Today, our goal is to reach camping Simba in Ngorongoro protected area. The campsite is just outside the crater (where an extra fee is charged), and we hope to visit the crater tomorrow. 

We break camp, pack, buy more drinking water and some food items, fill up the diesel,  and we take off.

The road is as bad as we remember and even with our experience, our newly acquired driving skills and our reinforced roof rack, I feel my stomach cramp at every strong bounce and every loud bang that manages to appear over the continuous ruckus produced by the endless ribs and potholes in the unhardened road. 

We make good progress, and even visit the Simba kopjes, where we see many lizards. 

We continue our way and leave Serengeti and enter Ngorongoro,  where the road is the worst. No matter how we drive the noise is deafening and I fear for the axles. We change driver, and five minutes after I take over, the engine stops, and the warning light 'timing belt' goes on. 

Not good. We try three more times, but within a minute the engine shuts off again.   

We have been driving on this road for three  hours, and there is not a single building, except for the park entrance one hour ago. The campsite is 36 kilometer in front of us - with this road another hour. 

The sun is hot, and everything is grey from the dust. 

Telephone signal is irregular,  but we send a message to Moses. After ten minutes in increasing heat, he calls back. 

Broken timing belt. Big problem.  If he leaves now, it will be at least 5 hours before he can reach us. And he has no spare belt in the shop. And it is Sunday,  stores are closed. 

Best to ask a car to tow us. 

...

I stand in the afternoon sun, in the middle of savanna stretching to the horizon in every direction, on a very dusty stone road, waiting for the next car to drive by. I admit, I have had better moments. 

But an extended Toyota landcruiser appears full of white tourists in kaki clothing and a black chauffeur. So sorry, no pulling cable, and no time. 

The second one can not help me either,  and asks permission to depart again.  

I am talking to the third, who offers to bring our luggage to Simba Campground, when a landrover with two mechanics stops. They offer to pull! 

They have all kinds of tools, because they just brought a good car to tourists with a broken vehicle, and now they drive the broken vehicle back to Arusha.  It has a broken cooling system, and every 10 minutes they must stop to add water. I don't mind. 

At that moment a third landcruiser stops, and offers to take any remaining luggage.  

Kari and Didi go with one car, Chruus and Mariles with the other driver. Sisi and I remain while they disappear in clouds of dust, and I help the mechanics attach the belt. One drives the landrover,  the other steers our car, and so we move again.  

I am so happy with every kilometer we get closer to Simba. But every 10 minutes we must stop to add water to the radiator of the landrover.  

Once we start to approach the Ngorongoro crater, the land becomes mountenous, and the landrover gets hot too quickly. 

Hakuna matata, we will ask another car to pull. 

Our mechanics stop an old truck, and convince a reluctant driver to pull us. First they claim they don't have enough diesel.  Our mechanics give them half a jerrycan,  which they add by cutting a water bottle and using it as funnel.  

Then the driver wants 60.000 shilling,  which is negotiated down to 40.000 shilling ($16).

Then the landrover and truck trade places, and the trip continues. With a cloud of dust behind us, stared at by Massai beggars, we make it to Simba by nightfall. 

The boys have already put up the tents, and after paying off our various saviours, we start cooking dinner. 

It is bitter cold. We are on the crater's edge, and an icy wind blows over the crest. Everybody wears jackets, and the cooks wear hats and ski masks, because the cooking area has no windows. 

There are very many people.  This is really a tourist center. Most are young and are looking for adventure.  Many Italian,  a few Dutch. 

We get a message from dada that a new car plus driver will be appearing tomorrow morning at 8am, so we can still visit the crater. In spite of all the troubles, we feel very lucky with all the help we received today, and we eat our dinner in a victorious mood. 

At night, shivering in our tents, we try to sleep.