Lake Manyara National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Following our Kilimanjaro trip, we headed off on our Tanzanian safari starting with an afternoon game drive in Lake Manyara N.P. and three nights, two days at Ngorongoro. Since childhood I have watched wildlife documentaries on these areas, and having grown up and worked in southern Africa I was definitely biased towards the south, not believing how incredible these areas could be ! My views have changed, and Tanzania has parks as good as the best southern Africa offers in my opinion. The density and variety of wildlife is just remarkable. Ngorongoro is just a surprising location in every aspect, the crater is beautiful and packed with wildlife. Almost around every corner, we encountered something new. At least on the surface, the tale of the contract and relationship of the Maasai with the conservation area sounds positive, and we hope this is a long term solution. On one day we encountered a herdsman grazing his cattle in the crater within sight of  lion and many many other mammals - wildebeest, zebra, Grant's and Thompson's gazelle and more. On our second day we encountered a clan, (or clans), of 22 spotted hyenas on a wildebeest carcass. I had only ever seen small groups of 2-5 before. A black-backed jackal bravely sneaked in for it's own share, before being chased off repeatedly. Over the two days, we encountered many lion with cubs, and two cheetah in the distance. One of the highlights of the crater is the black rhino, and when two of them finally revealed themselves from some dense reed beds, the safari  vehicles gathered to get a sighting. Probably 35 - 40 vehicles lined up neatly on the road side. It appeared all very controlled, with the guides behaving, although we had no idea what they might have been saying to each other in Swahili. The park is monitored intensively from ranger stations located at high points throughout the area, and it was encouraging to see the rhino and elephant, including a big tusker slowly grazing across the plain. We are all aware of the increasing poaching across all of Africa. Without even getting into the crater, the two lodges we stayed in were an experience on their own. Both were situated on the edge of the crater rim, with magnificent views across and into the crater.