After a great day in Ngorongoro yesterday today it is time to say goodbye to our guide. While he was a great guide for birding and mammals he also still didn’t return to us the entrance fee for the park we paid for him and that supposedly already included in our tour price. And the owner doesn’t answer to us either so in the end as we leave the lodge decide to subtract the fee from the guide tip and let them solve it between themselves, it is not an insignificant amount after all. We now drive back to the gate via the overlook with just a couple stops, one to enjoy the views and one to see a wild pig on the side of the road.
At the gate we say our goodbye to the guide that again has to show our entrance pass to the gate for some reason and then we are finally free and can make our way towards Serengeti.
On the way we stop one more time at the Ngorongoro Overlook. And this is not even the last one as we will stop once more when returning from Serengeti. The views are as great as we remember and we really enjoy them but we are here also to search for info for a cache which likely seems to be missing.
Today there are the most cars from any of our visits to the viewpoint. This is likely as it is the prime time for tourists making their way into the crater if they started from Arusha. Or that is our assumption. So after using the facilities it is time to drive into terra incognita around the rim to Serengeti.
On the way we stop at the monument raised for Michael Grzimek, a young nature conservationist that crashed his plane here in 1959 after colliding with a vulture. His father, the initial researcher who brought him to Africa is also buried here but much later. They are really famous for the film they produced “Serengeti shall not die” that received an Oscar and gave a renewed impetus for protecting the larger Serengeti area.
As we reach the other side of the crater we enter the cultural area of trip. There are multiple villages here, some are actual lived in villages and some are for tourists only. And some maybe both, who knows?
There are also lots of animals here, this is on the other side of Ngorongoro in the Malanja Depression. And some are domestic animals, the people and animals were moved out of Ngorongoro and into the surrounding area.
We pass quite close to a cultural boma where a tourist group is greeted with song and dance but decide to pass as this is not for us really. We enjoy more the fields of animals that follow that are a mix of wild and domestic ones. Funny to see zebras mix with cows on unending fields.
There are also some mudholes on the way and they are a haven for geese and shorebirds as well as any other bird that needs a drink.
And then we descend slowly from the crater before reaching a dusty level road that will take us to Serengeti. Here the cars are going fast and there are ruts in the road and you can barely see anything so we are happy when we can get a break at a rest area along the way at the intersection with the road to Olduvai Gorge. There the Leakeys discovered the first relics of primitive man significantly supporting Darwin’s theory and also pointing to Africa as the cradle of humankind. Here they are celebrated with a nice statue of a couple of their famous skull finds.
There is also a small informative kiosk that shows information about the different attractions in the area. The only thing it doesn’t say is how much it costs to enter, as far as we know at this point it is included in our entry fee which was already astronomical.
However after a 5 km drive we reach an entrance gate and understand we have to pay another $50 per person to see the museum, it is too much for a museum, no matter how good, in our opinion and we decide to turn around.
However the side trip is not without benefits, here we see our first Secretarybird right by the side of the road, really cool!
We return to the main road and continue through dust while trying to avoid stones from other cars towards Serengeti. It is another hour and we have to be at the gate by a certain time so we don’t pay for one more day.
And then we reach the gate that is not THE gate. There is a physical gate, it is the point where Ngorongoro ends and Serengeti begins but it is not the place where you officially exit one park and enter the other. That is still some twenty kilometers away at Naabi Hill gate.
As we still have some time we explore a bit the area taking photos with the signs in both direction before moving on.
Interestingly as soon as we enter Serengeti we start seeing more wildlife. A hyena here a pack of vultures following it there, it is quite interesting how different the concentration of animals is, suddenly.
There are also ostriches and lapwings and a few other birds and we start enjoying the drive again after all the dust in the previous section.
We start seeing Naabi Hill in the distance and finally relax that we will make it in time and stop more often looking for bustards or anything else interesting on the way.
Of course major sightings are highlighted by cars stopping on the side of the road. And if there is a roadblock it has to be a predator, usually a lion.
In this case it is a whole pride of lions about ten of them resting on the side of the road and really not caring about all the people trying to take photographs from all directions. We are quite happy with the sighting, it is our first lion sighting ever without a guide and it is quite a good one. And then we reach Naabi Gate where we have to enter Serengeti proper, which is quite an adventure.
