2021-08-27 Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar: September 3

Today we go into the crater. Ngorongoro is the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. It is about 2000 feet deep with a floor of 100 square miles. We left early in the morning so that we could be early to the valley floor when the animals should be active. As we barely got into the park we were greeted by the largest baboon family we have seen to date.

We took the “up” road down into the crater as the down road is under renovation.

There was a black mongoose on the road down, yet another type of mongoose.

The road was paved all the way to the bottom of the crater where it then became the usual bumpy African dirt road. On arrival at the bottom, we immediately saw a face off between an impala and a hyena. But nothing came of it but it was interesting to watch the interaction.

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Video of Impala and Hyena face-off
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The bottom of the caldera is pretty fascinating. There is a very large lake and wide savannas for all the grazing animals.

We also saw a black rhino in the very far distance…really just a black speck.

There was also a large swampy area right next to the road with lots and lots of birds.

We saw many of the same animals we have seen elsewhere such as Thompson’s Gazelles,

Grant’s Gazelles,

Cape Buffalo,

Hippos,

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Video of a hippo
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More Hippos

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Wildebeests,

In the movie below, two wildebeests are fighting, but in the second segment you can see that maybe they were just playing/practicing:

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Video of wildebeests
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Zebras,

In the movie below, zebras scratching their tummy and neck:

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Video of zebras
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and Warthogs.

Two new species we saw were the eland (largest antelope in the world)

and the jackal.

And there were lots of birds including the grey crested crane (national bird of Uganda),

the Kory Bustard,

Yellow Billed Storks,

Ostriches (male and female),

Flamingos,

Guinea Fowl,

Splendid Starling,

Pelicans,

and a very pretty bird called the Lilac-Breasted Roller.

We also saw the nest of a Hammerkop (but no actual bird).

We saw a lone vervet monkey. There weren't a lot of trees in the caldera so not that many monkeys.

We had two big highlights today. The first was a confrontation between two lionesses and a pack of hyenas. Our usual lament is that any lions we see are so far away that they are sandy specks in the far, far distance. Not this afternoon! Shortly after lunch we, and a bunch of other tourist vehicles, came across two lionesses that apparently had recently had a kill that was purloined by a huge pack of hyenas. We counted about 13 hyenas.

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More Hyena video 1
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More Hyena Video 2
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The lionesses, being badly outnumbered, beat a retreat and were hunkered down behind a tourist vehicle for protection. The hyenas prowled for a while and we were actually expecting an attack. Those hyenas were seriously prowling. But eventually they decided there was no more food in the offing so left.

After a while one of the vehicles left, leaving the lionesses panting in the sun. So, they beat another retreat to hunker down in the shade of another vehicle...partly under it. Effectively trapping the vehicle. How funny. Eventually the vehicle started to slooooowly inch forward and the cats moved just enough so that the vehicle was able to go on its way.

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More Lion and Hyena Standoff
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What spectacular (and sort of funny) experience.

We saw lions two other times (at the usual very far distance). Once was at a kill…

And the other was at a watering hole.

But the most special encounter was with a large herd of elephants. And they passed within inches of our vehicle. How breathtaking.

And the most special part was the presence of two small calves. One was probably a year or two old but our guide estimated that the youngest was only about 4 months old. We spent so much time focusing on this little guy that we pretty much ignored the rest of the herd.