The spectacular Ngorongoro Crater - the Elephants graveyard

We had quite a surprise in store when we drove back to our campsite late this afternoon.

 Two Afrcan bull elephants quickly hurrying back to the bush after being discovered in the middle of our camp.

He was sitting in the dining area revising his diving rules from a PADI book. He just happened to look up. Straight into the eyes of a bull elephant. One of the pair had crept into camp and in complete silence. He was making his way around the tow-truck when Ranj spotted him. The elephant sniffed once then retreated back to the long grass

 My mouth dropped open in shock. These animals must have been fifteen feet at the shoulder. They sported huge great curving tusks. But they were scampering back from the middle of the camp like naughty children. They didn’t stray far – about twenty foot into the scrub nearby and stood and watched us. They are still out there now. They must have come up for a root around the garbage heap nearby, noticed there was no one in camp, and thought they’d make for the food truck. There were zebras there already. About ten of them cropping the grass outside my tent. I thought the Mara was the place where the animals visited you on spec – but it is nothing to Ngorongoro.

 Last night I was woken up about 12.00am by the sound of something heavy moving about outside. My first thought was buffalo as grunting could be heard. I was just getting off to sleep then I heard a crashing sound and George and Mohammad’s voices. Whatever was out there was disturbing the kitchen area and as I found out had been twanging George and Mohammad’s tent. It was bush-pigs – huge brutes of about 2 ½ ft high who raid the camp at night. But to hear them rustle about in the darkness is creepiness personified.

 So we were all a little bleary eyed this morning. George was itching to get down to the Crater so it was a quick breakfast and we were all aboard the safari van. The sense of expectation was enhanced when the roof was put up giving us a 360 degree view and off we went. First of all we had to descend to the Crater floor. The track down was narrow and bumpy, pitted with tire tracks and gave superlative views as we got closer to the floor. The grassy plains could be stretching out in every direction but above us now were the Crater walls. For the most part covered in vegetation. It’s the dry season here and the grass was yellow and parched. The first animal we encountered as we hit the floor was a warthog. Tail held up high and trotting along without a care in the world.

 As we started our circuit of the Crater floor we got a sense of the scale of the thing. 19 miles in diameter the walls are so far away they seem not real. And the nearby walls rise up from gently sloping near the ground to sheer near the top. Animals can come and go from the Crater due to the fact that the northern part is open to the Serengeti Plains. And of course the most famous Serengeti resident, apart from lions, is the wildebeest. It must be first thing in the morning as they were rather lethargic and slow or perhaps I was used to the leaping loons of the Mara dashing around. But the Ngorongoro wildebeest seemed to be taking life in their stride and many of them are here all the year round. George says the lions are lazy. There is such an abundance of game that they don’t have to try very hard. He saw a whole pride fail to bring down a single buffalo the other week.

 As we trundled onwards the wildebeest looked very impressive up against the walls of the Crater. The zebras impressed Ranj as they have only got Grevy’s zebra in South Africa and here were legions of Burchells which seemed more African. There were more wildebeest then I thought and they travelled in nose to tail herds following their leader for an early morning drink. A hyena made an appearance. Head near the ground, mouth open and shoulders hunched she looked furtive and up to something even if she wasn’t. It has a sort of grotesque lope as well as and they travel for miles. They spread out from the den during the day travelling tens of miles in the hope of coming across a kill.

 Further on was a family of warthogs cropping the grass and an ostrich made an appearance. Our first of the ‘big five’ was next and way in the distance a lion was lying in the grass. You had to see it through binoculars. That’s the thing with Ngorongoro because you cannot drive off road often the animals are a long way away. But he was a magnificent beast, sitting there with his head above the grass and had a beautiful black mane. A lioness joined him and nudged his head with hers. The herds were in this vicinity and we were not far from Lake Magadi. We followed a wildebeest herd for a little way, trudging its way through the dust.

 They all seemed to be gathering at a stream which led into Lake Magadi. Magadi is now too small to support much life. It’s been drying up for the last five years. Some flamingos are left but we couldn’t see them from where we were. The river was relatively dry and several wildebeest hung back from the herd to enjoy it. One found itself blocked from the herd by a wandering hyena. It broke into a run to get back to the herd before the hyena spotted it. The hyena was making his way along the stream to the salt flats of Lake Magadi. There in the distance I could see a number of hyenas lying on the flats, tongues out, being sociable with one another.

 The herds had also found a nearby hippo pool and the surrounding marsh. One part of the pool had dried out making it a mass of sticky mud. The herds of wildebeest and zebra spread in their hundreds beyond the marsh. It also had a good population of marsh birds including storks, ibis’ and herons. The herons hopped from one grey hippo back to another and the other. Once in a while one hippo would bang into another or tread on an underwater toe and there would be a light disagreement. The other hippos in the pool would grunt in unison to show they had been disturbed. Behind the pool was quite memorable as hippos leave the water at night to graze the whole area was covered in a forest of tracks. I was interested in the hordes of zebra and wildebeest on the plain beyond the pool. George said he was here last year when lions chased a wildebeest. To escape it jumped into the marsh where the lions couldn’t get to it. The mud was too sticky and it couldn’t get out. She subsequently died of exhaustion trying to free itself.

 But that is life and death in Ngorongoro. George, who loves animal stories, said hippos have to leave the water to give birth. One time a nearly ready female left the pool and bumped into a pride of lions. She didn’t last long. Lions will take on hippo easily. There is evidence of them ambushing elephants in Botswana and Ngorongoro has lost at least one rare black rhino to the ‘King of the Beasts’.

