DAY 5
DRIVE TO NGORONGORO CRATER
post by scott
Today was spent backtracking through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation area to reach the rim of the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. Highlights of the drive included the small leopard tortoise and secretary birds (so named for their white shirt / black slacks coloration, crest which looks like a pen behind the ear, and ‘typing action’ with the feet when stomping on insect or rodent prey!).
We arrived mid afternoon and had a panoramic view as we drove around the crater’s rim to our lodge. According to Wikipaedia, the Ngorongoro crater was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago. It is 610 metres deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres, but the amazing part is that the floor of the crater is teeming with wildlife, much of which never leaves this area! Ngorongoro has formed its own little biosphere separated from the outside world by huge steep walls.
The lodge we were put up in was again huge and quite luxurious with all rooms looking out over the crater and a big common balcony to sip drinks on. This seemed to be the busiest of all the locations we had been with multiple big tour groups from America. We had to turn in early because we had a 6am start on our final day.