The first game drive...

June 20th 2011
5.30am is an early start no matter where you are the world, and no matter what you did the day / night before. The strains of The Clash echoing out of my phone carved into my deep sleep and my foggy brain began to fire, slowly. I had no idea where I was. A quick check showed me that Phillipa was next to me, so things couldn't be too bad :-)
Phillipa mumbled her usual, "10 more minutes" as I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom, straight into the walk in shower big enough for about ten people. Lodge literature had told us that it can take a while for the water to get hot so I let the shower run and brushed my teeth with one of the complementary bottles of water. There was no way at this time of the morning Phillipa was going to join me for some pre-wedding naughtiness so the shower was short. I started to get dressed and tried to rouse my slumbering fiancée at the same time. This normally takes me several attempts and almost always culminates in me yanking off the bed-sheets and having Phillipa swear and give me a look that could cut through steel.
As Phillipa got in the shower I began packing our equipment for the day. Notebook, baby-wipes, sun-cream, mozzie repellent, camera (plus battery pack and lens), phone, wallet, passports. Phillipa came back in the bedroom and asked me to open the curtains as the room faced out over the crater (as do they all at this lodge - http://www.serenahotels.com/serenangorongoro/default-en.html). I opened the curtains to a blackness so deep we could have been in space. Sunrise was a little way off it seemed...
Dressed and ready, we left the room and walked in the cool darkness along the raised wooden pathways to the main lodge building. Past the two open fires and the bar and up the stairs to the restaurant. We were shown to our table and told to help ourselves to the copious buffet, or to order as we saw fit.
I don't know about you, but I struggle to eat that early, and so contented myself with a few eggs and some toast whilst watching Phillipa wolf down cereal, then bacon and eggs, then toast, and then some coffee. I stuck with the Kilimanjaro Tea, and once tried, Phillipa would then avoid the coffee in its favour every day thereafter - we managed to hunt down a pack at Zanzibar airport much later and it still sits in our cupboard today, just a few bags used so far on 'special occasions'.
Breakfast finished, we headed to the reception area and met Salvatory, who walked us to the Patrol and explained that the fog and darkness would disappear as we descended into the crater; and that we were in for some beautiful sights on the way down. The main road around the caldera rim was cold and covered in mist and fog - home away from home...

We reached the descent road quickly and began to head down. The vegetation on the roadside here was more reminiscent of jungles than of the plains of Africa. Great vines and huge leaves reached across the road towards each other. Combined with the mist it looked like Dagobah...
Salvatory stopped at the guard hut that controls entry and exit to the caldera floor - passes must be checked each day to ensure that the relevant fees have been paid - but all of this had been pre-organised by Nancy at http://www.aim4africa.com/ and was part of the fee we paid. Nice and easy!
Opposite the hut was an amazing view into the crater. Phillipa was reluctant to leave the vehicle and I couldn't blame her - at this time of the morning, and at this height, it was bloody cold...

Indiana Hatt on the descent road to Ngorongoro!

Maasai huts on the descent to the crater floor

There were two other jeeps, one in front, one behind as we touched the floor of Ngorongoro. 

The whole of the crater was to our left. To our right, the wall of the depression rose up sharply 1500 feet or so, with the top of the rim covered in cloud and mist.

And then, minutes into our first drive in the crater, Salvatory barked, "There!" and pointed the right. In the distance, perhaps 50 feet away, was a Caracal - a cat very rarely seen in the wild, and not seen in Ngorongoro for over 6 years.

It sat and watched us quite disinterestedly as Phillipa and cooed and marvelled at the sighting of our first wild animal. Suddenly, the Caracal snapped it's head around and looked intently up the steep slope behind it.
A pride of Lions were heading down the slope. They had been spooked by the Maasai warriors who were headed into the crater to water their herd, and in turn, they had spooked the Caracal.

This was our first glimpse of a Lion pride, and up close too. Two adult females and fours cubs sat just meters away, tolerating our snapping cameras and our 'oohs' and 'aahhs' for almost 10 minutes before disappearing into the bush...

The crater floor is over 260 square kilometres, but the game is so abundant we would see 4 of the big five on this first day...

The Patrol coughed into life when Salvatory realised that the Lions were going to stay hidden from sight. The other jeeps that had been viewing the Lions headed off east, but Salvatory, driving very slowly, spotted plenty of spoor heading in the other direction; we went west, on the way to Yellow Fever Forest...

On route our path was crossed by:

Giant Mongoose

Tawney Owl

Wildebeest

Thompsons Gazelle

Zebra!!

Egyptian goose

Classic shot of Buffalo Horns

Spotted Hyena

Warthog

They crouch like this as their necks can't bend enough to reach the ground!

Grants Gazelle (no black stripe on side)

Having a scratch :-)

Arusha and onwards...

June 19th 2011
Arusha airport is a real hive of activity; on the tarmac at least. We hopped down from the Cessna and weaved through the many aircraft, following the ground crew who had taken our luggage. They chatted amiably about where we were from, the weather, the flight and Tanzania.
The walk was short and we entered a large tin-roofed building. Air-conditioning was supplied by open doors at both ends of the building. Fancy.

