Safari Day 4 – Ngorongoro Crater with a Lion Kill

January 27^th, 2024

This morning’s sunrise was even better than yesterday’s.  Our campsite was on the western rim of the Ngorongoro Crater so we had a view of the sun rising on the opposite side, although we couldn’t see down into the crater.  Our guide Lewis told us that Ngorongoro means “cow bell” in the local Masai language…since their cattle have bells around their neck.  The Masai can no longer have their cattle in the crater area but have a conservation area outside of it.

The lovely tree by my tent:

After another early breakfast, we waited for the other vehicle to show up with the Portuguese group and then we began to backtrack towards the Serengeti to get to the entrance gate to the crater.  We hopped out of the land cruisers while the guides paid our fees.  We were now viewing the crater from the north side, whereas a few days ago we were on the opposite end.  There’s a big lake in the center of the caldera that was reflecting the morning sun.  Thermals were just starting to pop as I enjoyed watching a flock of soaring birds circling around.  Just in the 10 minutes that we were at the gate, it was noticeable that the birds were having to flap less and less as the warm rising air kept them aloft.

Heading back towards the Serengeti:

The lighting was amazing...

The view into the crater:

Lewis drove us down the steep, cobblestoned road and I continued to enjoy watching the hundreds of birds soaring around.  As we reached the bottom, some 600 meters down from the rim, we were greeted by our first wildlife, a male lion lying beside the road resting.  Another 50 meters ahead, there was a lioness in a tree, which was interesting to watch as she did not look comfortable, and we thought she might fall out at any time.  On the opposite side of the road, there were at least two lions in a big bush with foliage so dense that we could only occasionally make out the movement of a limb or tail.

Tough to make out in this small picture, but there are hundreds of birds soaring here...

Birds working the early morning thermals:

A male lion just chillin' out. even with all the flies on his back:

That doesn't look comfortable...

Time to get out:

Continuing on, I was just mesmerized by this terrain and the plentiful wildlife enjoying this habitat.  We saw a couple of solo male elephants, massive guys.  There were many zebras, wildebeests, some African buffalos and by the lake, even some greater and lesser pink flamingos, a new animal sighting on this safari.  

A young one with her mother:

A zebra-fest!

Some flamingos:

An interesting flamingo dance...he's trying to stir things up...

Crocodile Dav-ee!

One of the bull elephants we saw:

At this point, Philip relayed to Lewis (as he was the best English speaker of the Portuguese group) that Paola needed to go to the bathroom.  Lewis remarked that we were in a pretty exposed area of the crater, not just from the animals, but also from the many land cruisers with tourists driving around.  He asked if she could wait and she said that she could.

One of the "Big 5", the African buffalo:

Nice beak!

The rest of our group in the other vehicle:

The views were stunning:

A real "zebra crossing" (for those who don't know, the British call pedestrian crosswalks "zebra crossings".

A couple of grey crowned cranes, the bird that is on the Ugandan flag:

More flamingos:

Many, many wildebeests:

We stopped for a bit to watch a large herd of wildebeests crossing a small river flowing into the lake.  Lewis pointed out that there were three zebras who were hanging out, watching how the crossing was going.  They were trepidatious as to whether there were any predators in the water such as a crocodile.  

After the zebras had seen a number of wildebeests cross, they finally committed to the short walk in the water, which was actually pretty deep in one section.

Finally the zebra crosses:

More follow suit:

A wildebeest up close:

We turned down one road and there was a small lake about 80 meters from the road.  There were four lions in the tall, bushy vegetation.  One of them, the lioness, suddenly started walking parallel to the road, in the opposite direction that we were driving, just 50 meters or so away.  Lewis stopped, and then began to reverse the land cruiser.  She was definitely on the prowl, in her stalking mode.  Lewis asked me if I saw any other animals nearby, and sure enough, there was a solo wildebeest about 400 meters away, walking in our direction.

On the hunt...

