I am gazing out of the window and watch the buffalo herd on the left side. A bit further to the right there is also something. “Oh, another lioness”, I say to the others in the jeep. Our guide stops the jeep and we wait for a bit. The lioness observes the buffalo herd. Otherwise lions are usually just laying around but this one is very vigilant. When the herd approaches her head dives further down into the grass. The guide says lions have respect for Buffalos. Shortly after that he points to the right side where there are two, no three more lions stepping out of the bushes. Among them is a big male with a mane. Maybe something’s up in the air. In the meantime a few other jeeps joined and watch what’s going on. For a long time nothing changes. I am thinking nothing’s going to happen we can move on. Our guide and driver, together with the other jeeps stays put. Then more lions appear. Well, something is going to happen very soon. A lioness sneaks off to the jeeps that are positioned between her and the buffalos. She is downright hiding between the cars. A male with a gorgeous mane is following her a few minutes later. Nothing happens. Then all of a sudden the lioness walks out of the shadow of the jeeps and sprints in direction of the herd. Two cubs are in the herd but so far they are well protected. The herd spots the lioness and reacts. The buffalos are running. The lioness avoids any confrontation. Her job is to create chaos and panic amongst the buffalos.
Then the events come thick and fast. The big male starts a direct attack. It targets the mother of one of the cubs. The lion goes into infight without hesitation and ends up down at the floor and receives kicks from the buffalo mother. We are stunned. What is going to happen to the lion? Our guide starts the engine and speeds away. Where are we going now? All of the other jeeps stay where they are. We find ourselves now closer to the buffalo herd, or where it will flee to. Meanwhile the hunt continues. Two more lionesses chase the herd at full speed. The buffalos come running in our direction. Both lionesses approach one of the cubs and jump from both sides and drag it to the ground. The weakened buffalos no longer protect the cub but instead are escaping.
The hunt is now over. The leader of the lion clan is now in on it too. It’s a big male with a particularly dark mane. It slowly steps to the slain prey, he is the first to eat. Then the male that went into infight is next in line. Apparently it didn’t incur severe injuries. Our guide explains that the buffalos cannot use their horns on the ground. The kicks obviously have not been that hard. Now another lioness joins the party and eats. The rest of the group remains hungry. Clearly this wasn’t the last hunt of the day.
Everyone in the jeep is still excited about what we had the honor of witnessing. We continue our journey through the Ngorongoro crater. It’s a magical place which houses an incredible density of animals. The habitat of the animals is limited by the crater rim and therefore it resembles to some extend a zoo, a natural zoo. We see wildebeest, antelopes, zebras, buffalos, monkeys, lions, jackals, hyenas, elephants, hippos, ostriches, flamingos and other large birds right next to each other. Only rhinos were not to be found.
What a finale, we think. It is the last of our 4 days of safari. Before we have been observing countless animals in the Serengeti and the Tarangire national park: Elephants, giraffes, waterbucks and cheetahs. Each night we slept in a tent, firstly because it is more affordable and secondly because you can hear more animal noises that way. There is no fence around the camp. Willy, our guide just says: “The animals are afraid of light. Don’t leave the tent without a torch!”. We gladly follow his advice. At night we lay on our mattresses and it’s not quiet. Near our tent we hear the roaring and sounds from lions, buffalos and hyenas.
Back in Arusha, the base for our Safari, our host tells us that in high season there were cases where 500 jeeps were trying to get down to the crater which resulted in a huge traffic jam. In our case there were maybe 20 jeeps, which appeared too much to us already. The government did react and increased the fees for entering the crater drastically. A reservation system with limited availability like in Macchu Pichu, Peru, however, still doesn’t exist. We think that the tourists will continue to pay the increased prices. This place is just too unique. We hope that the money is invested well in the protection of the national parks and the development of the country. But this is Africa, who knows where all the money goes. Even if sometimes at the end of our trip we had the feeling that we can’t take anything in anymore, the incredible wildlife in Africa is clearly an exception und will remain in our memories forever.
