On arrival in Ngorongoro, George moved into a derelict farmhouse located between the crater and the Lerai forest. He was optimistic that he could own the crater, home to more than 50,000 zebra and wildebeest. He, therefore, made an application to be allocated the land by the Custodian of Enemy Property, a government department tasked with reallocating assets seized by Britain upon the defeat of Germany in WWI.

George was optimistic about getting the Ngorongoro Crater ranch seized from a German, W.F. Siedentopf. It was on this conviction that he squatted in the dilapidated farmhouse biding his time.

But his hopes were dashed when his application was rejected and the government gifted the coveted crater teeming with wildlife to an aristocrat, Sir Charles Ross, manufacturer of the Ross rifle and Ross cartridge. The Siedentopf brothers had killed thousands of wildebeest, whose tongues they canned and shipped out of the country.

One of the Siedentopf brothers, Adolf, was however found dead, with a Maasai spear protruding from his body.

Disappointed by his failure to secure his dream paradise, and upon learning that Ross would be its owner for the next 99 years (until 2022 AD), George wandered off into the wider Ngorongoro. And here disaster waited.