Today is one of the highlight days of our trip. We are going to descend into Ngorongoro Crater while self driving. Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest inactive and unfilled volcanic caldera and has a “Lost World” vibe with lots of animals protected here including our white whale, the rhinoceros, with some of the best chances to see it. As requested by the park we have hired a guide but ours is specifically for birding and less for driving around. From the lodge we have to drive back a bit to the entrance gate to have our permit stamped and then into the crater we go as one of the first cars to hit this descent road.
There are at least two descent roads and this one is less popular compared to the main one and serves more the lodges next to it. As a bonus it is also the ascent road, the main route has different one way descent and ascent roads. The views during our descent are beautiful and even though we are apprehensive about the state of the road after it rained almost all night it is in great shape actually. There are no major difficulties so we can enjoy the area and raise the top so we can look for birds.
Having an expert guide is quite helpful of course and we see birds almost immediately. African Stonechat and Northern Anteater-Chat are just a couple of the lifers we see on this stretch.
While the road has mostly leveled up already we are enjoying the nice views and start to see the first mammals seemingly lost on the savanna.
And then we start to see them closer and closer until they seem to be too close. Our first close sighting are buffalos, a whole herd is right next to the road with some great views.
And then zebras, a whole herd with some right next to the car so we have to be careful so they don’t jump in front of it.
We can see also Eland in the distance and as we drive we catch our first views of Lake Magadi, a place we will visit later in the day.
And then there is a stretch full of Long-tailed Widowbirds. These birds are quite impressive with their acrobatics that the males do trying to attract females. We can see them jumping around but it takes a long time until we actually see one sitting down as they get lost in the long grass when they land.
As we approach the bottom of the caldera we start seeing more and more gazelles. There is a mix of them from huge Eland to the small and fragile Grant’s Gazelle.
Here the most common bird appears to be the Rufous-naped Lark, maybe each bird has staked an area for themselves?
And then we are at the bottom and cannot believe how huge the crater is. And everywhere we look are zebras sitting in groups or alone and gazelles, very special.
With some many birds and mammals there are also eagles all around including a rare Martial Eagle, a beautiful looking bird.
The road is quite straight here and we are surprised and the low number of cars on the stretch. We assumed that by this time other cars would have reached this area but it looks like we are the only explorers for now. And we find our first Gray Crowned-Cranes, a beautiful bird that we really wanted to see. And we will see quite a few but the first sighting is the one that stays in your mind many times.
And on we go, slowly to ensure we do not hit any of the many zebras that really like to stay on the side of the road for some reason.
As we approach the center of the crater we encounter one more car, but still given what we read online it is very quiet and beautiful.
The weather oscillates between cloudy and almost rainy but it doesn’t really rain during the day, something that we are quite grateful for given how much we paid to visit the crater. This section has quite a few Crowned-Cranes and we enjoy seeing the fly or just observe us from the side of the road.
But of course what we really want to see most of all are the rhinoceros. And we cannot believe when the guide points at a point in the distance and says, “Rhino!!!”. For quite a bit we are convinced it is tree trunk but then the trunk moves and gets higher and lo and behold it is our first rhino, yoohoo!!! The nearby hyena does not seem impressed and gives us the stink eye, it seems to say “please leave and let me alone”.
Happy we are now focusing on birds again with a great view of the beautiful Rosy-throated Longclaw.
Bustards are also quite common but a Montagu’s Harrier we find is more special, we will not see many of them during our trip.
As we turn towards the Ngoitokitok Picnic Area we see a traffic jam with multiple cars parked. This usually means something interesting nearby and so it is also today, it is a pride of lionesses with cubs just sleeping next to the road.
It is quite fun to see them sleep on the ground but it is also boring after some time as they don’t do anything except sleeping so on we go to the picnic area.
Well there is one more stop as we see our first elephants here and another hyena seemingly eating the lions kills without them intervening.
Here in the distance we can see the first trees in the crater and some even have vultures on them but it is quite far away so to the picnic area we go.
As empty as most of our drive was the picnic area is quite full. But it is a large one so there is enough parking for us and soon we are outside stretching our feet. We make the decision with our guide to eat at the next picnic area as it is too early here but we still are going to bird the picnic area, the most famous one in the crater.
From the beginning we see that the birds here are quite fearless as they look for scraps or just don’t care about the humans.
The most impressive one is the Marabou Stork which is quite intimidating really. Behind it is the pond fed by the Ngoitokitok spring from which the picnic area gets its name. And the views are quite beautiful.
There are some Fan-tailed Widowbirds eyeing the picnics baskets but the worst are the Speke’s Weavers. They are on the tables, entering cars via the tops including ours, all for some scrap of food.
The major attraction for birds besides the pond is the old tree. Warblers and other small birds are flitting in and out and we spend some time watching and trying to identify them. The panels nearby mention that lions can visit the picnic area but luckily that is not today, we want close sightings but not that close.
And the we notice a Grey Heron struggling with something and looking more carefully we see it just caught a fish. We spend quite some time following it to see how it is able to eat it. And it does eat it quite successfully as you would expect. Further in the pond we notice that the moving rocks are actually hippos that are, hopefully, play fighting.
We then continue enjoying the great views but as it starts to get late it is time to return to the car to go to Lerai Picnic Area, our lunch spot.
Still on the way we find one more special bird, our only Malachite Kingfisher on the trip. And then we are in the car time for the relatively short drive to Lerai for lunch.
