Ngorongoro Crater, Lions vs Buffalos

On the road west out of Arusha we started seeing many more long limbed Masai in their distinctive red and blue coloured robes. We'd seen a few youths hanging around in Dar and cycling along the main highway north with the stick slung casually over one shoulder, and passed the odd herdsman ushering his stock across the road infront of us. 

Yesterday we passed through several whole townships full of Masai trading at the market or hanging about chatting. We made our way up to a town about 15km east of the Ngorongoro park gate (where it seemed every second vehicle was a Land Rover) and made enquiries about tours into the crater. We could drive in ourselves of course, but in addition to the $50.00 park fee each, there is another $250.00 of vehicle related fees and we were looking to be able to split them with some other tourists.

An early start this morning as we were being picked up at 6am. It was dark and misty and although the light dawned, the mist stayed with us all the way up the outside of the volcano until we started our descent into the crater.
Just before the descent, we had an amazing view down across the plains of the Serengeti. At the bottom of the crater, our driver/guide stopped to raise the viewing hatch on his vehicle and we were descended on by several Masai youths trying to sell Duncan beaded jewelery or a machete (not quite sure what he'd want with either). Suddenly they all turned tail and sprinted into the trees - it seems that while they're allowed to graze their stocks in the park on the outside wall of the crater, they're not allowed inside... and the ranger was coming.

Like the Messum crater in Namibia, the Ngorongoro crater is about 20km in diameter, however where the Messum is dry and the crater wall crumbled and missing, Ngorongoro is mainly a savannah plain inside the crater, and the whole crater wall is intact. Pretty cool. It has its own year round water sources and is home to loads of game.

While I think I've seen enough zebras and antelope to last me for the rest of my life, lions are still of interest to me. After observing one lion snoozing by the hippo pool, we came upon a lioness stalking a lone baby buffalo. The kill was pretty swift and seemed painless. She went straight for the throat, then dragged the baby buffalo (which was probably just a bit bigger than she was) across the track in front of us over to a tree, where she was joined by her two nearly grown cubs and they started to eat.

A little later we were watching a pride of seven lions sun themselves when we noticed an eighth head across the stream towards a herd of buffalo. This lion stalked a small buffalo on the edge of the herd and when it went in for the kill, earned itself a swift kick from the buffalos mother. The whole herd turned in uproar and chased the lion away making a big noise and todo. The lion slunk away and cowered in the grass close to the river. A couple of the lions who had been sunbathing on the river bank joined the stalk and a team of three managed to separate a young buffalo from the herd and take it down. While the rest of the herd took off, the buffalo's mother came to its defence and gave the lions some good headbuts with its enormous horns, but it was too late for the baby and two lions worried the mother as the third dragged the small carcass off. But they werent after the baby buffalo, it was the big one they wanted. More lions came to join the hunt and after a lot of circling and counter attacks from the buffalo, the six lions attacking her won.