Through the exit was a large locked gate, where the guides for Arusha await fresh travellers. A few held ripped and dirty sheets of A4 paper with passenger names scribbled on them, though most were just waiting on an opportunity.
There was one, large khaki Nissan Patrol next to a tall man with a beaming smile who was to become a very  good friend to us over the next six days - Salvatory. He held up a bright 'Roy Safari' sign (the firm he worked for and we booked http://www.roysafaris.com/home-page.html) which had our names printed on in large type. Our bags were taken over to our new transport and Salvatory supervised the loading, taking a huge amount of care over Phillipa's dress, as he would throughout our entire stay.
He then introduced himself and bade us welcome into the truck. Inside were bottles of water in holders next to our seats, and a mini fridge full of Coke, Sprite, water and snacks. He explained that this would be our personal vehicle, and that he would be our guide from now until he dropped us at Grumetti Airstrip in 6 days time.
Salvatory asked us about the trip as he pulled the jeep out of the airport and aimed us towards Arusha town - in turn we relaxed, stretched and popped open some cokes.

The road to Arusha was part paved, part mud. All along the way people thronged the edge of the road. Colourful dress was the order of the day, and whilst clothes might have been old and ill-fitting, they were clean, pressed and obviously a source of pride (the guidebook also highlighted this - Tanzanians hate sloppy / rumpled clothes).
We moved along the road at a slow pace, partly for Salvatory to tell us more about his home town and partly as traffic lines, laws and lights are non-existent. No-one was rushing though, and hands were waved and horns beeped in warning with a cheery smile. Everyone either knew Salvatory or wanted to chat and we stopped often in the road, a car on the other side with windows down and the driver happily gassing away. We always got a happy 'Jambo' from them too. We had been on the ground in Africa for less than 30 mins and we felt completely at home.

As we passed deeper into Arusha more and more markets sprang up alongside the main road. These are sprawling affairs, covering huge areas. Some produce was stacked on makeshift tables, but most was on the floor. But great care in taken in presentation - mangos and other fruits are piled high in pyramids and laid out in concentric circles and it creates a beautiful riot of colour against the dark dust and mud of the ground, and the stark grey of the wooden buildings.

What looked like Toyota Previas were everywhere. Each had been brightly painted, and many bore marks of favoured bands / films. We saw Michael Jackson plastered all over one, Scarface on another; even one with 'Reggae-Bastard Bass Beats' covering the back window... These are the famed Dala-Dalas - the local bus service. Many will buy these small people carriers, paint them up to reflect, well, whatever the hell they want, and then drive around, taking people up and down Arusha, to the airport even to other towns.

We hit the Roy Safari compound after about 20 minutes. The gates were a good 8 foot tall, and manned by a guard. He opened up a small hatch in the gate, verified the vehicle and guide and opened up. We got out, stretched and went in to meet Riwanda, who talked us through the whole itinerary of our trip. The room was large and cool, with a white tiled floor and comfortable settees interspersed with several desks and PCs. We were passed our flying doctor certs and our tickets for the Zanzibar to Dar flight on our final day as well as some awesome Roy Safari t-shirts :-)

We paused for a few photos and then sauntered next door to the African Tulip for lunch.

The setting was beautiful, with a small waterfall running through the restaurant, and here we got our first taste of Tusker (apart from a half at Akamba!). Hooked...
We left the African Tulip and headed back to the compound and into the Patrol. We made one stop in Arusha - to the main indoor supermarket... We stocked up on batteries (for the torches in the Patrol - just in case we had some late evening drives) and a few coffee milkshakes for Phillipa.

Back in the Patrol, Salvatory started us on the long drive to the Ngorongoro crater... We drove through numerous small towns, each a riot of colourful clothes, women with firewood on their heads, children hauling plastic tubs of water and baboons, baboons, baboons...

Coffee Plantation!

We saw groups of women walking with fruit, and each holding a machete - these were to protect themselves from the baboons that wondered through the towns, bold as brass. On many occasions they would need to fight for the food they had gathered.

We heard 'Jambo' every time we slowed enough to hear people through the windows and got a hundred waves and smiles at every town.

Along the isolated stretches of road between each township we saw Maasai villages dotted around, tiny in the huge expanse of the plains. Maasai children were working late, keeping an eye on the herds in the bright afternoon sunshine.

Coming back from Church

Salvatory stopped on the roadside and bade us hop out to see the termite mounds. He stepped up to check one over before getting us to pose nearby for a photo.

He told us after that he checked for large holes - a series of large holes will normally mean that predators, snakes in the main, will have entered into the mound and it can therefore be pretty damn dangerous to get too close.
We walked back from the mound, our feet scuffing the white powder-like dust and caught a small twister before hopping back into the Patrol.

Then... Ngorongoro...

We entered the main gate:

As a conservation area, it is a heavily guarded place, with very strict entry and exit times; to the crater itself as well as the main game area on the caldera floor. A quick toilet break - made difficult as baboons capered on the roof above us and then we were through the gate and onto a road surrounded by the lushest jungle vegetation I have ever seen. The ridge of the crater is 2000ft above the floor, and the whole ecosystem is different at the ridge and the floor.

It was getting dark, but Salvatory pulled over and sheperded us out of the Patrol and over a break in the trees on the right hand side of the road. We stood there, 2000ft up and saw the caldera laid out before us. Small dark shapes, looking like trees and woods were in fact herds of Wildebeest and Buffalo. The scale of the thing was breathtaking; 260 square kilometres, and 3 million years old...

It was a short drive from the viewpoint to our first lodge, the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge. Set on top of the ridge of the crater, with all of the rooms facing into the caldera below.
We had just enough time to have a drink by the roaring log fire, some food in the restaurant above and then we were off to bed... Ready for our first Safari drive early the next morning...

Too dark to see on camera, but the whole crater stretches out in front of us here...

Tusker baby... :-)