Tanzania Safari: Nogorongoro Crater

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 Day 13:  After our morning game drive through the Serengeti, we continued on and back up to the top of Ngorongoro Crater.  After dropping our camping gear and tents off at our campsite on the crater rim, we descended steeply to the floor of the crater.  The bottom of the crater is a nearly flat area with a salt lake and 2 freshwater lakes. 

After just a few minutes driving along the crater floor, we saw 2 lions eating on a freshly killed carcass.  As we stopped to watch, we saw 2 hyenas loping in towards the kill.  The hyenas kept their distance, but as we stayed to watch, more and more hyenas kept coming.  When we thought there couldn’t possibly be any more hyenas in the crater, more kept coming!   It was crazy; they just kept coming and coming and coming.  Soon there were about 60 hyenas.  But still they let the lions eat.  While the lions feasted, the hyenas just ran around and fought amongst themselves.  Eventually one of the lions became satiated and moved only a short distance away before lying down to sleep.  The other lion kept eating, but eventually the hyenas came in real close, and the lion decided it had eaten enough.  But it didn’t leave without letting the hyenas know how it felt.  The lioness took a good swipe across one of the hyenas face and got a good bite into one of them.  But eventually she went off to sleep and then the carcass became one huge mosh pit of hyenas diving in and trying to get a scrap.  There were also a couple of jackals in the mix as well.  It was quite funny to watch!

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We had our lunch next to a pretty lake with hippos in it.  After our lunch we happened upon quite a lot of lions.  As there is hardly any shade down in the crater, in the heat of the afternoon, the lions have learned to seek the shade of tourist vehicles.  They lie along side of the road, where a vehicle spots them and pulls up right next to them, allowing the lion to sleep in the shade.  If the vehicle leaves, then often the lion gets up and moves down to the next vehicle in line before plopping down.

A couple lions found the shade of our van and lied down right next to our rear tire.   It was really awesome because we were so close.  You could have almost reached your hand out the window and petted one of them.

The crater is one of the best places to find the highly endangered rhino.  Unfortunately we (and in fact, no groups that day) were unable to find one.

In the evening we camped up on the chilly and foggy crater rim.  I went off to the edge of the woods around the camp to spit out my toothpaste.  On my way back, I was focusing on finding the tents straight ahead of me and didn’t really look left or right, especially since headlamps only point straight ahead.  It so happened that I walked about 5 feet behind a giant elephant taking a sip from the camp’s water supply!  Elisha saw me as I walked right behind it.  Crazy how close I was considering how wary we are of them at Mpala.