Saturday, October 8, 2016

Tanzania Safari II : Ngorongoro Conservation Area


After the awesome first safari experience in Tarangire National Park , we drove to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which (according to the Thomson safari and other sources) has one of the highest concentrations of diverse wildlife in the world.  We stopped at a local primary school.  Before this trip, Kendra and Annelise started to do the pan pals with the students from the Ayalabe Primary School.  They sang for us and asked few questions.  I will definately upload the video I recorded :) 



Drive from Tarangire park to the Ngorongoro Crater.  


Ayalabe Primary School and the students. 


Annelise's pan pal... humm I forgot her name.  


Kendra and her pen pal.  She seems so very smart! She speaks pretty good English too!


They sang for us!  I will upload the video soon.  


Photo with the teachers


We arrived at the Gibb's farm which is (I think?) owned by one of the owner of Thomson safari, grow organic food include coffee, have fancy guest houses, and a awesome organic restaurant - the true farm to fork!  


Tina, Kendra and Annelise are all vegetarians and they didn't have any problem with food while we were traveling in Tanzania.  All the restaurant we stopped, they had really nice selections of vegetarian options. 


Beautiful place with delicious food and great service!


After lunch, we went to the farm tour.  A Maasai was our tour guide.


Coffee shrub and the fruit



Mohammad told us that all the food ingredients at the Ngorongoro Nyumba (the place we stayed..) are coming from this farm.  Indeed the food was amazing!  No wonder I gained so much weight :)  No regret though...





Processing the coffee beans.  It was so interesting.  It was the first time I saw the real fruits and the beans!




Hehe :P the most impressive bathroom ever! 



Arrive at the gate of Ngorongoro Conservation area.  All the national park gates.... not known for the speed check-in... 


While waiting for Mohammad to process all the paper work and entrance fee, we watched Ngorongoro movie and the local baboons. 


The Nyumba is located on the top of the mountain.  I slept so well:cool and dry while all the Tanzanian workers suffer from all the cold temp :P According to the WiKi, the crater is 126 sq. mi. (326 sq. km.). 


Our Nyumba.  Each Nyumba is kinda similar but has different color theme.


This kind of camping, I can do without any complains :) 


Sunset watching with our Massai warriors.  We can't wonder around without them since there are lots of wild animals. 




The acacia trees look like African movie scene! 


Again, our peaceful evening before dinner.  


Next day, we went down to the crater.  The first animal - Mr. President!  I've called the African buffalo (Cape buffalo) Mr. President since it has the same hair? style as Washington :P hehe..


Lot lots zebras!


Grant's gazelle


Pumbaa! Warthogs :)


Wow, so the crater has lots of lions.  It was very impressive to see all the awesome animals with my own eyes!


Oh uh... mating time.. we disturbed their honeymoon.... 





Hyena.... not so pretty but cool nevertheless!


Thomson Gazelle


Warthog


Beautiful crater! You can see the Lesser flamingos...



Popular lunch spot.  It was super windy.. we ended up eating inside the car. 


The most smelly dirty animal ever, Hippo!


Hippos everywhere in the lake, you can't see them well :) 



How I survived the wind and dirt :) in the park. 


It is amazing how the lion can hide from all the animals... as you can see, the wildebeests have no idea there is a lion in less than 10ft.... but well it was a silly lion :P



In order to take this photo... I had to suffer my sense... Super dirty!!!! all covered by their own poooooooooooo....


Impressive lioness


Must be full and happy :) 


Jackal


The view from the Maasai village.


Near our Nyumba, there is a Maasai village and luckily Mohammad arranged us to go visit them on the way to our camp in the afternoon. 


One of the chiefs' wives and her son.  The chief has 21 wife and over 50 children ( I think... I kinda forgot the exact number)


They showed us how to make fire with 2 sticks. 


It was actually super impressive! 


They probably has lots of tourists from near Nyumbas... all the wives make the jewelry and we can buy them.  I got several pieces for my family and friends. 


The school in the village.  They are learning 3 languages!


Some of the chiefs' older sons are teaching the younger sons and daughters


We visited this youngest wife's home.  


It's made by wood and cow dung.  Amazingly it wasn't smelly at all.  Just too dark, too small for us. 


One of the chiefs' son who is very educated - went to school and came back to the village.  He said he is 29 years old and too old to get married... 


Entrance to the home


I got a video of their welcoming dancing... Someday I will upload them all :) 


Another beautiful sunset!  So romantic!




Time to say byebye to the crew at the Nyumba....... Ngorongoro crater was amazing but I was ready for Serangeti park :)  Thank you all!!!!

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