SAFARI! Day One: Maasai Village & Ngorogoro Crater

As a weekend trip my group at CCS planned a Safari with Pristine Safaris to the Ngorogoro crater and Lake Manyara National Park. We left on Friday at noon and drove all afternoon to the Ngorogoro region about 3 hours from Moshi.

A little practice never hurt anyone. The group having a little fun in the custom Safari truck with raisable roof for pictures.

Our accommodations for the Safari at Haven’s Nature campsite.

The next morning we drove out to the Ngorogoro crater rim where several Maasai tribal villages are located. We stopped at one and what followed was the welcome dance done by the entire tribe. The Men infront with a display of jumping and chanting and the women in the distance singing.

After the initial dance we were asked if we wanted to join in with them. God knows what they said about us in Swahili. . .

The Maasai are polygamous and one village usually consists of a chief and his several wives each of which has a family. The chief is the father/grandfather of everyone in the village.

Me being given the inside tour of the painfully small Maasai huts which are made form a mixture of the clay rich soil and cow manure. Cow hides are draped over the hut when it rains to prevent collapse. Needless to say the doors were a little small for me.

We left the Maasai village and descended the crater wall which is about a 1000 meter descent into this magnificent landscape. The whole crater is walled in making it almost a haven, a sort of natural and voluntary zoo/cage for several species of african wildlife.

Before we had fully descended into the crater we got a taste of Africa. There was a sea of Zebras everywhere. It was very surreal as the stripes literally look painted onto the animal. The males tend to be more black and white and shiny where as the females are usually shades of brown and white.

Two surprisingly enormous water buffalo grazing a short distance away from a large heard of Wildebeests and Zebras. These animals are one of the “Big Five” a term which refers to Lions, Leopards, Buffalo, Rhinos, and Elephants. One down four to go. . .

An african Wildebeest! Seeing these animals was amazing as they are surprisingly different from anything that exists anywhere else on the planet. Looking somewhat like a horse and somewhat like a stag the Wildebeest makes a low and awkward mooing noise. Coincidentally, they are also responsible for Mufasa’s death in the lion king. The stampede that killed him in the movie is actually not to far from reality as these animals have massive migrations of millions of animals.

Two down three to go... The first lion we saw was actually an anticlimactic experience. I ventured into the crater with thoughts of intense hunting done by these creatures, in reality they are actually the laziest african cat sleeping up to 20 hours a day. It was still an amazing sight.

Especially because of how close we were able to get to the creatures. They aren’t scared of the safari trucks. In fact, they sometimes use them as cover to hunt/stalk another animal.

The spotted hyena. I always imagine the animal to be larger but they turn out to be actually quite small. This doesn’t stop them in being ferocious hunters because they will hunt in packs. 

The Warthog. The name alone conjures up some less than pleasing images. However, thanks to their small size they remain relatively cute.

The african Haartebeest. Named after the shape of its horns which are usually shaped like a heart. The Haartebeest, like the Wildebeest, is a strange alien cow/gazelle mix but is much less abundant than the Wildebeest.