With the entire week having been spent at FAME and now having Myrtle back, we were finally able to focus on getting the repairs done on Turtle that had been a long time coming. Prior to my arriving this trip, the entire body had been replaced and/or repaired, and a few other cosmetic things had been taken care of, but one thing that had never worked correctly from the time we purchased the vehicle was the instrumentation and the electronics in the dash. Turtle is a 2009 Puma Land Rover Defender, though the Puma engines were never as dependable as their predecessors, so when we purchased the vehicle from a safari company in 2018, its engine and transmission had already been retrofitted with 300 series components.

Though the 300 engine is tremendously more dependable and fits perfectly into the engine bay, its compatibility with the remaining electronics of the Puma was less than adequate. Despite this, the vehicle ran just fine, and with an auxiliary temperature gauge mounted into one of the dash vents, things had been perking along just fine. This week though, Saidi has supervised work on the car with one of the master Land Rover fundi here in Karatu, and the entire instrument cluster was changed over to match the engine and transmission while mostly bypassing the old ECU of the Puma. It took several days, but amazingly all of the gauges are now working – fuel, temperature, tachometer, and speedometer…all were working for the first time since we’ve owned the vehicle.

It had been raining very hard over the last several days, and worse, it seemed that we were in the clouds each morning that we got up. Thankfully, when it finally started to lighten outside (I had gotten up at 5:15 am to pack the car for an early departure), the sky was relatively clear, and I could actually see the slope of the crater rim from the house. I packed up all the water, my safari books for the others, both of my cameras as well as their long lenses, our first aid kit, our lunch, and watched as everyone in the house gradually appeared from their rooms, ready for an adventure. We were to leave at 6:20 am as we were picking up two others in town at 6:30, and then we’d be off for the crater gate.

Dr. Margareth, who had recently finished her pediatric residency at KCMC and was volunteering at FAME, had asked to come with us today as she would leaving shortly after spending several months here. Dr. David, one of FAME’s newer clinical officers had also asked to come along and, since we had room, I had told him yes. I had invited Saidi to come with us as well, so with the five of us, we’d have a full car with 8 people. The cost for a Tanzanian to get into Ngorongoro Conservation Area for the day is less than $5 USD (as opposed to the $70 USD it cost each of us), which is certainly appropriate, but the problem is that the reduced entrance fee does little good unless one owns or has access to a vehicle that can bring them. A safari vehicle here typically costs anywhere from $200 to $300 a day with a driver, which is entirely out of the reach for any Tanzanian.

Back in September 2020, I had come to FAME alone as none of the residents or medical students were allowed to travel because of the pandemic, and during that trip, I had the opportunity to bring a carful of Tanzanians to the local parks – Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and Lake Manyara. For many of them, it was their very first game drive, despite having grown up practically next door to the parks.  I remember bringing a car full of Tanzanians to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, probably one of the most exclusive and expensive lodges in the area, to have coffee and cookies as guests of a close friend of mine who works there. Here was a place that none of them would ever have the opportunity to visit on their own, yet they were able to be served in the main house and take selfies of themselves on the steps overlooking the crater. It has been opportunities such as this, and the ability to bring these Tanzanians to the crater today that are one of the reasons I return year after year.

Ngorongoro Crater, from the rim to the bottom, is, quite simply, one of the most breathtaking locations on earth that anyone could possibly visit. I have come here dozens and dozens of times, and it has never gotten old. I will continue to come to this remarkable place for as long as is humanly possible for me. We traveled down the descent road to reach the bottom of the crater and immediately made our way towards a group of vehicles that had clearly spotted something. This number of vehicles would usually correspond to something relatively common, but when we arrived, there were three adult rhinos in the near distance that you could see without binoculars – two were grazing together and were probably a couple, while a third was some distance away, munching vegetation on its own. They remained for an inordinate amount of time with us snapping as many photos as we could, for they are typically quite shy and skittish – surprising for an animal their size and with no natural predators.

There had been plenty of precipitation in the preceding days, so the crater was very, very wet, and many of the roads close to Lake Magadi (the large alkaline lake whose name comes from the Maasai word for salty) were flooded and impassable causing us to reverse course on several occasions. The best part of the day, though, is that the rain completely held off until nearly the last possible moment before we began our ascent out of the crater. There was no bright sun throughout the day, which made for perfect photography weather and Saidi nailed a few of them using both my extra Nikon camera that he was shooting as well as his own Sony ⍺7 mirrorless camera that he recently acquired. We drove around all morning and found lions, hyenas, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, Grant and Thompson gazelles, eland, hippos, elephants, warthogs, and innumerable species of birds that were far too numerous to list.

We had lunch at the usual spot, Ngoitokitok Picnic Area, where there is a lovely lake with hippos who don’t feel threatened and don’t bother anyone. The main problem at the picnic area, though, are the Black Kites. These medium sized birds with up to a five-foot wingspan sit in the trees and ply the skies just waiting for an unsuspecting guest to open their lunchbox on one of the many picnic tables and pull out a piece of chicken or a sandwich before they swoop in silently and snatch it right out of your hand. When there are many kites around, we have to eat in the car while we watch the show outside as these birds divebomb parties of visitors, stealing their lunches. I had one take a piece of chicken right out of my hand only inches from my face as I was about to take a bite. I felt only a quick breeze and it never even touched me. Jill had one steal a sandwich from her. So, as we all sat at the table today, I had eaten half of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was explaining to Theandra what to watch for as I hadn’t seen any of the kites around yet, when I suddenly felt my sandwich leave my hand. Thankfully, it only fell on the table and somehow the bird missed grabbing it. I calmly finished my sandwich at which point everyone had been forewarned.

After lunch, I looped back around the lake to head back to where we had started and then began our exit through the Lerai Forest where you can spot families of elephants on occasion. We didn’t see any today, but did see a troop of Black-faced Vervet monkeys with lots of little ones climbing in a tree just before departing. We had put our roof down before entering the forest as it had started to drizzle a bit harder, so as I left the forest, we turned up the ascent road to make our way slowly home. The ascent road is one of three roads into or out of the crater – there is also a descent road and a single two-way road. Both the one-way roads have been paved with cobblestones to help with traction on these incredibly steep grades. It was very treacherous in the past with many accidents going into and out of the crater with lots of accidents that have been reduced, but the rim road is still dirt and somewhat narrow so there are plenty of spots to get into trouble there.

I was so happy to have gotten to drive the crater this trip as I had missed it with the last group due to car troubles. It’s one of my favorite things to do in the world and I could never possibly get enough of it. Since the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge is closed for renovations (two years!) and we didn’t plan to stop there, we left through the gate with plenty of time to spare before they locked us in the Conservation Area at 6 pm as has almost happened numerous times in the past. We drove home, relaxed for a few minutes and we all went out to the Lilac Café downtown for dinner. Everyone, except Ashley, ordered cheeseburgers (she had their delicious chicken curry and rice) which were very, very good and certainly worth ordering again. We all went home tired and ready to start the new week. We were heading to Basodawish tomorrow and looking forward to more adventure.