This article is written by Manoj Radhakrishnan, an engineer and a travel photographer & writer based in Pune

The Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro, pronounced as it is written, is a caldera. Caldera, when translated to english, roughly means a crater which was created by a collapsing volcano. The Ngorongoro volcano, once upon a time, was actually taller than Kilimanjaro. Today with a diameter of 16-19 km this is easily the largest crater in the world. The view that one gets of the crater from anywhere along the rim is absolutely stunning. From the rim, the 265 sqkm large crater bed can be seen dotted with animals and with a closer observation, may be with a help of binoculars, one can not only spot herds of buffalos and wildebeest but also some pride of lions or even rhinos.

Ngorongoro is a queer ecosystem by itself. The crater has all the basic elements of a large national park – herbivores, cats, pachyderms, scavengers and needless to say a lake and a small ‘forest’. And this very fact that the crater is a separate ecosystem combined with the hand of man is threatening its very existence. The lions for example have been denied their free access to and from the Serengeti plains after the government allowed the Masaai people to inhabit the land around the crater. This obviously has lead to severe inbreeding and the lion population has gone down from about 100 to 45. The hotels around the crater rim are responsible for the lowering of the water level in the lake and this is leading to a slow death of the small forested area in the crater. Rhinos anywhere give a headache to the authorities, but when you have just 15 (all that the entire country has) living in the crater depending heavily on the depleting forest, they make solving the lion’s problem seem like a stroll in the park. The elephants face a different kind of problem – lack of mates. For some strange reason, the crater’s entire population of pachyderms is comprised of the bulls. In addition to the above, when we visited the place, the authorities had a new crisis to handle – in the form of a buffalo epidemic. For reasons still unknown then, the buffalos in the crater were dying in large numbers due to what looked like a skin disease. There were fresh carcasses every day, scavengers everywhere. Whatever it was that was killing these buffalos, fortunately, didn’t seem to affect the other animals. Hyenas, one of the well fed scavengers of the crater, are normally found lying around in puddles. The reason they do that is to cool their bodies; mainly to dissipate the heat generated by the high metabolic rates. The high metabolism is prescribed by their eating habits – a direct result of filling their stomach with bones and other hard-to-digest matters.

The Tanzanian government, the park rangers to be precise, should be complimented for taking care of the 15 rhinos in the park. I don’t think any other set of people can show better dedication or commitment than these wonderful rangers. A park ranger does a head count of all the rhinos every morning and a ranger along with a couple of Masaai helpers spends every night down in the crater next to the rhinos just to make sure that the poachers are kept away from those USD15 million horns – yes, that is how much I am told the horns are worth! Not only are the number of visitors and the visiting hours strictly kept under control, but their journey in the crater is also kept under strict vigilance by park rangers who keep peering through their powerful binoculars all day, sitting in the huts along the slopes of the crater.

The lake at the bottom is filled with pink flamingos and hippos. Hippos, I am told, are responsible for more deaths than any other creature in Tanzania. They, with their powerful jaws and big bodies, have overturned, sunk and broken innumerable boats in the lakes and rivers of Tanzania. Evens lions keep their distance from these huge animals. Crater is also a good place to witness the famed ‘queue’ of wildebeests, which come to the lake in this seemingly never ending line everyday to quench their thirst. We were also very fortunate to witness a kill in the crater. We saw a hapless zebra falling a victim to a hungry lioness. But the pick of the Safari in the crater was spotting 6 of the 15 rhinos of the crater.

Ngorongoro crater is also the coldest of the 4 parks in northern Tanzania. The rim is at an elevation of 2000m and in case you are camping there, I would advice you carry enough warm clothing. Ngorongoro is strategically situated in between civilization and the great Serengeti plains. The location becomes more important when you consider that every vehicle going to Serengeti must pass through Ngorongoro and hence pay the entrance fees. Crater, therefore, ends up getting paid twice!

Manoj Radhakrishnan

2008

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This article is written by Manoj Radhakrishnan, an engineer and a travel photographer & writer based in Pune

Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest peak in Africa and at a height of 5895 m, it is also the tallest free standing mountain in the world. After climbing the mountain, I can say that if you are thinking of climbing the tallest in each continent, Africa would not be a bad place to start. There are many paths up the mountain and the Marangu route, the one I took, is the easiest and due to this reason, is also known as the Coca-Cola route. The climb is gentle and only at the very end would you be required to use all four limbs. There are tougher routes – whisky route, rum route etc. available to the professionals.

The climb (via the Coca-Cola route) starts at the Marangu gate which is at an elevation of about 1800m. A good 3 hr walk through thick rain forests would bring you to the lower camp – Mandara, which is situated at an elevation of 2727m. A 15 min short hike from the hut would take you to a crater called Maundi, from where you can get very good views of the Horombo village and the surrounding tropical forests.

