Ngorongoro Crater
'Ngorongoro' is Maasai. It's the result of the Maasai's tendency to take their herds of cattle into the crater to graze; apparently there is an abundance green grass and water which makes it worthwhile to scale the steep slopes. The name results from the sound that is omitted from the the bells attached to the cows:ngoro ngoro ngoro ngoro
The crater itself is the result of a volcanic eruption that occurred ages ago. The volanic basically erupted in on itself, creating a large bowl. As the edges of the crater are extremely steep, making them nearly impossible to summit, and because the crater itself is full of vegetation and fresh water, it has become a natural animal sanctuary: apparently 2 billion animals call the crater bed home.
Aside from the amazing animal-watching throughout the day, we encountered one other interesting phenomenon... As I mentioned, we enjoyed picnic lunches each day (provided by the lodges where we stayed the previous night); this time we decided to eat in a picnic site next to the Hippo Pool. Sam warned us to keep an eye out for birds, as they were notoriously aggressive. Well, we had just begun to bite into our delicious chicken pieces when a divebomb flew out of the sky and snatched Riccardo's chicken from his greasy fingers! We were shocked and amused, to say the least. Sam decided that he might be better able to ward off the bird if he stood above us, and still laughing at Riccardo's bad luck, hovered over us for protection. Not a minute went by before Sam was ducking down in fright, as another bird had seized his chicken! Of course by this point we could not stop ourselves from cracking up at the whole situation. Despite some failed attempts by the nasty birds, I managed to keep hold of my own chicken which I shared with Riki. When we were done we decided to sacrifice the leftovers for a photo-op. - as you will see in the slideshow! We then proceeded to watch other picnicers hopelessly defend their lunches.
It was on the edge of the crater where we found our lodging after our tour of Ngorongoro: the Sopa Lodge was the closest thing to a western hotel we came across. Though the accommodations themselves weren't remarkable, the magnificent view into the crater, and the fact that we had buffalo grazing directly outside our window certainly made our stay a good one.
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