all this & I'm quite surprised by the lack of other safari vehicles on the caldera floor. 

A whole hillside covered with lions.... wow!!!! and no other vehicle in sight! So very special!

One of the cubs

Curious cubs checking out our vehicle....

Up close & personal with our tires....

So close we could almost pet them.... awww.....

     After the lion sighting, we drove half way across the caldera floor to use the restrooms and did not see one other vehicle. The parking lot near the restroom & also the hippo pond, the lunch spot was deserted. Peter says that in the summer there can easily be 200 safari vehicles parked here for lunch. We had re-entered the park gate at approx 6:45am and we didn't see another vehicle until we spotted one at a distance at 8:45am...wow! Another great reason to be here in April!

Can you imagine 200 other vehicles here? Yikes!!!

A couple more lion sightings, another black rhino at a distance, plus many more animal sightings rounded out the morning. I'm feeling quite sad that our safari is nearing it's end. 

Flamingoes.... we couldn't get very close as we have to stay on the roads here....

Enjoying the apple that was stolen from our vehicle

But the excitement hadn't ended yet.,.we stopped to have our lunch in the wooded area with bathrooms. It was warm so we parked under a tree. The excitement began when we spotted a group of little black & white vervet monkeys in the acacia tree above us. Gary scared one of the monkeys away from the hood of our vehicle even as it was hissing at him....Just about the same time, another one jumped from the tree through our open roof & into our vehicle where he quickly found an apple in one of the seat pockets & ran off with it. After he had finished the apple, as Peter was running off another monkey, the little thief grabbed Peter's sandwich from out of his open lunch box..  Oh man, it was war. We decided to get into our vehicle to finish lunch but that wasn't a good plan. As I took a bite of my veggies there was a monkey sitting on the back of my seat, it's head inches from mine!!!!! I shrieked as it scared me so much & that was probably a good thing because it scared him out of the car! Deciding we had had enough of those monkeys, we moved our vehicle into the sun & away from any trees!! You never know what kind of adventure the day will bring....yikes!

There were several so don't know if this is same one now eating Peter's sandwich

Look closely, you can see him eyeing our open roof...oh, my!!!

It was time to say goodbye to Ngorogoro so we drove back over the rim and exited at a different gate, the southwestern one. From there it was an hour's drive to Gibb's Farm Lodge where we only spent one night. 

Gibbs Farm is a coffee plantation and has many gorgeous gardens. The cottages are all very unique and quite luxurious. Some people stay here and then ride for 1 1/2 hours into Ngorogoro Crater.... that's 3 hours of driving round trip! I would rather stay in the tented camp at Lion's Paw and then end up here...lovely.

Our room was really a stand alone cottage..very nice.

Overlooking the coffee fields at Gibb's Farm

Cheers!!! Was an amazing trip.....  Thank you Africa Dream Safaris!!!

Sunday, April 19, 2015 - Karatu, Tanzania

Though we did not take any pictures, I did want to share that we were able to help FAME (Foundation for African Medicine & Education) in Karatu by carrying some equipment in our suitcases on our safari. This wonderful medical foundation started by an amazing California doctor & his wife is partially sponsored by Africa Dream Safaris. They had mentioned in their newsletter that we can help by carrying medical supplies from the states and since we had free luggage that we would not be using, we volunteered. They asked if we could possibly carry three refurbished Apple laptops which we did. We stopped at FAME on Sunday morning to drop them with Will Bowman, the volunteer coordinator (Dr Frank & Susan had just left on the 18th on their annual fundraising trip to the U.S.). We were given a tour of the medical facilities, the hospital & clinic. They are doing some amazing work here and we were very impressed with their operation. They have just expanded with a prenatal clinic...

Check out their website at www.fameafrica.org  for ideas on how to help......