On the second day, you climb for 5 to 6 hours to reach the middle hut – Horombo. The hut is situated at an elevation of 3720m and during the hike to this hut was the first time I encountered altitude sickness. And it wasn’t very pleasant, but more about that later. After about an hour from the Mandara hut, the thick rain forest gives way to shrubs and the views just get better and better. It is here where the Mt. Kilimanjaro presents its first view to the climbers. From Horombo one can get a real good view of both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Mawenzie, that is when they are not under a thick cloud cover.

The third day, for some, would be spent in acclimatising to the altitude. Since this was the first time I am reaching these heights, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to spend an extra day up the mountain. How helpful the extra day is in reaching the summit, I know not, but there are many who believe that it is a waste of time and money. During the day, we took a short 3 hr hike up to 4300m. On the return leg of this hike, I realised for the first time, how easy it was to travel downhill. If only we could climb a mountain downhill… The hike takes up to a vantage point in-between the two mountains and apart from the two wonderful peaks, all that I remember of the hike is spotting a rather peculiar collection of rocks called the zebra rock, named mainly due to the alternate black and white stripes found on them.

The task on the fourth day is a 5 to 6 hour hike from Horombo hut to the top hut – Kibo hut. Apart from the initial and final stretch, the bulk of the hike is on near flat land. But the altitude makes up for the lack of steep climb. Kibo is situated at the foothills of the Kilimanjaro peak and is at an elevation of 4703m. Kibo also marks the point where visitors start saying the dreaded word “enough”. Needless to say, the place was very cold and did not have any heating. As if these weren’t enough, we had a snowfall that evening, which in hindsight, wasn’t that bad a thing to happen. One it warmed up the place a bit, as a snowfall anywhere would. Secondly, it also helped in binding the rocks on the path, making it a bit less slippery. We had an early dinner this evening and slept early – not that the dinner times on the other days were much later, but having dinner at 530 would count as early in most people’s dictionary.

The reason we had to sleep early on the fourth evening was because our final ascent on the fifth day started at midnight. There are three reasons why we started so early for our summit climb. The most important of them all was the fact that the peak normally gets completely covered by thick fog by 8 in the morning. So it is imperative that you come back by that time to Kibo hut and as the summit is about 5 hrs away, you are forced to start at midnight to beat the fog. The second reason was to make it to the top when the view is the prettiest, viz., the sunrise and the final reason was to avoid travelling during broad daylight when you can get a good view of the steep path lying ahead of you. The importance of the third reason became evident when I looked back at the path after returning to Kibo hut. I certainly wouldn’t have agreed to move an inch if I had seen the path before.

I passed the 5000m mark, William’s point, at about 2 in the morning and somehow crawled to the top by quarter to 6, in time for the spectacular sunrise. By top, here, I mean Gillman’s Point which is at an elevation of 5685m. The actual highest point, the Uhuru peak is 210m higher and more importantly a good 2 hr walk from Gillman’s Point. The effect of altitude combined with the knowledge that I would anyway get a certificate even if I reached only Gillman’s Point, prevented me from going any further.

A Kilimanjaro travelogue would normally end with the person scaling the peak. But mine has to carry on till I reached the Marangu gate. Instead of spending the fifth night at Horombo, thanks to my tight schedule, I was forced to descend all the way to Mandara hut. I reached the bottom hut at 4 in the evening of the fifth day, and since my day had started at midnight, I ended up having a 16 hour morning walk with a small breaks at Kibo and Horombo. Breakfast in Kibo, lunch in Horombo and dinner in Mandara and that too after climbing up and down a brute of a mountain – it wasn’t easy. My only solace was the knowledge that I wasn’t alone in attempting the madness. My partner in crime was an Essex gentleman, one Mr. Garth Freeman and (I quote him here) : “After this, all that I am left with is a story to tell my grandchildren: your grand dad walked up the tallest mountain in Africa one day, and walked straight back home.”

I would not have reached the top if not for my guide, Steven Mtui, egging me on in the last 30 minutes of the climb and I am eternally grateful to him for showing me the best sunrise of my life. In helping me climb the mountain, no less part was played by my three wonderful Canadian climb mates – Leanne, Cheryl and Holly. As if climbing and staying with 3 lovely young ladies is not a motivation by itself to climb the hill, I was also able to reap the benefit of their profession: they were all nurses. Their wonder drug would always cure the strongest of my headaches. Without them, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the peak, especially when I couldn’t eat properly after 3500m, think properly after 4300 and breathe properly after 5000.

Will I ever want to return to Kilimanjaro? Not until they find a water route. Coca cola is too strong for me! I am happy that I made it within 200m to the top of highest peak in Africa – after knowing what happened to Ngorongoro, I think I should say : highest peak in Africa as of the 2000th year after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Manoj Radhakrishnan

2010

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