Pass the Zaki Sauce: Ngorogoro Crater

The last big stop on our trip was Ngorogoro and the best word I can think of to describe it is "breathtaking". Just look at it.

Absolutely breathtaking. Ngorogoro Crater was actually the whole reason for our trip. Jamie and I had been going back and forth about taking a trip to Africa for a long time. It being a long and pricey voyage, I always argued that there were other places I would rather go that weren't nearly as expensive. And that didn't require vaccinations delivered in syringes.

Then, I read the entry on Ngorogoro Crater in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the seed was planted. When the incredible deal to visit Tanzania popped up on my weekly travel deal email I thought about that article and then checked the dates with Jamie -- which was as good as buying the tickets right there and then.

But before we got to Ngorogoro Crater, we started our trip from Serengiti by stopping by a Maasai village and spending time with some of the locals.

Center of the village.

Inside the village's schoolhouse.

The Maasai men greeting us.

One of the Maasai warriors gave us a tour of the village and showed us his hut.

Maasai toddler

Walking feet

Hut interior

It was quite the experience. My favorite part was when our Maasai friend -- I am completely blanking on his name -- was talking about marriages within the Maasai culture. When Jamie asked how many wives most of the men had he replied that some men had many, but that you could have only one "if you really liked her."

From the village, we visited Oldupai Gorge (a.k.a. Olduvai Gorge) where some of the earliest hominid remains were found.

Cradle of Mankind

We walked through the museum and ate a picnic lunch with that view, then made our way to our lodge in Ngorogoro. This particular lodge ended up being my favorite as it had the best view of all.

View from our bed.

Plus, as it was situated on a cliffside, the lodge had a very treetops feel to it...

The best part of all was that it was nearly invisible from the crater when you looked back up at it and all of the lodges we stayed in boasted eco-friendly measures (i.e. all had gardens where they grew much of the produce for their restaurants).

The next morning, we got up bright and early to be among the first to venture into the crater and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.

Just a few minutes later...

Ngorogoro Crater ended up being everything that Patricia Schultz promised in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and more.

Two cheetah on the prowl.

Under the morning cover.

Lunch.

Mkenda, our guide, mentioned that Ngorogoro Crater was a "retirement home" of sorts for elephants because it had more tender grasses and flowers for old elephants to eat.

This ostrich was something of a bully.

Just yawning.

A note about Mkenda our guide: he seriously was the biggest stroke of luck that we had. He has been leading safaris for many years and was clearly very respected among the communities. Other guides would pullover for him than discretely follow him knowing that Mkenda would find the action without fail. Not only could he spot a jackal in the grass while navigating a bumpy road, he knew the animals so well...he would be able to predict their paths and be able to put us right in their path (hence the number of close-up shots.) He saw cheetah on the horizon -- would peek at them on his binoculars -- announce that they would be coming our way shortly and then reverse the truck 200ft back up the road. Sure enough, within minutes they started walking right towards us and past our truck.

So close I couldn't even zoom out enough!

Not to mention, he found the cheetah for us when we told him they were the last animal on our checklist that we had yet to find. We had lost hope after the Serengeti knowing that was our best chance of finding them. Despite there only being 12 cheetahs in Ngorogoro he found us two of them. Even better, a few hours after first finding them, he announced that we should go check on them to see if they were hunting and sure enough we found them again getting ready to pounce on a gazelle.

We camped out in the truck nibbling on our lunch while we watched the cheetahs inch closer and closer to theirs. Sadly -- I was on Team Cheetah -- there was a false start and one of the cheetah pounced a little too early and the gazelle got away.

Ngorogoro was my favorite stop on the trip.

But even driving back to the airport the following day, we encountered some pretty incredible sights.

Incidentally, this was the only thing that had Mkenda pulling out his own camera.

The mountains in full bloom.

I have so many more pictures and memories, but as I am exhausted just writing about them, I can only imagine how exhausting it must be to read and scroll through. If you've actually managed to read through all of these posts, thanks for allowing me to indulge...