Blogs from Ngorongoro Conservation Area, North, Tanzania, Africa

Ngorongoro Crater is not a crater, but a twelve-mile-wide caldera with no breaks in the walls, the largest in the world. I regretted not taking any photos in full light from my balcony, but there was no time after breakfast before leaving at 6:30. The day more than made up for it. At the gate to Ngorongoro, Lucas obtained our permit and other paperwork. Later he explained that per person the permit fee was $80, plus a conservation fee of $70, added to the $350 for the night at the hotel, plus $300 per vehicle – a sizeable portion of the cost of our whole trip! We descended an 11% grade on a fairly good stone rode. Between the large bushes, trees and grasses, we could see the wide golden plain surrounded by a rim of ... read more

We entered the Ngorongoro Conservancy, where live many Maasai. They were moved here from the Serengeti when it became a National Park mid-last-century. In five years, they will be moved again, because their population has increased a lot, and because Ngorongoro soon will become a National Park. Unlike other people, Maasi are allowed to live in the Conservancy, because they don’t kill what they cannot keep in herds; in other words, they don’t kill wild animals. We saw their large herds of goats, and a few cattle, with herd boys driving the animals or standing by watching. Their walled villages dot the countryside. One of the oldest locations of human and pre-human bones is inside the Conservancy. The internationally famous Olduvai Gorge is marked by an excellent small museum. Before ... read more

So lucky to be staying on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 metres deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres. Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres high. We set out with our guide Suleiman at 6am for a seven hour game drive, we were lucky to see a number of lion prides. Early morning we were able to watch the lions eating and roaming the park, by midday they were all sleeping, a couple just on the side of the road. The crater is home to numerous zebra, elephants and wilderbeast among the thousands of other animals. After two nights at the ... read more

Actually, the day started really well. We were all buoyant, excited and ready to head out to Ngorongoro. The plan was to briefly touch Ngorongoro on our way to Serengeti. Once we complete our two days safari in Serengeti, we planned to drive down to the Ngorongoro crater on our return leg to Arusha and make a night stay in Ngorongoro. Perfect plan! It was a bit cloudy when we hit the road, but we knew weather could change very quickly. We found the Ngorongoro entrance was busier than Tarangire or Lake Manyara; anyway, that is expected….this is the main gateway to Serengeti when traveling from Arusha. As we drove in, the serpentine mountain road picked up altitude quickly and it became foggy at the higher elevation. Roads are narrow and baboons were everywhere, waiting on ... read more

Tanzania day 9 Ngorongoro completes the Big Five with a live sex show If the Ngorongoro crater was in Stoke they would have filled it in by now and then run out of money and left it as waste ground. Thankfully councils are more forward thinking in Tanzania and this jaw-dropping spectacle is there still. This collapsed volcano should surely be one of the natural wonders of the world just for the amount of animals and species it holds. Most animals here don’t leave because they don’t need to. The cat food has grass and water and the cats have, well, plenty of cat food. We rose at 5am not having had another elephant in the camp...or had our tent flattened by one... Coffee was ready and then breakfast ready for our 6am departure....at 6:11. Not ... read more