It was amazing to me that the lioness totally ignored our big, noisy diesel vehicle keeping pace with her as Lewis’ backing up skills were tested.  Lewis mentioned that he was concerned that the other three lions, who must have been the offspring of the lioness, might scare off the wildebeest as they were walking normally and were easier to see than their mother.  They were a hundred meters behind her though.

The lioness then crouched down, deciding she didn’t want to get any closer to the wildebeest to avoid being spotted.  Lewis stopped the vehicle and popped up through the front roof top to join me.  We could just see the top of the lion in the bushes.  The wildebeest got closer and closer.  I figured that he might be going for a drink at the small lake but he veered away from it, and his new path took him on a collision course towards the lioness.

She got lower than this...we could just barely make out her back.

Everyone in the land cruiser was silent as we anticipated what was about to unfold.  The wildebeest paused for a second, shook his head, and then continued to saunter forward.  Suddenly, with only a 2-3 meter gap between the animals, the lioness jumped up and pounced on the wildebeest.  In a defensive maneuver, the prey tried to turn his horns towards his nemesis but she used her paws to turn his head away from her as they spun around a couple of times in a dance of death.  The lioness’s skills were impressive.  In a matter of seconds, she had her teeth firmly gripped into the neck of the wildebeest, an animal bigger than she was.

Wow!!!

Another perspective, shot from the other vehicle:

She held on for what seemed like an eternity but in actuality it was only 30 seconds until her offspring, the cavalry, showed up to help.  The first young one jump on the wildebeest’s back and the mother then pulled the animal down.  The next lion to join in paused for a second and then went for the shoulder blade while the last one seemed unsure of what to do, although it wasn’t necessary.  We could see the bottoms of the wildebeest’s hooves pointing straight up into the sky.

For some strange reason I figured that the wildebeest would have breathed its last breath shortly after the takedown…but of course not.  About 3-4 minutes after he had been taken down by the lions, the wildebeest let out a gut-wrenching, guttural, dying groan, signifying that he was done.

Checking out their lunch:

Since our vehicle had had the best seat in the house, and more Land Cruisers were showing up, Lewis decided that it was time for us to move on and let those tourists who were late to the party, a chance to see something.  Unfortunately, there was not much to see anymore apart from the five lions hanging about in the tall bushes, over their prize.  

Lewis drove the vehicle a few hundred meters down the road and we spotted a big male lion wandering towards the road, and towards the fresh kill.  He ended up walking right beside our Land Cruiser, just sauntering his way towards the other lions and the wildebeest.  The lazy bastard let the lioness and her offspring (perhaps his too) do all of the work and he was probably going to wander over, kick the rest of them off of the carcass, and enjoy his lunch.

A "tough" day in the office for the male lion...

We drove for another twenty minutes or so and Lewis was reminded by a few members of the Portuguese group that Paola, and by now a few others, were in real need of some bathroom facilities.  Poor Paola had now been waiting close to 40 minutes since her first request went out for a chance to do a “short call” (what Africans call #1).  Lewis pointed to three black plastic tanks in the distance and mentioned that that was the toilet facilities…we were close.

The view on the way to the restrooms:

But what would we see, some more lions, a couple lying just near the road in some tall grass.  Lewis mentioned that they were probably in their mating ritual.  This was the last thing that poor Paola needed.  As amazing as it was to see so many lions this morning, especially including the hunt, it was time for these felines to lay off on their entertainment so that this poor Portuguese woman could go pee!

The happy couple:

After the toilet break, we drove a few minutes from the facilities to a nice little lake.  A Maribou stork, one of the “Ugly Five” animals, was hanging out there and provided a nice subject for a photoshoot.  Small yellow weaver birds, that I hadn’t really seen since Uganda, were flying around, and making their usual noise.  Their nests hang from tree branches and they enter and exit the nest from below…very different from most birds.  Most of the Land Cruisers had their rooves popped open and the weavers were flying in and out of the empty vehicles, looking for food I guess.

They are great soaring birds...but u-g-l-y!

