Ngorongoro Crater – Home of the Rhino
Today we leave Lala Salama camp for the last time - with the roof closed and our seatbelts on. We are making our way to the Ngorongoro Crater on our way back to Arusha.
Somehow the road feels even bumpier than it did on our way in. We feel every minute of the three-hour drive to Ngorongoro Crater.
We pass a truck that says “highly flammable gas inside”. You couldn’t pay me enough to drive one of those vehicles on these roads. It should say “can explode without warning at any time.”
The Ngorongoro Crater, named after the sound a cowbell makes, is surprisingly small compared to the Serengeti. The crater floor covers only about 100 square miles, yet it holds an incredible concentration of wildlife. It is a conservation area, not a national park, which basically means people (the Maasai) live within the larger protected area.
They coexist with the wild animals.
Today is our opportunity to check off our last animal of the Big 5: the rhino. Among safari destinations, Ngorongoro is considered one of the best places to spot a rhino because the crater floor is relatively contained and heavily protected.
Fun Fact: Park rangers guard the park’s boundaries and do
not let rhino leave.
Edward says our odds of seeing a rhino here, at ~80%, are fairly good. He knows the park very well and has “big hope we are going to enjoy them."
The white rhinos, though much fewer in number, are easier to see. They don’t hide like the black rhinos, which have long been targeted by poachers.
There are no giraffes inside the crater. They can’t do the steep climb in or out. I know they haven’t been featured in my blog. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that they are such graceful, beautiful - and plentiful - animals.
From the top, it’s 1800 feet to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater
We start our slow drive down the one-way cobblestone road into the crater and reach the bottom just as a group of animals is walking off in the distance: wildebeest, zebra, and warthog - about to join an elephant and buffalo. We instantly realize how concentrated the wildlife is here.
The crater is quite beautiful. The animals put on a nice show. For some reason, they are not as shy here as they are in the Serengeti.
I came to Africa expecting endless herds of wildebeest. The main star of the Great Migration, all year long they travel in a loop around the Serengeti. Now in the west and north, they weren't worth our drive.
There is one main road around the lake in the crater and a few offshoots. It means sometimes the animals are very, very far away.
We see jeeps stopped but can't figure out why. Until Edward points to two rhinos sleeping in the distance. They are so far away that even with the binoculars I still can't tell what they are and my camera won't focus on them. Technically Edward had gotten us our rhino, but if that was all I was going to see, I'd be a little disappointed.
In Edward fashion, we don’t watch for long; he says maybe they’ll be up when we pass back through.
Exhausted from our exciting days in the Serengeti, I've abandoned my post as the jeep's lookout. We've seen enough of every animal that I'm really only interested in a rhino now, and already that isn't looking promising. Besides, I don't even know how to find one.
Twenty-five minutes later we stop again at a line of jeeps. “Rhinos,” Edward says. I barely glance up - to discover that these are a bit closer and are standing up. I can actually make out the shape of them and see their horns!
And then they disappear into a ravine. The viewing is over as quickly as it starts.
Until the pair of rhinos pop back out of the ravine, headed directly to us. It is incredible!
After about 4 1/2 hours there, leaving Ngorongoro, I never thought I’d be so relieved to see a paved road.
We are spending tonight in Arusha - back at the same
hotel where we started our adventure seven days ago.
Logistics
- If you don’t want the torture of the free “African massage” you can fly into (or out of) one of the Serengeti’s four air strips.
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