I woke up around 6:30am and was in awe of the view out the window overlooking Lake Manyara. Each small black dot I saw I imagined was a hippo or an elephant. It really was quite magical.
During breakfast Sian and Jim decided against a game drive back at Lake Manyara. We commented on how we are getting too blasé as we had such good luck spotting so many animals in our first two days.
I contacted John and he said they would return for us around 2:30pm for our short drive to Ngorongoro Crater. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to fully enjoy the hotel facilities. Following the fantastic breakfast, I went back to the patio off the room and blogged to my hearts content until checkout time. Still too early for lunch (yes there is an enormous amount of eating happening) I went to the pool area to finish my writing.
At noon we met in the dining area for our lunch. It was buffet style with an incredible amount of variety to choose from. We did as the French do, have a course and then rest in between and then go up for the next course. We managed to stretch it out for over two hours and had a very pleasant time.
On the strike of 2:30pm, John met us at our table. Now that we had rested we were excited to carry on our journey to the Ngorongoro Crater and were on the road by 2:45pm.
The views enroute to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area were incredible. On the left of the Land Rover was the great Rift Valley and Lake Manyara and before too long we had views of the actual crater on the right!
We stopped at the Conservation Area gate and went inside to have a look around while Ricky and Livingston organized the permits. About 15 minutes through the gate, we come to the lookout point. Here we get our first glimpse of the massive Ngorongoro Crater (260 sq km). We take photos and the head across the road for photos of the great Rift Valley. Absolutely amazing!
The main feature of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority is the Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and its floor covers 260km2.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area also protects Olduvai Gorge, situated in the plains area. It is considered to be the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of the human genus, some 3-5 million years ago.
We carried on the crater rim road and pulled into the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge. It is a beautiful old property and reminded both Jim and I of the Japer Park Lodge, lots of stone and polished wood. And the view from both our rooms and the dining room is the picture above in this post. It was absolutely stunning!
Once checked in we relaxed in the comfy chairs of our room, chatted and gazed out at the magnificent view. Dinner starts at 6:30pm and as we are not ones to miss a meal, we wandered up to the dining room.
We decided to have a drink on the patio first and threw the bar staff for a loop when we asked for Amarula (similar to Baileys), Grand Marnier and coffee, all in one cup! It was yummy and as the evening air was chilly, it warmed us up. Before our first sip the waitress shouted, did you see our elephants? Right below us on the hotel lawn were two bull elephants grazing away – so awesome!
Finally we went into the dining room and had a very nice buffet meal although none of us were too hungry. By 9:00pm or so we were back in our rooms and snugly tucked in bed. Looking forward for the ride down into the Crater tomorrow!
naturaltrekking 