Of the “Big Five” animals, most of our group on the safari had not seen a rhino.  In this area it is the “black rhino”, but I was lucky and saw the “white rhino” at the rhino sanctuary in Uganda, where I could have been trampled by a couple of these prehistoric looking beings (check out this blog entry).  Our Land Cruiser got ahead of the other one, driven by Max, and there was a bit of a muddy section to navigate through.  The main road was not good and a little sidetrack was the best option.  We watched a few other vehicles work their way through, and the one in front of us took a few tries at it.  When it was our turn, Lewis did great at the start, but we got stuck for a few minutes as the side trail tried to rejoin the main road.  Lewis rocked the vehicle back and I really thought we were stuck but after a few minutes, he got us out of there.

Someone else almost getting stuck...

Lewis probably heard it on the “ranger radio”, but we drove another kilometer or so after the mud patch and then he pointed out a few rhinos in the distance.  They were at least a kilometer away, but with some binoculars, you could make them out, horns included.  Having had my experience at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Uganda earlier in my trip where I was so close to the rhinos, and almost trampled by them, I didn’t really care about seeing this slightly different breed of rhinos at such a far distance. 

Our closest sighting of a rhino:

I knew that a few of the members in the other Land Cruiser, especially Ryan and Marissa from the States, really wanted to see the last member of the “Big Five” that they hadn’t seen, I really hoped that their vehicle would make it there.  Unfortunately, I recalled that the day before Ryan and I had looked at how bald the front tires of the Land Cruiser he was in compared to the one I was in.  Max, the guide in that vehicle, decided to not attempt to ply his way through the mud, knowing that his front tires had next to no traction.  Instead, they drove on a long circuitous route to arrive at the same area.  By this time, the one of the two rhinos had ducked down behind the vegetation to have a snooze while the other one was far enough away that you could barely tell It was a rhinoceros.  I felt bad for the members of the other vehicle, especially Ryan and Marissa who were desperate to see the last member of the “Big Five”.

We drove by a bunch of zebras:

This guy had something to say...

Don't mind me, I'm just resting my end on my buddy's butt...

So cute.

The zebras always look like they are agreeing with something when they walk.

Lewis continued on, and amazingly he spotted another rhino off in the distance, at least 4-5 kilometres away.  I was gobsmacked that he was able to pick out the animal from so far away, but after being a guide for nine years, he obviously knows what to look for.  With the binoculars, I was also able to see the rhino but most of the rest of our group couldn’t, and then when the other vehicle showed up, they had even less success, which was too bad since they hadn’t witnessed the first rhino sighting that our vehicle had.  Such is the luck of the draw.

A couple of grey crowned cranes flying...I had only ever seen them on the ground up to this point.

I never got tired of the views in the crater:

Both vehicles continued on to a slightly forested corner of the crater which was a common lunch spot for most tours.  There were many picnic tables and some washroom facilities.  We had a great lunch with all 14 tourists and the guides communing around a couple of picnic tables.  Spirits were high after the lion kill plus all of the animals we had observed.

An elephant skull in the parking lot of the lunch spot:

Lunch is served.

Carla taking a great selfie:

Hopping back in the Land Cruisers, we began the exit out of the south side of the Ngorongoro Crater (there’s one way in, and another way out…which makes sense to keep the tourist traffic flowing).  The views looking back into the crater were amazing.  Since it was mid afternoon at this point, there had been some overdevelopment of the warm, moist air rising and this had turned into some rain clouds on the northeast side of the crater.  It was time to leave.

Arriving back in the small town where we had camped a few days earlier, we thanked the guides and the chefs and took some group photos.  What a stunning four days it had been.  We saw more animals than you could imagine, watched hot air balloons gracefully soar across the Serengeti, saw a lion take down a wildebeest…what more could you ask for?!?

The crew:

A fitting drink to have after these four days:

If you can, you must visit the Serengeti, and even more so…the Ngorongoro Crater.  If you live in the Western, modernized world, you will feel more alive and connected to the Earth than ever before.  Do it!