Ngorongoro: not just a crater / no solo un crater.

2017 Aug 14/15

Ngorongoro Crater is considered one of the top places to see wildlife in Tanzania, and indeed in the world. The National Park is more than just the crater, and we enjoyed many facets of the Park, including the crater, which has positives and negatives, as will be seen.

El Crater de Ngorongoro es considerado uno de los mejores sitios para ver animales in Tanzania, sino en el mundo. El Parque Nacional es más que el Crater, y disfrutamos muchos aspectos del Parque, incluyendo el Crater, que tiene aspectos positivos y negativos, como vamos a ver.

We entered from Serengeti, and almost immediately left the principal route, which was almost  as badly corrugated as the main Serengeti roads. Rather than follow the crowds we turned off to  the right, taking a road to Lake Ndutu, where we found the environment very dry, although the lake itself had water. It was fascinating to find ourselves in a setting in which elephants shared the lake shores with local Maasai, herding cattle. We saw flamingoes and other water birds as we drive along the shoreline.

Entramos de Serengeti, y casi inmediatamente salimos de la ruta principal, que fue corrugada casi tan mala como las rutas principales de Serengeti. Evitando seguir las manadas de turistas giramos a la derecha, tomando una ruta hacia el Lago Ndutu, dónde encontramos un ambiente seco en el que elefantes compartieron las orillas del lago con Maasai y sus vacas. Vimos flamencos y otros aves acuáticas mientras manejábamos al lado del Lago.

The map showed a route south which would give us access to the Crater, and which was marked "bad road, dry season only". We decided to explore this and although it was probably the most dusty we had experienced, it was passable; we met more Maasai looking after their cattle, and finally entered an area of open highland, in which we travelled through small Maasai villages, progressively ascending to the Crater lip by back roads, on which we saw no other visitors. It was good to see these small communities, going about their daily lives.

El mapa mostró una ruta al sur que nos daba acceso al Crater y que estaba marcada como "mala ruta, solo en estación seco". Elegimos explorarla, y sin embargo fue probablemente la más polvorosa que habíamos encontrado, fue viable; encontramos más Maasai cuidando su ganado, y finalmente entramos una zona alta y más abierta, donde pasamos pueblos pequeños de Maasai, paulatinamente subiendo hasta el borde del Crater por rutas menores, donde vimos ningún otro visitante. Disfrutamos ver estos comunidades, en sus vidas cotidianas.


We finally reached the Crater lip, and made our way to one of the lodges where we enjoyed lunch looking over the Crater, which is undoubtedly an impressive geological spectacle. Our plan was to camp at the only campsite on the Crater lip - Simba A. On setting off to go there Marce noticed an oil leak from the front differential, so we sought advice regarding a workshop where we might fix this and found George, a mechanic at the Ngorongoro garage, who, despite its being closing time, took us to a workshop where the leak could be repaired. He also noted that the chassis (or more accurately, the junction of the front differential housing) was cracked (courtesy of Serengeti's appallingly corrugated roads) and so in short order both were repaired, at least temporarily, allowing us to continue on our way to the campsite. There we met our friends from Serengeti, Tomas and Sabine, and set up camp with them, in the surprisingly cold, wet, and windy night.

Finalmente llegamos al borde del Crater y fuimos a un "Lodge" donde almorzamos con vista por el Crater, sin duda un espectáculo geológico. Nuestro plan fue acampar al único campamento ubicado al borde del Crater- Simba A. Cuando salimos para ir allá Marce vió un derrame del diferencial delantero, entonces buscamos consejo sobre un taller donde pudieramos arreglar esto y encontramos George, al "Ngorongoro Garage" quién, a pesar del hecho de estar cerrando, nos llevó a un taller donde pudimoxs reparar el derrame. Notó también que el chassis tenía una grieta (cortesía de las rutas atroces del Serengeti) y en poco tiempo reparo ambos, aunque temporalemente, lo que nos permitió continuar al campamento, donde encontramos a nuestros amigos de Serengeti, Tomás y Sabine, y acampamos con ellos en una noche sorprendentemente fría, lluviosa y con viento.

The following day we headed into the Crater itself: this involves entry at one point, where one descends a very steep access road into the Crater, a limited time in the Crater (theoretically six hours maximum), leaving the Crater via a paved exit road at another point on the rim. The good news is that there is a great deal of wildlife in the Crater: we saw a pair of male lions soon after arriving on the Crater floor, and also large numbers of zebra and wildebeest, as well as elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, hyena, and a lot more, including many more lions.

The bad news is that there were many "safarimobiles" in the Crater, in themselves not a concern, since they have as much right to be there as anyone else, however the behaviour of some of these was highly inappropriate: on hearing of a group of lions they would hurtle off to gain a viewpoint, raising clouds of dust and jostling for position, without much concern for other visitors, and certainly with little for the animals involved. At one point we found ourselves at a place where we counted 22 "safarimobiles" competing to view some lions, at which point we headed off in the other direction seeking a more tranquil setting.

El día siguiente bajamos al Crater: esto involucra bajar de un punto por una ruta muy inclinada, un período limitado dentro el Crater (teóricamente máximo 6 horas), y una salida por otra ruta, esta vez pavimentada. Las buenas noticias: vimos muchos animales dentro el Crater -  un par de leones poco después de llegar al piso el Crater, muchas zebras y wildebeest, también elefantes, hipopótamos, búfalos, hienas, y más, incluyendo muchos leones.

Las malas noticias: tenía muchos "safarimobiles" en el Crater, en si mismos nada de problema - ellos tuvieron el mismo derecho de visitar - pero el comportamiento de unos fue simplemente inaceptable: cuando escucharon de un grupo de leones ellos arrancaron corriendo como locos para ganar un punto donde pudieran mirar, sin consideración por otros visitantes, y menos por los animales involucrados. En un momento encontramos en un lugar donde contamos 22 "safarimobiles" compitiendo para mirar unos leones, y salimos por el otro sentido para buscar un sitio más tranquilo.

It has to be said that the Crater is well worth visiting, for the numbers and diversity of animals and birds which can be seen, however the density of other visitors is equally high, and detracts somewhat from this impressive arena.

Tenemos que decir que el Crater es un muy buen sitio para visitar, el paisaje, los números y diversidad de animales que se pueden ver, sin embargo el número de visitantes es igualmente alto, y disminuye el disfute de un sitio impresionante.

Once we had climbed out of the Crater again we headed off around the rim, then descended to make for Lake Manyara, our next destination.

Una vez habíamos subido del Crater salimos  a travez del borde para bajar en ruta a Lago Manyara, nuestro próximo destino.

Abrazos

Alan & Marce

Photos may be used for non-commercial purposes with credit to alanymarce@gmail.com / Las fotos pueden ser usadas para propósitos no comerciales con crédito a alanymarce@gmail.com.