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Our Trip To Ngorongoro Conservation area

We left in the morning after having breakfast prepared by our excellent cook Charles from Shidolya Tours and Safaris. After a few kilometers, we headed uphill over the Rift Valley, we saw multitudes of baboons playing on the street. When we reached the top we had a great view of the valley and the lake Manyara below. We had to stop at the gate to pay,It took a while for him to get all the permits. While we waited, I tried to get a map of the park thinking it will be free, but they were quite expansive. Before going down into the crater, we saw herds of water buffalos. There were also villages of Masai with their small round huts. Some Safaris stopped there, but that was not part of our deal. We had many Masai kids trying to sell us all kinds of stuff. We stopped for a few children. One time I opened the window and gave them a small bill and by accident I dropped it on the street. The kids jumped on it like vultures, there was nothing left of the bill, all shredded. I felt bad.

We saw some Masai warriors with their colorful robes mainly red or blue, they had spears. We found out it was to protect themselves against lions. Not a walking stick. I thought if they travel in group they could actually hurt a lion.

Tara and me, we took a picture on top of the rim. There was also the burial site of two Germans. Michael and Bernhard Grzimek, two famous German zoologist and conservationalist.

We drove down to the huge crater slowly because it's narrow and steep. This is what it's written in the website: "The jewel in Ngorongoro's crown is a deep, volcanic crater, the largest unflooded and unbroken caldera in the world. About 20kms across, 600 meters deep and 300 sq km in area, the Ngorongoro Crater is a breathtaking natural wonder." When we reached the crater we were surprised to see kids selling jewellery. We bought a couple of necklaces made of wood, the kids were very happy. We may have overpayed but seeing the joy in their faces was priceless.

We saw most of the animals we wanted to see ,but we missed the leopards. There is no giraffes in the crater apparently it's too difficult for them to go down the crater because of their long legs.

This was our third park. We saw some animals for the first time. Two of the big ones were the rhino and the lions. We saw also alot of other popular animals: elephants, impalas, zebras, water buffaloes, birds of all kinds....This place is truly full of animals.

We waited a long time to see lions. I complained to our guide about the lack of sightings, but he did not seem to be worried. Our safari was almost over when we saw a few lions too far to take a descent picture. But, on our way out we saw a couple of them pretty close. Emmanuel our humble guide did not let us down. We had lunch by a big lake. The weavers kept landing on top of our safari van, four by four. They were looking for food. We left the park very happy about everything we saw. We highly reccommend our guide Emmanuel and his safari company Shidolya Tours.

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