Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania - May 2014
Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. It is 2,000 feet deep and its floor, at an elevation of 5,900 feet, covers 100 square miles. The inside is 10 to 12 miles in diameter. There is a seasonal salt lake in the middle called Magadi and the Lerai Forest at the south end. There is a spring near the eastern crater wall which feeds the Gorigor Swamp and a picnic site nearby for tourists which we ate at. We stayed at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge near the rim, did a morning game drive on the floor of the crater, ate lunch at the picnic site near Gorigor Swamp, and then did a game drive on the way out of the crater. We saw some fabulous birds: a kori bustard; lots of Maasai ostriches; flamingos covering Lake Magadi, although we weren't able to get too close to them; a black kite flying over the picnic area which stole someone's lunch; a spur-winged goose; several beautiful gray crowned cranes, including one in flight; sacred ibis in and near Gorigor Swamp; blacksmith plovers; crowned plovers; a Hildebrandt's starling; and Speke's weavers and their nests next to Gorogor Swamp. Hippos were in Gorigor Swamp; lots of western white-beared wildebeest were about, some of them facing off and bashing heads, similar to bighorn sheep; several male lions were together which caused a traffic jam in the crater with everyone wanting to view them; lots of Cape buffalo; a massive African bush elephant that we only saw at a distance; eastern warthogs; a vervet monkey in the Lerai Forest; Thomson's gazelles; Coke's hartebeest; an east African wolf; lots of Grant's zebras; and quite a few spotted hyenas. At one time we spotted two adult hyenas and a number of the young sprawled out taking a nap at the side of a pool and another time we had several walking around our vehicles drooling and looking at us. There are no giraffes in the crater, but we saw a number of Masai giraffes on the outside of the crater as we drove in.
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