ON TO NGORONGORO CRATER

We left Arusha this am and headed into Masai territory.  The landscape opened up with less vegetation, and we started seeing the familiar Masai houses and young men herding their cattle and goats.  It's been photographed endlessly, but it is still so pictureseque and beautiful.  We thought it would be fun to do something non touristy ,so our guide told us that every week, the local Masai gather to buy and sell cattle and goats nearby. We stopped at the brick herding pens  and took a look. Only men in this brick enclosures, and lots  of socializing and bargaining.  They didn't seem to mind that we were hanging on the fence and watching.

We stopped at a local,art gallery and then headed for the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. It Is such a magnificant World Heritage site. We climbed the Crater Wall to go to a resturant perched high on the rim. It was a warm afternoon and we tried the local beer...Killamanjaro, and had a lunch of fresh Nile Perch and salad bar.

We were headed to Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge for a few nights, but wanted to see the crater from the highest point first. There were huge dark clouds gathering, and we barely stood out on the crater rim view point when all hell broke loose and it stared pouring. Torrential downpour. We got wet just going a few steps to the jeep. George is our driver and he is good. He had to drive in this heavy downpour on a steep,rutted red dirt road, while all the windows fogged up and dodging 4 wheelers coming UP the steep climb. I didnt think it was all that much fun and was very relieved when we drove into our accomodations. We freshed up, hit the bar, watched a crazy great "African aerobatic show" put on by some of the young men of the staff...had a nice dinner and fell into bed!

View of the Crater out side on our room deck.