Crater capers and crater face - Game On! 9 May 2002
Ngorongoro
Glum news on the gum front
The Ngorongoro Crater has probably been the subject of more wildlife documentaries than anywhere in the world except the Galapagos Islands. Everyone we have spoken to has said that of all the overpriced game parks in Tanzania (and they all are!) this is the must-see day trip. We have been staying at a campsite created solely for overland truckers on the off chance of filling up spare seats in a Landrover going to the crater.
The owners of the camp are a family of South Africans and the mother, Ma, has for some reason acquired a formidable no-nonsense, if not terrifying, reputation. The souvenir t-shirt for the camp bears the legend ìI survived the Snake Park and Maî. In fact she is a charming pocket dynamo who cannot do enough to help the campers. None of them were going on a short trip to the crater and so she rang around a couple of her ëpetí tour operators and came up with a part load that was happy to take extras. Well done.
Beerman (great name or what?), our driver, arrived at two in the afternoon and waited for his boss, Fish, so that we could negotiate prices. In the meantime a lass arrived at the site unaware of the fact that she had timed her visit perfectly. Haggle, haggle, haggle and we set off for the hills. The party was made up of ourselves, a honeymooning couple, Karen (an Ozzy) and Gary (a Brit) together with something of an unknown quantity, Ingmar(An Israeli girl of ample proportions)
We camped a good way from the Crater, but as some one pointed out, if you stay at the rim of the crater overnight, you have to pay two days park fees and an exorbitant fee for camping. The camp was simple, but our food was cooked for us and the showers were about the best since my folksí in Bolton. Ingmar began to show her colours as something of a demanding bore. I have a certain sympathy for her being constrained by a Jewish diet and having a problem with flour products, but when youíre in Africa, people cannot simply rustle up alternative foods at the drop of a hat and her surly treatment of the staff rankled a bit.
Early start, breakfast (pancakes for us, roast potatoes for Ingmar ñ strange), bomb up to the crater andÖÖ.. The alternator bearings failed. I rued my comments to Beerman that although Landrovers are very popular and all, our experience with overlanders has been that they break down with alarming regularity. Kiss of death or what? Actually, our Landy had been performing superbly as it had had to navigate some pretty major hazards. One in particular had claimed two Landrovers and a lorry. Beerman expertly watched the tracks of another vehicle passing through the raging torrent and replicated its route where others had missed by inches and lost their wheels down huge holes in the river bottom.
We found a very nice man inside the game park who managed to remove, disassemble, re-bearing, reassemble and reinstall the alternator in the space of an hour. Impressive stuff. We managed to remain calm, but muttered about getting a discount if we missed all the animals. Ingmar was not impressed by the toilet facilities and went round the back of the pit latrine that Helen and I found to be adequate although not exactly luxurious.
We dropped down the precipitous 2000 foot inside of the crater rim to the incredibly flat 10 km radius area that is the floor of the caldera (reach for your geography books, everyone). Instantly we were among Grantís and Thompsonís gazelles. Nothing new here, then. These are very beautiful creatures, but can be seen pretty well anywhere. There followed pretty much everything that we could have possibly wanted to see. Elephants, buffalo, wildebeest, flamingos, hippos, warthogs and even a single hartebeest. Out in the distance was a reluctant rhino that failed to respond to my mating calls. It just stood around grazing a bit. Iíd never seen a rhino and I was well chuffed to see it even though the photo evidence may be one of those ìlook, there it is in the cornerî moments.
Talking of photos, the scenery was, we imagined as good as it gets in the crater. Following the rains, the flowers emerge as a yellow and purple carpet that stretches from rim to rim. The lake in the middle provides a pink separating band where it is covered with flamingos. The cloud cover was a bit of a depressing element, but the advantage was that it remained quite cool and so the animals were out and about even though we had arrived later than the optimum game driving time. Trying to take long shots with a teleconvertor fitted to my tried and tested Pentax proved to be tricky and I fear that many of the distant wildlife may come out a bit dim. We shall see.
The highlights of the day were the number of lions lounging around. The first were a supposedly mating pair, who appeared to be entirely ësh***ed outí, lying virtually comatose on the ground. The fact that 6 buses of muzungus were stood around watching them seemed to not even stir them into motion. Our driver reckoned that lions mate for a week and these must be towards the end of their time, because normally they are at it every 15 minutes. These seemed far to exhausted to move.
We were treated to a pair of lions lying in the middle of the track, looking equally energy less. Maybe these are homosexual lions, but were unable to ask them. Just done the path two lionesses blocked our way. Thoughts of the blokes on stags and the girlies on hen trips crossed my mind. These in fairness were a little livelier, than the lions, but then the lionesses always seem to do more in their society, a bit like humans really. We watched and moved gently round them to discover that Beerman had spotted their cubs. Our Landy was now between their cubs and the lionesses. Knowing that most animal mothers are understandably protective of their young I was a little nervous as the two lionesses stood up and strolled towards the Landy. The first decided to pitch herself under the rear of the van to keep an eye on her babies whilst the second manoeuvred herself under the body between the rear and front wheels. Now we were stuck, the Landy couldnít move! We asked Beerman if this was a common occurrence and what the solution was. He shrugged and indicated this was a new experience for him too. And we waited, and enjoyed watching the cute cubs hiding thin the flowers.
Thatís pretty much all the game that you see in the Ngorongoro Crater. Oh, apart from cheetah. Yes, we also got to see one of the rare appearances of a cheetah. Again, like the rhino, it was a long way off and my photo evidence may be questioned, but it was really there! There are no giraffe in the crater as they find the steep sides difficult to manage. No wonder really.
Rain thundered down as we left the area and all of our thoughts about getting a discount vanished as we were so chuffed at having seen all that we expected and more. Then the rear shock absorber broke and we began to have visions of hitching back. To our relief, these safari Landrovers have been fitted with auxiliary shock absorbers and it was this one rather than the main item that had failed. Repair involved removal and was accomplished in about one minute.
We cracked on back at a flying pace along side a new road which is being constructed by the Japanese. If Ethiopia was anything to go by, this should become a smooth race track upon completion with hordes of game driving vehicles vying to get in and out of the park first.
Just before we reached the Snake Park Camp, Ingmar redeemed her tetchy self by spotting a herd of Masai giraffe at the side of the road. Pretty much a complete set of game for the day, then. To cap it all, that evening, Arsenal burst the Man U bubble by taking away their last chance of winning something this season. Life does not get much better than this.
Poor Hippy has said nothing up until now, but has been suffering with a sore lump on her gum that has been growing in size and tenderness day by day. Once again, Ma helped us out by pointing us in the direction of a dentist qualified in the developed world during the last 20 years. In the morning, we booked in and headed down to Arusha to get Hippy overhauled. I am a little squeamish about such things and so headed off to do other things ñ like what Iím doing at the mo.
When we met up again at the internet cafÈ, she was nursing a sore jaw and had clearly had a painful session. It was as we suspected ñ an abscess. Although she had had numerous jabs during the process, the pain had been little relieved and she was not relishing a return visit that had been advised for attention to another oral problem. It turns out that a wisdom tooth had been growing horizontally out of the gum sideways and so was rubbing against the inside of her cheek. No major damage had been caused by this so far, but it seemed inevitable that the rubbing would at some stage cause problems.
Brave soul that she is, she seized the nettle and returned the same afternoon (after checking our medical insurance policy) to have a bit of open-gum surgery. She stands behind me at this very moment jaws clamped on a bit of wadding. Looks like soup for a couple of days, then. Shame we bought all of that delicious looking sausage at the butchers. I wonder who will get to eat all of that.