We are not far from the entrance to Ngorongoro and we make good time and soon hit the entrance. Here at the Lodoare Gate is where we encounter our first major roadblock. Our papers are all in order, thanks to the work we did when we arrived. However they do not want to recognize the guide. Or something like that, even now it is not clear to us. They shout at us that how can they know that he is a guide? I mean how is that our problem, isn’t it his? And then suddenly a solution appears, we have to create him an entrance ticket for Ngorongoro similarly to ours through the same company. The problem being that we have to pay for it even though we already paid for his entrance when we paid for his services, the entrance fee to Ngorongoro were specifically included and paid for.
The back and forth takes a while, in the end we decide to go with it as we just want to enter. Finding someone from our company to speak to takes a bit but in the end the entry form is created and $60 is paid for the guide from our pocket and he swears that he is going to pay us back at the lodge. In the meantime another situation happens in the parking lot, a baboon enters a car, not ours, and starts looking for food with multiple people trying to convince him to exit. So not all baboons are chill here, supposedly the ones at this entrance gate are well known trouble makers.
There is also a small museum at the entrance gate. It is free but one room only and it has only panels, no exhibits. And then we enter after more than one hour wasted with the guide entry papers issues.
We then stop at the famous Ngorongoro overlook. This is quite busy usually as we will learn but now it is late in the afternoon and there are only two more cars when we arrive. It is famous because it is the one spot from which cars going to Serengeti can see into the crater if they do not descend. But we will descend, that is why we have a guide and all, tomorrow is our descent day, God willing. Even from the overlook you can see large gatherings of buffalo in the crater and we are looking forward to tomorrow to see them close up.
The viewpoint also has a rest area and a long list of rules. Not sure who goes through the trouble to read all of them, you would spend all the time here just reading.
There are even elephants seen but not our white whale, a rhinoceros. We have looked for one in multiple parks with no luck but maybe here, who knows? And then we start on the road, we still have about one hour to our lodge and unfortunately with all that delay we don’t have that much time left.
The road is bad but not that bad, we can go relatively fast on the straights but unfortunately there are many blind curves where we have to go slowly, just in case. And then unexpectedly we hit one more gate post, this is for the entering the crater. We show our papers because we have to pass given that our lodge while still on the Rim is technically inside the crater area. In fact tomorrow we have to return here to get our papers stamped before going down, quite a weird way to handle it.
We think we are home free at this point and we have no idea how wrong we are. Right in the front of the turn to our lodge, Lions Paw, sits an elephant in the middle of the road. And there is not a lot to be done than wait. And wait. And wait until he finally decides to move on. Arriving at the lodge there is quite a bit of surprise, as usual, that there is no driver. And then there is a procession with luggage and us to the reception where we get all the needed info and then are sent on our way to the tent.
It is a nice trail and soon we have our first view on the “tents”. Not sure in what country these are tents but to us they look like fully built cabins with solar on the roof, balcony and patio and every amenity you could want.
Our tent as usual in more exclusive resorts is quite private and we really like the location. It then takes a bit until we get the lay down from the porter regarding how to turn on lights (press switch, surprise) and how to turn on the bed warmer (much needed).
And then he is out and we can finally enjoy the room for a while, there is still an hour to dinner so we have time to unpack and prepare for the next day.
Of course it is not that easy. Just as we start to calm down we hear a racket from outside and as we exit on the balcony we see the source, an elephant. An elephant that is making his way slowly but surely towards our cabin from all the cabins. There are a few times we think he might be turning around but no, he just takes a snack of leaves and bushes and then continues on his way.
In fact the elephant passes right next to our room, it is frightening and exhilarating in equal measures. We take lots of photos, of course and then watch him move on to the next cabin. Vaya con Dios!
As we are already outside we spend some time looking for interesting birds in the bushes. There are quite a few birds here really but mostly ones we have seen. And the ones we haven’t seen we still have seen, if it makes sense, the example being the Juvenile White-Eyed Slaty-Flycatcher that looks quite different from an adult and confuses us for a while before we catch on.
This is the zone of the Baglafecht Weavers, there are lots of them wherever we look. And the butter loving Cape Robin-Chat seems to enjoy the higher altitudes too.
As it gets dark we decide to call an escort to go to the dining room as instructed. However no one answers after multiple tries at multiple numbers so in the end we decide to go on our own. Either way we are not sure what the escort could do against the group of Baglafecht Weavers looking at us from the trail. Or anything else really.
We cannot even make our butler understand what the issue is so we give up and here and only here we walk alone at night and no one cares. The dining room is quite full, a difference from our previous accomodations. It seems that the fact that most lodges on the Rim where booked was real, we were lucky to find this one.
The food here is three courses only, as we get deeper in the wilderness it seems the number of courses decrease. The food is good if we take into consideration how far we are from civilization, average otherwise. And then we go back to our room, take a cold shower and shiver into bed. But with the electric blanket we are warmed up again fast and are fast asleep as tomorrow we have an early start.
We wake up before the sunrise and walk alone to the dining area. Breakfast is buffet and we eat fast as we want to be one of the first people into the crater.
This is helped by the fact that the choices are few and not that appetizing to us. And we do not want to order a la carte as it may take forever to prepare (and it does). Then we pick our guide and into the Ngorongoro Crater we go for a magical visit.
Returning we enjoy the sunset over the crater that we explored so thoroughly during the day before going to dinner.
Today we try different items from the menu and the food is of similar quality as the previous day and then satiated we pack and then go to sleep.
We wake up after sunrise, barely, today as we plan to leave a bit later than the day prior. This is lucky as on the way to the dining area we see our only Rameron Pigeon of the trip and a lifer for us.
Today we want to enjoy the sunrise over the crater from the terrace in the front of the main building. However that it almost impossible as our butler comes to us to herd us into the dining room for breakfast.
We still manage to sneak a couple times outside for some photos without the crowds of the beautiful sights.
Breakfast is the same as the previous day and we take our time before going back to pick our luggage. We make arrangement for them to come with a golf cart but given that no one does that in the end we carry it half way on our own and the our butler helps with one more porter. And then we say bye bye to Lions Paw, it is time for Serengeti.
