The wild dogs cried out in the night a la Toto style, and Attalia and I were awake and unable to sleep thanks to some noisy pups at 2am. Our meeting time for our crater safari was 5:30am. Queue exhaustion.

We spent the majority of the day in the car, but it was worth it. I don’t think I’ll be able to listen to Celine Dion for another 10 years as our first driver had it on repeat for 2 hours, but we ultimately made it it to the caldera for our first big 5 game safari!

Things of note along the way:

• If you get a visa ahead of time you can beat the line. If you wait until you arrive and a few planes are ahead of you, it could take an hour. Only plane arriving is about the same for both.
• Tanzania’s roads are full of rumble strips and speed bumps. Not for the car sick.
• We booked our crater tour through a local at the hostel via phone and paid $200 in cash. Beats the $300-500 I saw quoted elsewhere for the same experience!
• If you break any glass at a restaurant, the waiters will try to hustle you. Resist! My brother more than paid enough to replace the plate and they asked him for 5x more. Thankfully he was like nah I can buy a set for that price at home.
• Bring an extra layer for the crater because it can be cool at the top!
• Leopards are super elusive and you may not see them. We didn’t.
• Since off-roading isn’t allowed you’re limited to what you can see from the road. We were lucky that several animals, including mating lions, got so close to the car without charging them!
• If you take altitude sickness pills you will have to pee 3-4x more than usual, which can be difficult without bathrooms in the crater.
• Bring a pair of binoculars as rhinos like to stay far from cars
• The people at wakawaka hostel are great. The barking dogs are a nightmare in the middle of the night. Nice service, all things considered.
• Toilets have been surprisingly cleaner than I expected!

Ngorongoro was a highlight for sure and I can’t wait for my next big 5 game safari next weekend!