Africa 2009 - The Lion King - Part 8

Mama Black Rhino
Hell Bent for Lions!
Mama Hippo gives Me the Hairy Eyeball
Barefoot in Africa

Don't Tread on ME

The Lion King -or Bait as the Case may Be

Letowe has arranged to gather the four of us at 8:20 AM for our trip to the Ngorongoro crater floor. First we breakfast on scrambled eggs, croissants and fried tomatoes. The coffee in Kenya is just as good as in Tanzania – pure Arabica.

Once ensconced in the van, we pass through dense forest, switching back and forth down the steep crater rim. Some 2000 vertical feet later we arrive at the bottom of the caldera. We are now in a typical East African savannah – dry grass spotted with beautiful acacia trees and lots and lots of animals.

The first thing we see is zebras and wildebeests. The latter are watching closely as a Belgian couple on their honeymoon change a flat on their Rover. If you’re a local with some beadwork to sell, sprinkling a few nails on the game park road is a sure-fire way to get tourists to stop. But this puncture seems legit. The Ngorongoro Masai are nowhere in sight.

We join a group of vehicles clustered around a lion kill. The lions are there but they have feasted and are now resting. At binocular distance, we can view three jackals fighting over the remains of a wildebeest ribcage. Suddenly there is a rush of vehicles across the crater floor. We join the stampede and come up to a Mama Black Rhino who is taking a leisurely walk in the grass.

After the rhino, we detour to the hippo pool, conveniently located next to the only flush toilets on the crater floor. Then it’s off to a picnic area to enjoy box lunches prepared by the chefs at Sopa Lodge.

There is always something new out of Africa – as Pliny the Elder wrote some 2200 years ago.
And today is no exception. The picnic area is on a flat grassy knoll with scattered acacias for shade. We are enjoined by Letowe to eat in the van. “Not safe if you’re on foot around here,” our guide explains.

Letowe drifts off to eat lunch with the other drivers who are all chums. I cautiously exit the Range-rover. “Hey, guys I think it’s safe? Wanna go for a little stroll?”
No one responds. I try a little enticement – taking off my shoes and socks and doing a little barefoot Masai dance. “Perfect for jumping,” I exclaim. “Anyone else want to try a few leaps?” No takers. They are really missing out. In my 13 trips to East Africa I’ve never run barefoot on the savannah before. And guess what? The grass is fantastic- very soft and spongy and the blades are so narrow and fine that it feels like you’re walking on cotton batting rather than on regular grass.

I stroll out under the acacia trees – being careful to watch for lines of siafu – or soldier ants. I have trod on army ants before and it is quite a sight to see an ant-bit muzungu stripping down to his jockey shorts in a mad frenzy to kill every last ant-soldier!

No ants and the going is good. Soon I’m out of sight of the vans and enjoying myself immensely. No lions or elephants accost me but I do feel quite brave and pleasantly buzzed on adrenaline. I see lots of butterflies and a wicked large black and yellow beetle.
After returning from my stroll, I finish my fried chicken and lay out on the grass for a snooze in the sun. If it’s good enough for lions it’s good enough for one well-fed and self-satisfied tourist. In fact I feel exactly like Simba – the Lion King c’est moi!

DAKTARI

Africa 2009 - NgoroNgoro Crater - Part 7

Panorama of Ngorongoro Crater
View from the Caldera Rim

Rena on the way to our Modest 5-star Hut

John and Margaret in front of the Main Dining Hall

Flying High and Fast at the Sopa Lodge Pool

Our new driver is a full-blood Masai named Letowe (pronounced Let –toe-way). Masai’s come in two varieties: 1.) traditional ones who still wear blankets, walk everywhere and are very tall and thin as rails. 2.) modern ones who wear khakis, drive SUV’s everywhere and are tall and fat as American tourists.

Letowe is the latter. He has been to college for two years to get an associate’s degree in wildlife tourism and knows every animal, bird, flower and insect in Tanzania.

We clamber into Bushbuck Travel’s Range Rover after finishing our expensive Arusha lunch and head West for the bush. Kilimanjaro, the little hill on the prairie, is covered with thin high clouds. We pass coffee plantations on the slopes and lots of Tanzanian ladies in their colorful wraps – called kangas. Clothing is much more traditional on this side of the border – no designer jeans or double-knit polyester suits.

