An African Wedding: 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: