Day One of our East African Safari: Exploring the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

Friday, July 11, 2025

Day One: Our African Safari Begins

Exploring the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

Breakfast at The Retreat at Ngorongoro:

Llew and I awoke to an alarm we’d set and a wake-up call from the hotel as our days on safari begin early. This is a nuisance but understandable as any attempt at seeing animals must be made at the crack of dawn when they are out on the prowl, hungry and looking for a kill. Later, as the day heats up, most of them seek shade and shelter amidst the scanty vegetation--which makes it difficult for them to be spotted. When we were in South Africa, at Kruger NP, ten years ago, our wake-up calls used to be at 4.30 am with everyone expected in their safari van by 5.00 am. We were given tea, coffee and rusks to start our day and breakfast was usually served at 9.00 am when we returned from our drives.

Here, we were in our vans by 7.00 am—so we had an hour to consume breakfast before leaving. I am a Breakfast Person. I love a big breakfast when I am on vacation, but I am also a slow eater—I know from experience that I ought to give myself at least an hour to do both justice to my meal and to east slowly enough to digest it well. Hence, Llew and I decided to shower at the end of each dusty day rather than in the mornings. By 6.00 am, we were at the great Dining Hall ready to plunge into our first meal of the day!

And what a meal it was! There was something to suit every taste, every desire.

So here’s a word about our Breakfasts in all the resorts (and I promise not to say much about them again because they are all pretty much the same everywher!): Meals (including breakfasts) are laid out in vast buffets that almost encircle the periphery of the dining halls. There is always a hot cereal for starters: either oatmeal porridge or sorghum porridge (this is millets porridge—the poor man’s cereal, eaten all over the Third World. In India, it is often called Nachni or Ragi Porridge). I tasted it on the first day (in my resolve to taste as much local African food as possible) and it was delicious with the generous addition of maple syrup (available at the crepes’ counter). There is also a cold cereal station with muesli, granola, Frosties, Wheetabix, cocoa pops and other cereals to suit the littlest palates. Both hot and cold milk are available here. On the next set of tables, there are hot mains and sides. These include unfamiliar African staples such as Ugali and Arrowroot (grain-based steamed cakes that resemble Indian idlis) as well as Noodle dishes (to suit the Asian palate) and vegetable-based preparations. There is usually a crepes or pancake station as well and, of course, an Egg Station where eggs are made to order. As in the case of an FEB (Full English Breakfast—one of the great joys of my personal gastronomic life), there are all the fixin’s that go with it such as baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, pork and/or beef sausages, pork/beef bacon, potatoes in some shape or form and a variety of bread loaves so one can create one’s own toast. There is also a selection of bread rolls for those wishing to fill up on carbs (I tended to avoid these entirely). At the Fruit Station, there is an abundance of fresh fruit (including exotic, unfamiliar ones such as passion fruit), fruit salad and a number of fruit juices. I was delighted to find vanilla and strawberry milk shakes as well and, as I am unable to drink regular coffee (caffeine intolerance--and decaff was not always available), I would opt for these shakes. They were nutritious and filling (and fattening, I daresay!). I also resolved to have a different breakfast each day in hopes of tasting everything. Llew usually stuck to eggs done over-easy with all the accompaniments. Needless to say, we ate well (and that’s an understatement). By 7.00 am, we were well and truly stuffed and ready to enter the safari van at least ten pounds heavier

Off on our First Game Drive—Creating Groups of Six:

Our first game drive was to take place at one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World—the Ngorongoro Crater. It took us about an hour to drive to the spot. This gave us a chance to get to know our van companions as we were told by Amani, our tour director, that we needed to create a group of 6 persons who would be our travel companions for the entire trip. Changing vans, changing drivers and changing van companions was not encouraged for various reasons: the drivers have heavy accents and staying with one driver would enable us to get accustomed to his way of speaking and, hopefully, understand him better. In a big group, the likelihood of losing someone or leaving someone behind was slimmer if we knew exactly who was missing in our van and, thirdly, staying with the same driver would, I suppose, enable us to tip him as we saw fit, at the end of the trip. Accordingly, we teamed up with Doreen and John (very old friends) and with Albin and Louella (brand-new ones). This gave us an opportunity to ask background questions about our lives to break the ice. No surprise that we soon discovered common threads and connections with our lives back in India or with childhood friends or college classmates. We loved our little Six-some and would pretty much stick with this group for the rest of our travels. By the end of our safari, we felt as if we’d known each other forever. Naturally, we posed for a Sexy Six-some Picture at the start of our touring together.

Once our groups were in place, we were off. En route to the Crater, we passed by a large family of baboons—a matter of huge excitement to us all as it was the very first creatures we would spy together. We could see every member of at least three generations: massive grandfatherly fellows (slow of gait and ponderous), mid-aged specimens (males and females) and cute babies, clinging to their mother’s backs as they crossed the road in front of us with the air of fellows who owned it!

Our driver was a chap named Mussa. He was jolly and friendly, but sadly, left much to be desired in the divulging of information department. In other words, he told us almost nothing. Now, did he have the information—who knows? Did he have it and was he just too lazy to share it, who knows? At any rate, we realized that while our companions in the other vans were receiving a wealth of information relating to the terrain, the animals and their habitat, we were left blissfully ignorant. What a good job, the travel writer in me had used Lonely Planet to cull all sorts of information from the Internet which I was carrying with me. I used those printed notes to read up myself on how the Crater was created and why it is such a unique eco-system.

How the Ngorongoro Crater was Created:

So, from Lonely Planet, this is the information I had gathered: “The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano erupted and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 metres (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres (14,800 to 19,000 feet) high. The crater floor is 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) above sea level. The crater was voted by Seven Natural Wonders as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in Arusha, Tanzania, in February 2013. The Ngorongoro volcano was active from about 2.45 to 2 million years ago. Volcanic eruptions like that of Ngorongoro, which resulted in the formation of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, were very common.”

As the caldera is inactive, it is a massive, flat basin that contains enough water to sustain life. To get down into it, you first need to climb up the sides of the volcanic mountain and then descend into it. The caldera roadway is lush with tropical vegetation. As I live in India now, it is easy for me to recognize the trees that form a luxuriant canopy as well as wayside weeds that line the road. Active with bird life, the trees are home to nesting birds whose song followed us every mile of the way. When, finally, we began our descent into the crater, we had marvelous views of the starkness of the plains—the very plains that have sustained animal life through the centuries (although no one is sure who first introduced the animals into this protected habitat).

A word also about the salinity/acidity of the waters in the caldera: They are particularly acidic (my source for this information was Atul Mohod, the CEO of Pepsico who was my flight companion on the sector from Bombay to Nairobi). Hence, over the centuries, the animals and birds in the caldera have accustomed themselves to it. They cannot survive outside the caldera as the sweet waters would kill them. By the same token, new animals introduced into the Crater do not survive as they have not evolved sufficiently to be able to drink of the acidic waters. I thought this tidbit was very interesting. Sadly, our driver Mussa did not tell us anything about this and Louella’s very basic question (“How was the Crater formed?”) did not receive an answer. Thanks to my Lonely Planet notes, we had the information she sought.

Surveying the Crater and Becoming Introduced to its Residents:

Before we began our first game drive, we stopped at a break stop to use rest rooms. It was at this point that we spied our first elephant—a lone chap, he munched away in the undergrowth, completely ignoring us. We also spied baboons and monkeys in the trees surrounding us. They were a happy harbinger of the many animals we would see as our game drive took off. A whole flock of Equatorian Guinea Fowl chirped and fluttered off in front of us. We would see these flocks of ground birds several times on our travels.

For the next two to three hours, we drove all over the Steppe. We started off by seeing a huge herd of Cape Buffalo—these are considered one of the Big Five (the others being Elephant, Lion, Leopard and Rhino). We’d already seen our first elephant (at the rest stop) and with the buffalo gazing placidly at us with full frontal stares, we had hit two of the Big Five within the first half our of scouting! Not a bad record at all!

I have to explain that while we were in closed vans, they have ceilings that could be lifted up to enable us to stand on our seats and glimpse the animals from a height. This was very different from our safari vans in South Africa that did not have this facility. Although sitting down and getting up can be a tedious exercise, at the end of each day, it really is an ingenious way to see the animals and I quite appreciated it.

As the morning continued, we caught a glimpse of our first pride of lions! Imagine, if you can, the excitement in our vans! By the banks of a small swamp, busy with bird life (coots, terns, plovers, lapwings, etc), a magnificent male Leo posed for us, raising his head most obligingly for our viewing pleasure. Like most lazy felines during the day, he was inert, wallowing in the comfort of a full stomach and the company of his companion—a female who lay only a couple of feet away, also snoozing. His distinctive dark brown mane—a feature that marks him differently from the Asian lion (whose mane remains gold to match his coat), spread around him like a blazing halo. In the photographs I took, he has a sad expression but remains unperturbed as he looks right into my camera. They would be the first of the many lions we would see over the next few days and the third of the Big Five we hoped to see. Not a bad series of sightings at all for one adventurous morning! After we took our fill of photographs, we moved on.

As we continued to explore the crater, we ran into ostriches—both males (black feathered bodies) and females (lighter brown in color). Further on, we saw our first group of zebras. These lovely creatures are docile and co-operative, moving out of the way of our vehicle without complaint, every time we encountered them. Indeed, we had many animal crossings on our first safari, the zebra giving rise to the cliched caption, “Watch out! Zebra Crossing!” And then we saw Wildebeest (also known as gnu)—dozens and dozens of them. Of course, these creatures do not migrate (as their compatirots in other parts of the Savannah do), They are confined to the crater which provides the ideal eco-system to meet their year-round needs—hence, they are not required to go through the dangers of migration for survival, year after year. We were fascinated by these animals—their size, their coloring (grey-black), their awkward gait, their beards, their numbers, their overall appearance. They are considered to be one of the Ugly Five (the others being the Marabou Stork, the Wart Hog, the Vulture and the Hyena—basically all except wildebeest, being scavenging creatures who feed on cadavers). And I can well understand that they would fall within the Ugly category (although I hate to use this term because I do believe that nothing that God has made is ever ugly) for they have faces that only a mother could love! That said, they seemed like gentle animals and in the days to come, we would see a few thousands of them quite easily as they flourish on the Savanah becoming easy pickings for big predators.

Stopping for Lunch by a Hippo Swamp:

By this time, a few hours had passed since we’d eaten our breakfast and animal-scouting can be pretty hungry activity, I discovered. We were grateful when our drivers stopped for another rest room break and a chance to stretch our legs at a swamp that had a few desultory hippos wallowing in it. We were not supposed to go beyond a clear sign and most of us adhered to the rules. Our driver told us that we’d receive packed lunch boxes that we could sit in the van and eat.

Ravenous by this stage, we opened our boxes to find: Chicken Wraps (they were tasty, but very dry), a Vegetable samosa (a result of two centuries of migration from Gujarat to East Africa, initially to work the fields and mines and later to be administrative landlords themselves), a packet of potato crisps, a bowl of fruit salad, a banana, an apple, a brownie (very dry and tasteless) and a juice box. It was edible, I suppose, but I have to admit that by the third day, we groaned at the thought of yet another packed lunch. They left a lot to be desired and none of us ate them with any relish. After lunch, a few of us stretched our legs towards the water front where I spied a lovely pelican skimming the waters, whose picture I managed to take.

Post-lunch, the game drive continued, We spied loads of gazelles that we quickly came to recognize as Thompson’s Gazelles and Reed Gazelles. These form easy food reserves for predators because they are small enough and easily outrun. About an hour and a half later, after wending our way back to our Retreat and after passing by many more of the same animals we’d seen in the morning (Cape Buffalo, wildebeest and zebras), we arrived at our hotel. I learned that unlike India, there are no water buffalo in Africa. These are land specimens who drink at watering holes but do not enjoy wallowing in them.

A Walk in the Property of our Hotel:

I was glad when a few of our travel companions suggested a walk on the property, not long after we arrived at our Hotel. While I would have preferred my customary afternoon nap, I have to say that this was the only day we’d actually be able to explore the vast property of the hotel—in the days to come, we’d be out for the entire day, returning to the hotel after dark, when it was no longer advisable to wander in the properties alone.

was still enough daylight today to enable us to explore the beautifully landscaped gardens, to admire the philosophical wisdom sprinkled all around in the form of signage tucked away among the foliage and bushes, to photograph tropical flowers such as Bird of Paradise (heliconia), Trumpet Vine, Crab Claws, hibiscus in varied colors, bougainvillea, etc. and to take in the lovely pond sprinkled with water lilies. There was a charming half-moon Japanese Bridge built over it and it formed the perfect spot at which the lot of us posed for a picture. It was deeply reminiscent for me of Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, outside of Paris, that Llew and I had visited, many decades ago, and which had been the subject of so many of his paintings including his most famous series, The Water-Lilies. Enchanted by the soothing sights around us and the trill of frequent birdsong in the trees, we were transported to another world. Sadly, the heavily overcast skies of the entire day had not warmed the water in the swimming pool enough for any of us to take a dip, but John managed to make it to the gym and a couple of guys caught a swift game of table-tennis in the games room. Others preferred to linger amidst the greenery, noting the names of plant species and taking occasional pictures.

Back for Showers, Dressing for Dinner and Dancing and Attending a Tour Talk:

Our wandering done, almost all of us returned to our rooms to take lovely hot showers and get dressed for dinner. After the rather paltry packed lunch we’d had, most of us were starving and ready to devor a horse. However, that pleasure would have to wait, as Amani, our tour director, had instructed us to meet in a conference room for an introductory session. We were encouraged to order drinks from the bar (not included in our package tour price) and with a lovely pale-green apple cocktail in my hand (complete with paper umbrella), I made my way to the Conference Room with the others.

