Monday, August 1st:

River and I had another short birdwatching with Reuben. Then we had a lot of down time around the lodge after breakfast and before lunch.  We said our goodbyes to Jores and Valerio and the dogs and drove with Godlisten to the gate to Ngorongoro where we waited for half an hour while paperwork was done.

We continued our drive to the crater rim.  In places the rim was very narrow with steep drops on either side of the road.  We stopped at a viewpoint and took a look into the dusty larger crater.  Even from this distance we could see herds of animals appearing as many black dots.

We continued on to our tented camp on the rim.  As we were settling in a hugh mass of ants erupted in front of the girl’s tent.  Before I knew it I was being bitten by scores of ants that had gotten under my clothes.  Running to the bathroom for privacy, I pulled off tens of ants many hanging on to me with locked pincers!  The staff sprayed the ants and move the girl’s to a new tent.

In the evening we had a hike along the crater rim with a ranger named God, short for Godwin.  The trail left the road and climbed around the rim under and intermittent canopy of trees.  There were spectacular views into the crater.  The dust had largely settled and there were few cars in the crater in the evening.  A spectacular salt lake shown white on the crater floor.  Vultures circled below us slowly rising to our height.

Toward the end of the hike we crossed paths with Maasai herders and cattle who live in the conservation area in harmony with the wildlife.  A young Maasai boy told the ranger of giraffe nearby.  We bush wacked after the boy for a ways before giving up and returning to the trail.  Leaving the view for the road we passed a group of Maasai women heavily loaded with firewood and then a Maasai boma.  Children ran around following us and a little goat bleated at us incessantly.

Godlisten met us at the road and drove us back to our camp.  Along the way we saw a huge herd of giraffe.

Tuesday, August 2nd:

We left Pakulala camp early with a packed breakfast and lunch.  It was very cold and we wore every layer of clothes we had. We drove down into the crater immediately encountering a lone bull elephant sauntering across the road.  We drove in two loops around the crater.

We saw a ton of animals.  Lions walking right past our car, elephants in the forest, hippos in the pools, flamingos around the salt lake and even a rhino (from afar) grazing with the zebra.  The crowned cranes were spectacular.