The jewel in Ngorongoro's crown is a deep, volcanic crater, the largest un flooded and unbroken caldera in the world.
Ngorongoro means 'The Cow Bell" - and it is such an apt name as the crater is surrounded by the pasture land of the Maasai where their magnificent big horned cattle graze, as they have been doing for thousands of years.
About 20kms across, 600 metres deep and 300 sq kms in area, the Ngorongoro Crater is a breathtaking natural wonder.
All I know is that it took my breath away when, still dark, we crested the rim and started making our way down the side into the crater. And then, when the sun started peeping over the rim on the opposite side and breaking through the thick cloud cover that sat like a lid on top of the crater, throwing a distinct spotlight on the huge flat bottom of the bowl, I started crying. It was simply too much beauty to absorb. It was overwhelming. It was the wonder of nature at its most splendid, at its most spectacular, at its most awesome. A beautiful cow bell, perfect, unique.
The eland -- the biggest antelope, surrounded by the ubiquitous Thompson's gazelles
Just after we had started to descend the 600metre rim of the crater -- a wall almost straight down, we came across this big old tusker. A Massive elephant that had obviously seen some action in his long life - and with tusks the size of which I have not seen in many many years.
It was a cloudy day when we entered the crater. The effect was that it was like being inside a large stadium with a roof cover, as the clouds seem to lay on the edges of the rim that runs all round the crater -- forming a lid. The consequential atmosphere is slightly muggy, slightly warm, strangely silent, eerily secretive -- as if we had left the world outside and entered another space, another time, another hidden place -- a little bit like the twilight zone! Not too good for photographs, but making it more of a spiritual experience.
A lone Grant's gazelle wandering over the open plain
Along the bottom of the rim is the occasional forested area where most of the elephants seem to hang out.Here, another huge tusker! Seems that it needed a hidden place like the crater bowl for elephants to come to grow as nature had intended for them - so old and so peacefully that their tusks can reach these huge proportions.
My father used to take my children on Sunday mornings to the Austin Robert Bird Sanctuary in Pretoria, near our home. And their favourite bird -- for all three my children, was the Crowned Crane. In the crater there are many pairs and, in places, there were even up to thirty or forty pairs together. "They are probably here on holiday from Uganda," said Livingstone, with a smile. "Most of our tourists are mazungu's (white people) but on occasion we get some Africans visiting the Reserve -- especially these cranes from Uganda." (The crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda and do migrate south during the colder months) But then, Livingstone also told us all the animals were lying down because it is winter! This became our little in-joke during our time with him -- he was probably one of the best ranger/wild life guides I have ever met and his knowledge seemed to be limitless. All the little idiosyncrasies of every animal, habits, diet, mythical stories, as well as the best eyes -- he could see a lizard in a tree at fifty metres -- an excellent guide for our time in the Serengeti and Crater.
The mass migration happens towards the end of October, but there was still thousands of wildebeest and other herd animals. The wildebeest here are the Whitebearded Wildebeest -- all sporting a white beard the boys in our groups were very envious of!
This couple were thoroughly enjoying a freshly killed wildebeest. Their two cubs wandered around patiently in the distance while their parents continued to eat. But the amazing thing about this scene was the scavengers hanging around in the neighbourhood, waiting their turn; there were hyena, blackbacked jackal (the least patient -- they even managed to grab a morsel of meat every now and then right out from under the noses of the lions), golden jackal (who seemed to have befriended a hyena) and a tawny eagle -- all waiting for the lion pair to finish their meal.
The flamingoes -- a splash of bright pink on the soda lake
Livingstone - our excellent guide. For some reason I started calling him Sylvester -- some of my readers know me -- I tend to associate different names with people than those their parents had given them. Why Sylvester? How did I get there from Livingstone? Perhaps somebody out there can explain!
And -- there was so much more! But my camera battery ran out! So -- as soon as Shani Fraser sends me her stunning photographs of the big pride of lion we saw, I shall be sharing it with you -- trust me -- well worth the patient wait!
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