Ngorongoro Crater — Fostering Adventure

Tanzania Safari

August/SEPTEMBER, 2013

Ngorongoro Crater & Conservation Area

The next stop on the initial driving leg of our journey was Ngorongoro Crater and Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It would take us the better part of the day to reach our destination some 189 kilometres to the northeast.

A good portion of the highway on route to the crater was newly paved, and this was wonderful, especially when we consider what we would be up against after we exited the Ngorongoro area for the Serengeti. Up there there's no pavement, and infrequent road maintenance, so the roads were full of unbelievable corrugations that made your teeth fall out.

We passed through a few small towns on the way, and had to fuel up the guide vehicle in one of them. The guide asked us to stay in the vehicle because if we got out of it we would be overwhelmed with locals trying to sell us things. We could certainly appreciate why he wanted us to stay in the car. Even with us sitting inside with the windows rolled up, several people came up to the side of the vehicle trying to get our attention.

Entering Ngorongoro

The main entrance gate to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We had to stop here so our guide could register for us to enter.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area is 8,292 square kilometers in size and includes the world renowned Ngorongoro Crater. The crater itself is twenty kilometres across, and is the largest un-flooded and unbroken volcanic caldera in the world. The floor of the crater covers an area of nearly 300 square kilometres. The edge of the crater rim is 600 meters above the crater floor and over 2,100 meters (7,000 feet) above sea level.

Looking into Ngorongoro Crater from a viewpoint on the crater rim.

The Ride Up the Crater wall, and Lemala Ngorongoro Camp

Climbing up the wall of the Ngorongoro Crater to get to our camp. The narrow road saw us dodging high speed trucks going in the opposite direction.

All of the accommodation for the crater is located up on the rim. There is nothing down in the crater itself. We had to climb up quite a steep and windy road to get to our camp on the eastern side of the crater rim. Most of the high end lodges and camps are on the western edge of the rim, but the only entrance down into the crater is over on the east side. So anyone staying in the west side accommodations would have to drive for about a half hour in the morning to get to the gate at the head of the only road that currently descends down into the crater. For us at Lemala Camp, it was a five minute drive to the gate which opened each day at 7:00am. It would give us up to an hour and a half of solitude in the crater before the hordes of minibuses started flooding into the area.

Mornings at Lemala Ngorongoro were cold.

Lemala Ngorongoro is a traditional tented safari camp that could accommodate up to twelve guests. The elevation of the camp saw the temperatures drop below freezing every night, so having a bucket shower after dinner was much better than in the morning when it was so cold. Even though the tents had propane heaters in them, the heaters were shut off once we got into bed. So guests had to rely on the four inch thick duvets to keep them warm during the night. About a half hour before we got up in the darkness of the early morning, camp staff came around to each tent to light the propane heaters and provide hot water so guests could wash the sleep from their faces. Breakfast... it was at 6:15am.

Descending Into Eden

After a hardy breakfast, we left our campmates and headed to the gate. Being the first to get there, we only had to wait a couple of minutes for it to open so our journey down into one of the most protected ecosystems in Africa could begin.

The morning air was crisp, and it took some time to get out from behind the rim's shadow and into the warmth of the sun. Even in the shadow, however, we came across wildlife worthy of a pause so we could admire its beauty. But we didn't linger. With morning temperatures close to freezing at this high altitude, driving out of the shadow was a priority.

One of the risks of entering the crater too early in the morning is that it can sometimes be covered in cloud or ground mist. But for us, all we encountered was a beautiful veil of creeping cloud rolling over the crater rim.

Lake Magadi

Within the nearly 300 square kilometres of the crater are two distinct features. The first one we encountered was Lake Magadi, a large but shallow soda lake that's a favourite of the lesser flamingos that gather there. It's where they get most of their nutrition by feeding on the algae, brine shrimp and other organisms that grow in the water. The lake, however, is of little benefit to the other animals in the crater as they can't drink the water. However one species, the hippos, have indeed found a use for the lake. A few that we saw seemed to like snoozing partially submerged in the mineralized water like so many health nuts in a hot springs resort.

Ngoitokitok Spring & Gorigor Swamp

The massive swamp and spring as seen from the crater rim some ten kilometres away.

The other large feature of the Ngorongoro Crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring and Gorigor Swamp. Together they form an extensive marsh and wetland area that stands out against the golden landscape with its intense light and dark green foliage.

As we sat quietly atop the hill that overlooks the area, it was almost as if someone had rung the dinner bell, as dozens of animals ran by us headed for the springs. Mostly zebra, these otherwise slow paced grazers were running like they were afraid that there wouldn’t be any water left by the time they reached the edge of the swamp.

This spring and swamp area is massive, and besides providing an ample drinking source for the game in the area, it is also home to a rather large school of hippos. The main water body is a deep one, which of course is what hippos like more than anything. The deep water lets them fully submerge, which ofers them the best possible method of keeping cool.

This area has been set up by the area authorities as a place for people to come and eat lunch. Since the volume of visitors to this particular destination is much larger than almost anywhere else in Tanzania, planning for the needs of this human onslaught is very necessary. This location offers easy access via multiple roads, and has a large parking area for the dozens of guide trucks that converge here every lunch hour.

The Lions of Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is a rich ecosystem and supports a healthy population of over 25,000 large animals. At last count there were 7,000 wildebeest, 4,000 zebra, 3,000 eland and 3,000 Grant's and Thompson's gazelle. There is also around 4,000 Cape Buffalo, 30 large elephants, hyena, cheetah, leopard and other smaller predators.

With the availability of all this large game, it's not surprising that the crater also boasts the densest concentration of lions in all of Africa, numbering a little over 60 spread across a number of prides and individual animals. We didn't see anywhere near that many, but we did see several small groups which included a couple of females that were mating with a young male in the late afternoon.