Woah, do you smell that?? It’s the smell of adventure. And my adventure today started with a visit from the hat man. I had sleep paralysis for the first time in my life. I rate my experience 0/10, highly do not recommend.
A bit shaken and more than a bit sleep-deprived, I hopped into the trusty Land Cruiser to spend the day driving through the Ngorongoro Crater. While we waited to cross the gate, we saw baboons in the surrounding forest! The second Hunger Games movie kind of made me scared of baboons, but I have to admit that the moms and babies were adorable.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area gate
Spot the baboon
When we entered the conservation area, a thick mist covered the landscape, shrouding everything in mystery. However, as soon as we entered the crater, the mist lifted and revealed the beauty beneath. I was standing with my head popping out of the top of the cruiser, and the Jurassic Park theme song was playing in my head. The crater is 20 kilometers in diameter and 600 meters deep, and these numbers do not illustrate in writing just how big it feels in person.
Entering the crater
Our safari was extremely fruitful! We spotted flamingos, hippos, a hyena, a wounded solitary male lion, and a pride of lions. I couldn’t help but compare the flying flocks of grey crowned cranes and flamingos to pterodactyls.
Flamingos
Wounded solitary male lion
Pride of lions
I saw so many antelopes!! There were Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles all over the crater, and they were often mixed in with groups of zebras, wildebeests, and warthogs. This heterogeneous group composition is likely a predator avoidance strategy. The more watching eyes, the better chance of spotting a threat. Additionally, being toward the center of a large group could protect individuals from getting singled out or targeted. I got to see a baby Thomson’s gazelle up close because its herd was close to the road. It was way more cautious than the older individuals and froze on instinct. Another interesting gazelle behavior I witnessed was an adult Grant’s gazelle stomping on the ground in a circle before laying down on the bed of flattened grass it prepared. I also noticed that the gazelles popped their heads up quickly when eating because of predator vigilance.
Thomson’s gazelles
The crater is truly a land frozen in time. The diversity of the landscape is breathtaking. The cherry on top was a flipped-over Land Cruiser. I’m not fully convinced that I didn’t spend a day in a movie.
Am I trapped in a movie?
We waved goodbye to Ngorongoro and arrived at our last site, Olduvai Gorge. We pitched our tents on the edge of the gorge. From here on out, I’ll be camping in the Serengeti!
