【Original Graphics】
August 9, Arusha Ngorongoro Crater Fauna Sanctuary
Yin, departure at nine o'clock. The hotel has WiFi, and you can send WeChat last night and this morning. I saw Islamists wearing white hats and white shirts praying on the side of the road, and yesterday I saw several Christian churches, it seems that religion here is not exclusive, but multi-sectarian coexistence. Yamashiro sees a large coffee plantation. There are small airports outside the city, rich people have private jets, and the whole world, regardless of race, black, white and yellow, there are rich and poor. After walking for 20 minutes, a police officer waved his hand to stop, and I don't know why he violated the rules, and the driver got out of the car and muttered for a while, whether it was a fine or a demerit point. Further on, the gravel and yellow grass on both sides are scattered with shrubs, and the trees are sparse and independent. There was a military academy and several buildings standing alone in the wasteland. The tree form here is similar to that of Kenya, with thin branches, an umbrella-like roof, and a needle-like leaf shape, which reverses the saying that tropical broadleaf forests are all broad-leaved. On the way, I saw a grassland slope with a huge pond below, which is a water surface that is difficult to see after driving for several days. Dozens of thatched houses resemble tents and grain depots line the slopes, which black drivers say are Maasai villages. There are a large number of cattle and sheep grazing next to the house, and it seems that the pastoral life of this Maasai people is also quite comfortable.
Maasai village
Maasai feeding horses and cattle
The weather cleared, the blue sky was revealed among the drifting white clouds, and the sunlight shone on the yellow grass. The four fields are silent, there are no people, but the sky and the earth are empty. At ten o'clock, the car drove up the mountain road, the road was slightly bumpy, but it was much better than Kenya, and it seemed that Nyerere's homeland was stronger than Obama's homeland, thanks to the fact that in the sixties Tanzanian President Nyerere climbed to China, which was poor but generous and generous. Of course, the great Mao also has his strategic considerations, and he has to rely on these children, poor friends, and black friends. Help squeeze Taiwan out of the UN, squeeze himself in, and as a result, he won. For more than half a century, China's aid to Tanzania has been uninterrupted, and it is estimated that the money spent will be enough to build the backward and impoverished Guizhou Province into a rich Jiangsu Province. I saw several passenger buses on the road, and the appearance of the car was obviously better than that of Kenya, and these Tanzanians sitting in the car did not know if they still remembered the historical merits of the great Nyerere?
The terrain is flattened again, returning to the smooth asphalt road, the scenery on both sides is like the old, the right side is straddling the mountains with no end in sight, the mountains have no sudden ups and downs, the mountains are dark, there are many stones and few trees, and the many dangerous, strange, secluded and beautiful mountains on the mainland are incomparable. It is really the land of China, no mountains are not beautiful, no rivers are not beautiful! It's just that in many places the pollution is too serious, the ecological damage is too outrageous, and the thought is hateful.
Locals doing business on the side of the road
Boulders, babbling streams
Walking through a plain area, grass and gravel on both sides of the road alternately, no wild animals were seen along the way, passing villages and towns, suddenly going up the mountain, huge rocks next to the road, streams gurgling, groups of monkeys swimming among the boulders. The car went downhill several times, or green hills on both sides, or yellow grass terraces, or corn patches, or herds of cattle and sheep, and there were small huts in between, which should be the dwellings of herders. There is no shortage of fairy trees in the mountains with hundreds of upward branches at the top under the support of the main trunk. The earth is red, and since entering the Tanjing Realm yesterday, the earth color has been like this along the way.
Red Earth
Scenery along the way
12:15 to the entrance of the scenic area, take a short rest, enter at 12:40, the mountain path, travel on the edge of the volcanic cone, gradually descend along the basin wall to explore the valley floor. The road is narrow and only allows for one car, and the sides are blocked by mountains or trees, making it difficult to see far away. An hour later, when I arrived at the bottom of the basin, I saw a basin surrounded by mountains, and because it was formed by a volcanic eruption, the basin was relatively round in shape, but the bottom of this volcanic cone was not funnel-shaped, but surprisingly flat. The diameter of the basin is about 20km, which is about 300 square kilometers, standing in the basin, rotating 360 degrees, you can see the whole picture of this volcanic basin. With mountains as a barrier, the basin is completely enclosed 360 degrees, and there are no openings in any place, which is a closed world of its own. The mountains on all sides are of different heights, the low one is about four or five hundred meters, and the height is more than a kilometer, all showing a trend of small and large up and down, gently handing over to the basin, and the whole looks like a cone with a large mouth and a small bottom. The mountain that surrounds the basin is surrounded by dense trees halfway, which is famous as a volcanic basin forest. In addition to some small hills and ravines, the basin is basically a flat river meadow, a large lake in the southwest corner, which accounts for about one-tenth of the entire basin, and there are many small water surfaces and swamps in the basin. The animals have their own territory, and here there are mostly zebra wildebeests, and the two horses live together, forming a large mixed corps.
Scenic gate
Trees on the edge of the volcanic basin
There are many horses, and there are coyotes in the herd, and they dare not start easily. The small antelope is small in size and agile, often in groups of seven or eight, and there are also single actions, and they are most easily preyed on by carnivores. Among herbivores, elephants, with their large bodies, do not put lions, leopards and wolves in their eyes, their territory is often in watery and fertile swamps and trees, giraffes are gentle gentlemen, never willing to bow their heads to eat, where there are higher trees, where they may be found. The bison with its reckless vigor, the king of the beasts, the lion, saw that it also retreated. Foxes, pigs, badgers, etc. can also be seen occasionally during the journey. A large flock of pink flamingos by the lake is the most beautiful scenery in the basin, whether standing still or flying, there is a fairy wind bone beauty.
Enter the basin
Buggy hunting in the basin
zebra
deer
bison
crane
fox
Elephant zebra
Flamingos in the distance
At fourteen:50, I began to prepare to walk out of the basin, and the car meandered up the basin wall, ascended about five or six hundred meters, and drove on the basin edge for a long time. Looking back at the basin, the grassland at the bottom of the basin is clearly visible, but those creatures such as zebra horns, lions, leopards and other creatures are difficult to find because of their "insignificance", the sunset shines on the surface of Yihong Lake, the water surface is windless and slippery, and the huge mirror reflects a dazzling glow. The peach blossom source of the isolated animal kingdom gives people a feeling of mystery.
A corner of the basin
At 5:40, it is about to leave the basin edge of the Ngorongoro volcanic basin, which is the best place to observe the panorama of the basin, and the crowd gets out of the car to cast a final glimpse of this magical land.
Look back at the basin
The car drove thirty minutes on the mountain road to the accommodation. Entering the hotel, everyone was overjoyed, thinking that they had left the volcanic basin, but this hotel was built on the edge of the basin, in the observation deck of the hotel, the whole picture of the basin can be unobstructed, through the afterglow of the sunset, tourists hurry to take a few beautiful pictures of the basin under the twilight.
Bon Yan Guesthouse
Ngoro Basin at sunset