Monday, December 25, 2000 Christmas Day

When we walked up to the cabana for breakfast we were a little early. The first thing we smelled was BURNT TOAST and it made Rus and I think instantly of Mother. We laughed!! They never did catch up on making toast for everyone! The staff at this hotel dressed in their Maasai wraps. It was quite colorful. We were moving on today to our next location, Ngorongoro Crater.

Somewhere along the road we stopped at a “tourist trap. I found out I REALLY don’t like to shop this bargaining method… I don’t like it at home with fixed prices!! For one thing I hadn’t really figured out what I wanted to get and how much I was willing to pay and I was trying to figure out what I could take home to whom and knew that we already exceeded the weight limit for our plane… Couldn’t get “into” the process. Rus did and got what he wanted. He wanted a Maasai sword and shield and he got an antique mask. Sherry picked out a couple of things and Andrew practiced his Swahili.

Our next stop was Gibbs Farm. It was a BREATH-TAKING view from our Coffee and Tea table out on the lawn. This is a big coffee plantation and has facilities for a limited number of guests. Dick says you don’t even want to know what it costs to stay there. Flower gardens and birds were everywhere. There were logs for beehives up in the trees. It looked very much like Hawaii to me. One lady was sitting out sketching. I saw her sketch later and I think it was I looking through my binoculars. I had been sitting in front of her on some stone steps. We all had admired a bird feeder made out of a limb and a huge slab of rock. They had placed papaya on it and the birds were busy. After a short while we were back on a dirt road (only kind we ever traveled on besides the asphalt from Nairobi to Arusha). We were heading to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, which is at about 7500 ft. Two Maasai guides met us outside their village to lead us up to the rim where a waterfall just started about three weeks ago. Not long ago things were very dry here. They told us that just two months ago animals in the crater were dying and the earth was cracked and dry.

We were all a huffing and a puffing with the altitude and recent inactivity but we loved the view at the top! Both of our guides were university students…one was 19 and comes home every holiday to his village. He has been in Arusha for school and is on summer break waiting for his test scores. We did not go into the village so that we could get on into the crater. Umbeni had arranged for us to get down into the crater today instead of waiting until tomorrow. We have a permit for tomorrow but we are going to drive in tonight as well - that way we will have two days for an opportunity to see a rhino.

The crater is so beautiful. The floor of the crater is 265 sq km in size. It is about 610 feet of elevation below the rim. It’s immense and has so many different creatures living in and amongst each other. It is so green right now and so pretty. It’s hard to imagine it looking like they described it did only a short time ago. We saw herds of Cape buffalo, which are huge. They study us intently and they face straight at us with their nostrils flared. They intently watch and sniff. There are tons of zebra and gazelles… Thompson’s and Grant’s. We were so lucky in finding and observing four different Black Rhino’s. I think they concern me the most of all. Their numbers are so reduced anymore that they truly are endangered species. We saw four young male lions that were so lazy – they just ignore visitors completely. The lake in the crater is beautiful and full of flamingos and Egyptian Geese. We found one very old looking elephant that had no tusks. His ears were battered and torn from past fights I guess. Wildebeest and Coke’s Hartebeest are mixed in here and we saw a lone female lion. Birds are plentiful but my favorite new one here is the Great Crowned Crane.

By the time we got to the lodge we were dirty and tired. We took about twenty minutes to freshen up and went for drinks on the Terrace. They were providing a Christmas reception for all the guests. There were four young men playing drums and instruments outside. Later the lodge choir sang for us. We had table favors and party hats for our festive five-course meal. It was hard not to crash at this point but we stayed for the acrobat show in the lounge area. It turned out to be the same young men that were playing the music earlier. It was amazing what they did in LITTLE space, barefoot and on HARD, slate floor! We were ready to sleep at this point! What a Christmas!!

Jane Wojecki

Ngorongoro Crater

Monday, December 25, 2000

Drove to a souvenir shop. The rest of the group worked on their negotiation skills trading with the merchants. Stopped by Gibb’s Farm for tea and coffee. It is a coffee plantation with a spectacular view of the surrounding valley. Had our coffee and tea on the front lawn overlooking the coffee trees. Had beautiful flowers all around the place. Took some pictures and then continued our journey to the Ngorongoro Crater. When we finally reached to top edge of Ngorongoro crater, we stopped for pictures and Afata provided a little description of the crater. It was about 2000’ from our vantage point to the crater floor. We then drove to a site below Olomoti crater. We sat on the ground and had a picnic lunch. Two guides joined us during the picnic. One was a Masai from a nearby village.

After eating our picnic lunches we climbed way up a hillside to get a view of the crater. It was a pretty tough climb and was slippery coming down. Several slipped. While climbing to the crater rim, we took many breaks along the way up but everyone made it to the top. Our guides were very nice. One was dressed in his native cloth and had his walking stick, which they always seem to carry. The Masai walked with Dick since he was bringing up the rear. The Masai allowed Dick to use his walking stick, which helped prevent Dick from slipping during the climb back down. You could see a water fall in the far distance that we were suppose to walk to but we happy to just see it from where we were.

We left the area and went into Ngorongoro Crater looking for Rhinos. We found 4 large rhinos and took pictures. This completed the viewing of the Big 5. We saw several young male lions, herds of zebra, wildebeest and Cape Buffaloes along with Thomson’s and Grant Gazelles. We climbed back out of the crater and drove to our lodge where we would spend the next two nights, the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, which overlooked the crater. It was designed so every room had a view of the crater. Some of the walls were made of stones and all the walk ways were wooden floors. In the lodge and rooms were animal shapes stenciled on the walls. We had a Christmas cocktail party on the veranda of the lodge overlooking the crater right after arriving. It was beautiful view and the lodge was spectacular. We later sat down to an excellent Christmas dinner. We had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. There were singers, musicians and acrobats performing before and after dinner. Finally went to bed.

The Hazels