We managed to doze off for a few hours, and when we stepped outside, we were in the middle of a cloud! It was cold, wet, and super foggy. After stepping over the zebra poop to get out of our tent, we enjoyed breakfast, packed up camp and headed into Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive.
Once on the crater floor, the weather was completely different...sunny, windy, and a lot warmer than the campsite. We stopped and were able to get out of the truck to watch numerous zebra and wildebeest march to a watering hole. As we got out of the truck, we were bombarded by Maasai childern wanting us to buy something or take their picture in exchange for money.
Ngorongoro is known for its abundant wildlife, but its claim to fame is the black rhino (the last of the "big 5" we had yet to see). We drove through a very diverse landscape (plains, lush forest, marsh, a lake...all inside the crater) and wove through enormous herds of zebra and wildebeest. Kassim informed us that this would be similar to what the Serengeti looks like during the great migration, which is when the animals migrate from Tanzania's Serengeti during the dry season to Kenya for water. The wildebeest in the crater don't participate in the great migration to Kenya's part of the Serengeti (called Masai Mara) because there is enough water in the crater. It was an awesome experience being surrounded by animals in every direction.
As we drove around the crater we saw warthogs, hyena, two cheetah (who only come to the crater to hunt), elephants and many flamingos. The most exciting thing we saw were a male and female lion who had just finished their mating ritual. Lions mate for four days -- the first day every 10 minutes, the second every fifteen, the third every half hour and the fourth every hour. Then, the male leaves and if the female is pregnant, she will have her cub(s) in only 3.5 months. The two lions were lying on the ground, which is a sign of the mating ritual because a male and female lion only leave their pride together to go mate. After 30+ minutes and some feline flirting, the male got up and slowly walked away, ending the courtship.
We continued to search for the elusive black rhino, but we had no luck. They don't have eyelashes, so they hide when it's windy to protect their eyes. In addition to black rhinos being almost extinct, it was very windy in the crater, stirring up the volcanic ash that makes up the crater floor.
We climbed out of the crater using a really steep and rough road, ate lunch, packed up the truck and set off to our next campsite.
As we stopped at the park exit to sign out, we were admiring the baboons that were all over the parking lot. Kassim went inside, and I had just asked Elias if he liked baboons. He turned from the front seat to answer and started batting/punching near me. I turned, and a baboon was perched in my open car window. He put one hand in my lap and reached down into my backpack on the floor with his other hand, grabbing our ziploc bag of Clif bars and granola bars. Out of instinct, I grabbed the bag, ripped it from him (he still got away with the top third of the bag), and even though I was screaming, and Elias was yelling and batting at him, he continued toward me in the car. I jumped into Adam's lap screaming, "Oh my God, Oh my God!" and just as fast as he came, the baboon was gone. All that remained was a baboon footprint on my pants.
We got to our campsite which was just outside a small village, and it was really nice -- electricity, hot water, flush toilets with seats -- wow!
We sat in the car and talked to Kassim for 1.5 hours about life and Tanzania and America. We talked about the Maasai, schools, marriage (in Tanzania, most choose who they marry, but some marriages are still arranged and divorce is rare), women carrying stuff on their heads (there are three original African tribes from which all other stem -- bantos, hematic and neotic, and the bantos carry stuff on their heads and play the drums), literature, Vegas, Kassim's upcoming trip to America, Denver and many other things. Adam gave him one of the Sports Illustrated magazines he brought, and Kassim handled it like he was holding a baby. He sat there flipping through the pages studying every image.
There was a luxurious bar at our campsite, so we had a Kilimanjaro beer and then a dinner of popcorn, zucchini, soup, fried eggplant, and chicken masala with rice, all made by Elias at the campsite kitchen. Because we were the only people staying at the campsite that night we were able to hang out with Elias while he cooked our dinner. We told him that we were excited to try some authentic African food. His eyes lit up and you could tell he was excited that were were showing interest in his work and the food he enjoys cooking. He planned to make us an African meal the following night!
New Swahili we've learned:
+ chakula kazuri = good food
+ tum = sweet, delicious
+ habari gani = how are you
+ mazuri = good
+ tota anana badi = see you later
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