Slave Market and Museum in Zanzibar

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A few days in Zanzibar

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Travel in the Serengeti

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Our trip to the Serengeti

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Our Christmas Eve game drive in the Ngorongoro Crater

 We woke up at 5:30 this morning so that we could get an early start on our game drive in the Ngorongoro Crater.  Hot bottles of tea and coffee were brought to our room, along with some small cookies to tide us over until our breakfast down in the crater. 

It was not yet sunrise at 6 AM when headed out in our safari vehicle toward the floor of the crater, driven by Paul.

The crater is the caldera left behind by the eruption of a giant volcano two million years ago, It5 is roughly a circle, roughly 100 miles square miles, with the floor being roughly 500 meters below the rim.  The walls are fairly steep, so much so, Paul told us, that giraffe cannot easily navigate them to enter the crater.  That, in addition to the relative paucity of acacia trees on the floor, is why giraffe are the one major African mammal that we would not see down in the crater. Rhino, however, ARE found in the crater and they rhino may walk up the crater walls to find euphorbia tree, against which they can rub despite the poisonous character of the sap


The floor of the crater is accessed by only six roads, each of them one-way up or one-way down.  Although Entamamu is a long bumpy road from the rim road, its entrance to the rim road is very close to the Seneto Descent Road on the western wall off the crater.  We could see a reflection of the sun breaking out on the horizon, albeit hidden from us by the clouds. as we drove down the descent road.       

We could see a large cluster of buffalo on the crater bottom

as well as this small group of gazelle as we reached the crater floor

but our guide noted a group of 30 to 40 hyenas running

So we set off to see what might have caused that. 

First day at Entamanu Camp on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater

View at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater from Entamamu Camp

Nancy and I said goodbye to the rest of the family as we headed to the airport for our morning flight to Lake Manyara.  We were back in the world of the bush plane; several small plans lined up and took off from Arusha’s airport to various tiny airports, while the mountain loomed overhead in the distance. 

Planes at Arusha Airport

Our plane was big enough for perhaps fifteen passengers, but the only passenger besides us on our plane was a guide who was returning to his camp in the Serengeti — the next stop after ours – after a week at home in his company’s main office.  When he heard where we were going, he told us we would be in good hands

We could see the vastness of Lake Manyara as we approached it from the air

Lake Manyara from the air

We were picked up the Lake Manyara airport; we had another two hours of driving before we would reach our lodge.  The main crops in the area, our driver told us, were corn, soy and sunflowers; 75 %  of it was corn.  But not fishing, despite the proximity of Lake Manyara.  This side of Lake Manyara was within the conservation area, so fishing was only allowed on other side of the like. 

We passed through Karatu town, the last town before the crater and its conservation area, and then we were at the entrance to the park,





where our driver had to show his paperwork and wait for the stamp that would allow him to take us into the park and then to our lodge.  He warned us that it might take us awhile; he suggested that we wait inside a small museum, and he urged us to accompany him to the museum because the baboons in the parking lot were not shy about grabbing things from unwary tourists.  The museum had a nice model of the crater, and a larger model situating the crater within its surrounding areas

We had lots of time to read the placards more than once; apparently the computers were down and it took over a half hour for our driver to get the needed stamp.

A few days at Ngare Sero

The next leg of our trip, to the resort at Ngare Sero, marked the most disappointing part of our trip.  The place was not without its attractions.  The lodge is a former plantation founded by an officer in the German Army, which that conquered the area in the mid 1880's.  The main building of the lodge is the former mansion; it contains a few sleeping rooms as well as dining areas and sitting rooms for guests.

As we entered the lodge's grounds, we crossed this nice footbridge and passed a lake

 From the porch of the second floor or the main building. Mt. Kilimanjaro can be seen poking above the trees



Behind the main building is a large lawn, with a tower in the middle

The extensive grounds are lovely, including a large pool long enough for lap-swimming, a series of nature paths (although we found the supplied map of the grounds confusing), a large lake on which the grandchildren were able to enjoy a boat-ride.    The grounds are maintained as a conservancy, so monkeys can be seen flitting in the trees near where we ate; there were bird and exotic plants galore, including this interesting spiked vine. 

But there isn’t much to do when the weather is bad, and although their web site touts tours that the lodge can arrange, some of which were among our reasons for visiting, it turns out those need to be arranged in advance because they have only a limited number of cars and guides — and we ended up missing out.

We arrived in the mid-afternoon, and our bags went off to our rooms, two rooms at the end of line of adjoining rooms in back of main lodge and across the lawn.  We were given the wi-fi password that we could use for Internet connection from our rooms, and when I called into the reception to report that I could not find any available networks, I was promised prompt help.  Which, never arrived, because, in fact, the lodge’s wi-fi network was so weak that my phone or laptop could only pick it up within 25 for 50 feet of the main office.  Now, it is fine being basically off the grid, with connectivity available only in public areas (in fact, the limited connectivity throughout Tanzania is one reason I am blogging this trip only after getting home) but I did not appreciate the lack of candor about the limits on connectivity.

We enjoyed a swim in the afternoon of our arrival, and headed in for an early dinner.  Although the place touts itself as being child friendly, the fine print indicated that they want small children to be done with dining by 6:30, to ensure a more peaceful experience for the grownups.  I can understand that – our grandchildren can be obstreperous when dining out.  But actually getting the food that early turns out to be a problem.  We were assigned a particular dining area away from where most people were eating – and it was a nice location, an outdoor space covered with tenting material

and near the trees where the black-and-white colobus monkeys could often bee seen during the breakfast period. 






There was also a dining area down closer to the lake; we had a lunch there during our stay, and it was my impression that the lodge was making an effort to cycle all of the guests through that eating area.  It had a more romantic feel in the evenings with lighting by small bulbs