Amani used this opportunity to get us to say our names and from where we had arrived. By this time, we had met everybody –all 28 members of our group—but we discovered at this session that they came from Long Island, Connecticut, Staten Island, Miami, London, Israel and India (Llew and me). Almost all mentioned the names of Avril and Mickey, the couple who had initiated this tour and taken it off ground by contacting some of the friends with whom they had traveled earlier to the Holy Land. Then, friends told more friends and the numbers swelled. Sadly, at the 11th house, Avril and Mickey had to pull out of the trip, for health reasons. Although Llew and I had met them just once, many years ago, at the home of our friends, Doreen and John, we did not see them again after that. We had met many of the other participants at parties on Long Island, over the years, and it was great to re-connect with them. It was also fun to find a Bombay connection with the couple from Staten Island, Em and Jude. I happen to be good friends in my yoga class with Em’s sister, Fran. Also a good number of the participants knew my brother Roger. In this manner, we discovered connections that kept us gasping. The members of our safari van also discovered, from the meeting, that while most of the others had received extensive natural history information from their drivers, we had received nothing. We were very disappointed indeed. Mussa had told us barely anything. Apart from naming the animals and birds as we passed by them, he had said nothing. As Amani asked for feedback, we used the opportunity to tell him that we were dissatisfied by the lack of commentary from Mussa and hoped to receive more on our next safari drive. It was a very fruitful meeting indeed as we were asked to state our expectations of the trip and most folks said they hoped to see the Big Five as well as witness the Great Migration.

When the meeting ended, we made our way to the Dining Hall to take our seats and then adjourn to the accompanying buffet section where we filled our plates with the goodies on display. I chose to try African Jollof Rice, Creamed Spinach, Curried Chickpeas, Fried Chicken, Beef and Tomato Stew—after experimenting with some of the extraordinarily fresh salads and a delicious Spinach Soup (the soups were always outstanding) . Dessert was always too tempting to resist although I have to say that I rarely came across something that was truly scrumptious. There was always a variety of cakes, tiny pastries and bowls of fresh fruit. You could stay healthy, if you chose to, but few of us did!

Celebrating Birthdays the African Way:

It was at this dinner that we experienced our first birthday celebration, the African Way! It is customary in Africa, when a birthday in being celebrated, for the entire kitchen and wait staff to form a procession at the head of which is the Head Waiter bearing a frosted cake with candles. Lights are usually dimmed, a drum is produced from somewhere, the procession breaks into a native song and wends its way around the tables stirring up as much fanfare as possible. All the while, they sing a song that goes, “Jamba, Jamba Jamba…Jamba…etc.” Jamba, by the way, means Hullo. Over the next few days, we would hear this song often and would be able to hum or sing along too. The cake is then plonked in front of the birthday person who cuts it after the lights are turned on again. In this way, those celebrating special occasions can be made to feel special as well.

I was very fortunate, ten years ago, when I had arrived at our hotel, the Hamilton Tented Camps Resort in Skukuza, South Africa, on my birthday. I’d had the sheer pleasure of such a boisterous birthday celebration myself as the staff produced champagne flutes and plates and served everyone a bit of bubbly and a slice of cake. So I knew well how tempted one feels to film the whole spectacle or to join in the procession and many members of our group did.

Music and Dancing After Dinner:

Of course, when you put a bunch of Bandra Catholics together, you must expect music and dancing. As we left the Dining Hall and made our way to the Bar, we found a spot by a huge fireplace where we all settled down to show off our moves! Em and Jude had carried a boom box (a small one) and with the music going, a few of them got on to the makeshift floor and urged everyone else to join in, Before you knew it, we had a dance party underway with everyone losing their inhibitions, letting their hair down and having a crack at taking a few steps. It was a lot of fun and we had a really good time until Llew found his energy reserves deserting him and decided to call it a day.

Yes, it had been a very eventful day and it was only the first of them! Having seen three of the Big Five, everyone felt optimistic about ticking them all off their list. And, on that happy note, we made our way back to our rooms (with staff escorting us with Maasai sticks as animals are known to wander on to the property) and sank down on the lovely plush beds that had been beautifully made up for us, with mosquito nets drawn all around, hot water bottles snuggled under at the foot of each bed and a fire ready to be lit on request. I have to say that it was really freezing in the rooms and we were grateful for our warm hoodies and down jackets. We requested a fire to be lit for us, a member of the staff came and did this, but by the time we finished our showers, the last dying embers were all that we could see. Still, it was profoundly romantic to be in a colonial world, with a warm fire in the grate, mosquito nets billowing around our beds, hot tea and coffee available for us to brew in our rooms (should we choose to—although no decaff, alas) and the promise of yet another lovely day to look forward to on the morrow.

Until tomorrow, Hakuna Matata (No Worries, No Troubles).