Ngorongoro Crater

September 3^rd

I had arranged for Stephen, my safari guide for the Serengeti, to be our safari guide for the Ngorongoro Crater. I had warned him in advance that my good friend and former colleague from The Sacramento Bee would be joining me. We had not seen each other since February so we would probably talk the entire way to the Crater. He just laughed.

But I wasn’t kidding; I don’t think Maria and I stopped talking from the minute she arrived to the Outpost Lodge in Arusha. We were used to seeing each other every day at work. Then, she was out in the bush in Botswana and I was out in the bush in Zimbabwe and in the jungles of Uganda… we had a lot of catching up to do!

Our conversation ended when we entered the Crater. Stephen informs us that the Ngorongoro Crater is called the eighth wonder of the world and stretches across some 8,300 sq km. It boasts a blend of landscapes, wildlife, people and acchaeology that is unsurpassed in Africa. The volcanoes, grasslands, waterfalls and mountain forests are home to an abundance3 of animals and to the Maasai.

This truly magical place is home to Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys discovered the hominoid remains of a 1.8 million year old skeleton of Australopithecus boisei, one of the distinct links of the human evolutionary chain. In a small canyon just north of the crater, the Leakeys and their team of international archaeologists unearthed the ruins of at least three distinct hominoid species, and also came upon a complete series of hominoid footprints estimated to be over 3.7 million years old. Evacuated fossils show that the area is one of the oldest sites of hominoid habitation in the world. They say this is where it all began…. Is that wild or what?!

In addition to herds of zebra and wilder beats, we see amazing birds; such as the pink flamingos and Uganda’s national bird the crested crane. Then Stephen stops the truck and shuts off the engine when we spot a pride of three female lions coming our way. Maria and I have our heads hanging out the roof, cameras snapping away as our cute, furry subjects come closer and closer and closer…. Ummm, and closer. They are now surrounding the truck. One lion looks as if she is contemplating jumping on the front of the truck. Quietly, Stephen says, “do not move.” Maria opts to quickly sit down. My heart was racing anxiously trying to anticipate the lionesses’ next move. It didn’t take long for our guests to become bored with our presences and move on… as did we.

*Insert sexy music of your choice* After volunteering in Zimbabwe at the lion breeding program it was reassuring to stumble along this next pair. A pair of lions happily mating in the wild…. with an audience of six safari trucks packed with tourists and snapping cameras. But did this distract this pair from their mission? No way! When lions mate they do so every 10 – 15 minutes, day and night for several days. By the looks of this pair, they had been going at it for quite a while. Keep at it guys… we need to make sure you don’t get put on the endangered species list.