Ngorongoro Crater

Last week we had a few days off from riding in Arusha, Tanzania (a planned break this time). We took the opportunity to head to Ngorongoro Crater. Not only is Ngorongoro the inspiration for The Lion King, which is in its own right a good enough reason to visit (on the off chance of seeing a cloud shaped like Mufasa) but it is also an incredible game park.

 

The Crater's edge

Due to all the volcanic ash the crater is incredibly lush, enabling it to support a huge number of animals. It has very steep sides which keeps a lot of the animals penned in (although some of them do move in and out using some of the less steep routes). The combined impact of these is that the crater in effect becomes a glorified 35 square mile zoo, where it is relatively easy to spot animals.

A lion couple's domestic

We were lucky enough to see four separate lion prides, rhinos, hippos, elephants, hyenas and all the slightly more common stuff, like zebras, that are really exciting the first time you see one, and far less so after the 7,000th. The crater ground consists of ash rather than soil, meaning that in the main it cannot support tree roots so there are no impala and no giraffes there as they are tree feeders. 

 

A wildebeest domestic

 

Simba and his mates

Whilst staying at a very nice hotel on the rim of the crater, Ali decided to pop the big question to Lizzie, to which she very sensibly said yes. Luckily, having been washing some lycra earlier in the day, her fingernails were clean for the occasion and the ring didn’t look too out of place! This will hopefully give us more conversational material for the long riding days ahead.