Our destination is Ngorongoro Conservation Area a natural phenomenon which is on the UNESCO list of official World Heritage sites. The crater formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago. It is 2000 feet deep and its floor covers 102 square miles. Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from fifteen to nineteen thousand feet high. (And yes, there were people at that time. We will meet three of them later in this narrative.)

We arrive at the crater in late afternoon at the Park entrance. While Rena looks for good deals in jewelry at the gift shop (there aren’t any), I peruse the natural history display. The crater is 14 miles across and is the largest caldera in the world. It is unique in Tanzania as the only conservation area providing protection status for wildlife whilst allowing human habitation. Land use is controlled to prevent negative effects on the wildlife population. I take it that this means the local Masai can’t graze cattle in the caldera. Watch for circular road-signs with a cow in the middle and a slash across.

A population of approximately 25,000 large animals, mostly wildebeests and zebras inhabits the crater floor. Ngorongoro reputedly has the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa. There were 62 lions at latest count. Leopards too! Black rhinos, hippos, eland and gazelles make up the rest of the mix. Primates are represented by two particular species with well-deserved reputations for nastiness – baboons and homo sapiens.

We can’t wait to visit the park but today we have just enough time to get to the Lodge before dark. We climb the 2000 feet up to the crater rim on a red clay and gravel road with many switchbacks. “Must be treacherous in the rain,” I think to myself.

At the top is a magnificent panoramic view of the caldera. There are two lakes in the bottom and the wild animal herds are just visible. It is so green and lush compared to the surrounding savannah! The altitude is such that there is no dry season and the animals in Ngorongoro are non-migratory. They live in a year round ungulate paradise.

Our destination is Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, where we are greeted by teams of baggage handlers and maids who escort us to the reception area for a glass of fresh mango juice before escorting us to our respective bungalows. We shower and change clothes, then head back to the main dining hall. I linger at the swimming pool to snap photos of this amazing crater spread out at our feet. I don’t linger long because sunsets are very short in the tropics.

On the way into the dining hall, I contemplate the physics of the current situation. Right now, I am on the Equator and therefore at the furthest point from the earth’s axis of rotation. The earth’s circumference at the equator is roughly 25,000 miles. If I stand here for a full 24 hours I will travel in a circle the entire 25,000. Divide 25000 by 24 and here at Sopa Lodge swimming pool, I am spinning at roughly 1000+ miles per hour – twice as fast as the jet plane that brought me to Africa and faster than I have ever moved relative to earth’s center in my entire life.
And that is why, my friends and fellow travelers, sunsets are over so quickly in the tropics and linger so long over Lappland.

A mite peckish, after essaying this short detour into the world of physics, I join the others at our table. We dine on tilapia and prawns in opulent surroundings. All the other tourists are from Europe and are svelte in their tailored khakis and bush shorts. I think we see only one other group of Americans in bright colored shorts and horizontal striped tops.

After dinner we walk from the dining area to the open-air patio. In the whole 102 square miles of Ngorongoro Crater there is not a single light shining. We are standing at 7500 feet above sea level. It’s the dark of the moon, the sky is pitch black and the stars are spectacular. I am totally blown away as I contemplate the astronomy that surrounds me.

I am facing due West. On my right I can see the great square of Pegasus with the big dipper lower in the Northern sky. On my left is the Southern Cross and the vast expanse of the Milky Way. What wonder and joy to be in Africa gazing out across the galaxy on a balmy night at the dark of the moon glued by gravity to the surface of a giant nickel-iron ball with a thin stony crust spinning at 1000 miles per! I am exquisitely dizzy just thinking about it. I look toward the center of the Milky Way, stretch my arms to the skies, throw back my head, balance on one foot and let out a long howl of satisfaction. King of the Universe and top of the heap!

The staff, after a brief startle, re-arrange themselves and grin at my outgassing of delight. They like American tourists the best. We are big tippers and more fun to watch than the sedate European wazungus.

Tomorrow we descend the caldera!

DAKTARI