 Next we entered to miombo woodland that could be seen from the rim. Our first animal was a lioness. About five hundred yards away flat on the ground, head forward obviously watching something. She was a good looking animal with a sleek yellow coat. After a while she got up and wandered over to a group of trees where the male lion was sleeping and through binoculars could see about four more lionesses. The scene wasn’t even spoiled by a group of Australian tourists in the next van calling out “pussy..pussy..”

 Next were a number of vervet monkeys near the road. Next was my favourite - three enormous tuskers. George said not one was less then forty years old and their tusks had grown to enormous lengths. They were magnificent beasts about 12ft at the shoulder and each having leathery grey skin and a trunk that was helping itself to nearby tasty green grass. The tusks were the most impressive though and were great sweeping pieces of ivory nearly touching the floor. How heavy were they? Imagine carrying that load every day?

 Most of the vans moved off but we stayed to watch a particular bull in waist high grass. The more we stayed the closer he came. He was eating the grass but you could tell he was watching us with those eyes. He moved forward until he was only ten feet away. The sheer scale of this magnificent adult elephant was overpowering. - The noble slope of his forehead, the wrinkles on his trunk, the great flapping ears. I was absolutely smitten. Was he being friendly? He came within five feet so he was next to the van. Certainly his eyes were watching us as he ate. Was he enjoying our company as we were enjoying his?

 But even elephants got bored and this huge elephant moved in front of the safari van and away from us. But next George received word over his mobile phone that a rhino had been spotted not far away. So he put his foot on the accelerator and sped away. About two miles away on a barren bit of the Crater floor which was just pure grassland there was a mass of safari vehicles. A herd of zebras was not far away but in the distance was a distinct squat shape of a black rhino. He was better viewed through binoculars and even then details were impossible as he was so far away apart from an exceptionally large set of horns. This was as close as we could get as there was no off road driving.

 George said we should eat lunch here as he may move closer and we dug out our boxes containing orange juice, nuts and a sandwich. Black rhinos are exceptionally shy and rare. There are only a few left in East Africa and the ones here at Ngorongoro are watched around the clock due to poaching. Looking at it through the binoculars it had an elongated body and did look like something had strayed in from another more prehistoric age. More interesting was the scrum of safari vans around us all lining up to get the best angle but not allowed to go any closer. So there was another of the ‘Big five’ I’ve seen – elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo – talking of buffalo there was a small herd of young bulls on a river bank. As we approached they lost their nerve and retreated into the bushes. It was quite funny to see the big, burly feared buffalo try and hide themselves amongst the bushes of a riverbank.

 I’ve always had a soft spot for buffalo. They don’t put up with any crap. They frequently better lions in their encounter and they appeal to my ‘Hal and Roger’ predilection for big and dangerous animals. When they turn to look at you - you know they are wondering which part of you they should trample first. George says they stay in bachelor herds until they can fight off another male and create a herd for themselves. The existence of bachelor herds applies for Impala, zebra, elephants, Topi and Grants gazelles.

It was getting late and we were bumping over the track in the middle section. We were brought up short by a hyena lying by the side of the track. She was a huge great brute stretched on her side. She looked up at us with pleading eyes. Animals eyes are just as expressive as human eyes and her eyes said “poor me..I’m having a bad time”. She looked up at us with an unhappy face. We saw why when another van came up behind us. She was limping badly. A lion fight? Another clan?  A kick by a zebra?  My heart went out to her as life is short for a damaged hyena in Ngorongoro.

 Another heartbreaking area was over by the miombo forest. We bumped into our friends the bull elephants again. There was a stretch of meadow outside the woodlands. George says this is the ‘elephants graveyard’ where they come at the end of a long life to die. He’d seen it himself elephants at the end of their life when their teeth wear out and are close to starvation come here. Hyenas and vultures seem to know and they follow the elephant until it collapses – he’s seen it. There is generally nothing left the next morning. Ngorongoro does seem to attract the lone bull elephant there are always a handful of them in the crater.

 Our final stop was a picnic area that could only be described as idyllic. Quite a large pond bordering on being called a lake. The far side was reeds, our side was rocky with trees overlooking it (incidentally to make the place even more memorable for tourists it had been decorated with buffalo skulls). The hippos teased the tourists by submerging just as their camera shutters were depressed. But it was the birdlife which was a joy. Guinea fowl scuttled everywhere, ibis’ were in the reeds and a kite fluttered above everything ready for a meal. A truly lovely place.

 Then it was time to leave so with some reluctance we started the track out of the crater. This was pretty heavy stuff. The track was at a steep angle and the wheels had to find purchase. We were being bumped around like rice in a tin. Not to mention the terrifying views as we ascended. But George does this journey once a week and soon we were up and out. Then as we swung into camp there were the two bull elephants making for the long grass. It obvious what happened the two old timers were regular visitors to the rubbish heap nearby. Enjoying the vegetable peelings they thought they would try and help themselves to the real thing. Disturbed in their plan they retreated but not too far because we could all see them thirty feet away watching..

 But that’s not the end of the story. When I came out of my tent for dinner about 6.30 Ranj told me a story of events which happened at about 3.30 that afternoon while I was asleep. He was sitting in the dining area revising his diving rules from a PADI book. He just happened to look up.

 Straight into the eyes of a bull elephant.

 One of the pair had crept into camp and in complete silence. He was making his way around the tow-truck when Ranj spotted him. The elephant sniffed once then retreated back to the long grass. Ranj breathed a sigh of relief. This thing was 12ft high at the shoulder.

 I still love elephants. One of the most unforgettable experiences of the holiday was to stand on the lip of the camp at the two giant elephants not twenty feet away. I would watch them, they would watch me. Magic.