What is the Ngorongoro Crater?
The Ngorongoro Crater is the remains of a once massive volcano, nearly three million years old, on the eastern border of the Serengeti National Park. Now collapsed and eroded to leave the world's largest unbroken caldera, it forms an extraordinarily fertile ‘bowl’ in the midst of rolling highlands, with permanent water sources and steep sides ensuring that the wildlife that thrives here has little reason to leave.
Situated in the midst of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a wildlife preservation area roughtly the size of Crete, the crater forms an important aspect of the northern Tanzania safari circuit.
Ngorongoro Safaris and Wildlife
The crater is the spectactular stalking ground of around 20,000 to 30,000 wild animals at any one time, the most densely packed concentration of wildlife in Africa. The crater thus holds an astonishing microcosm of East African wildlife within its boundaries, and thus has achieved renown as 'the eighth wonder of the world', and attracts a growing number of visitors each year.
VIEW OF NGORONGORO CRATER LODGE SITUATED AT THE CRATER VIEW
In order to preserve the quality of the experience and the environment, measures have had to be taken to limit the number of people inside the crater at any one time, and safaris are now limited to one per day for each vehicle either as a morning or an afternoon trip. It remains a rewarding safari location, even when time is limited.
Ngorongoro Crater Habitats and Highlights
VIEW OF NGORONGORO CRATER SAFARI SHOP PRODUCTS
The Crater comprises areas of grassland, swamps, lerai forest (small patches of forest made up of yellow-barked acacia and yellow fever trees), and Lake Makat, a central soda lake filled by the Munge river.
These habitats attract all kinds of wildlife to drink, wallow, graze or hide, and although the animals are free to move in and out of this contained environment, the rich volcanic soil, lush forests and spring-fed lakes on the crater floor incline both grazers and predators to remain.
A VIEW OF NGORONGORO CRATER
Ngorongoro Crater is one of the last remaining areas in Tanzania where you are likely to see the endangered Black Rhino: a small population is thriving in this idyllic and protected environment, and it remains one of the few areas where they continue to breed in the wild.
I visited Ngorongoro crater at the age of nine in 1972. I remember Colobus high up in the canopy of trees around the crater's rim (seen through binoculars), large swallow-tails and other large butterflies with vivid colours, one of which settled on some undergrowth and then in an instant flying fast and high. Getting out of the jeep, I watched some army ants forming a foot-wide teaming column, working their way to something dead in the crater. It was the most spectacular experience of landscape and wildlife I ever encountered.
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