ActivityArusha, Tanzania
A Day on the Floor of the Ngorongoro Crater
Down at dawn, black rhino by mid-morning and a picnic by the hippo pool
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The Ngorongoro Crater packs twenty-five thousand large animals into a caldera you can drive across in an hour. Here is how we plan a day inside it.
The plan
The Ngorongoro Crater is the collapsed caldera of a volcano that once stood taller than Kilimanjaro. Its floor is about 260 square kilometres of grassland, swamp and soda lake, enclosed by walls six hundred metres high. Because the animals rarely leave, the density of game is extraordinary: lion, elephant, buffalo, hyena, flamingo and one of the last wild populations of black rhino in Tanzania.
Crater permits are valid for six hours on the floor, so timing matters. We leave the rim lodges at six, are first down the Seneto descent road when the gates open, and spend the early hours on the eastern plains where rhino graze in the open. Mid-morning is for Lake Magadi's flamingos and the Ngoitokitok springs, and lunch is a picnic by the hippo pool. We climb out on the Lerai ascent road before the six hours run out.
Good to know
- Crater service fees are charged per vehicle per entry, on top of conservation fees.
- It can be cold on the rim at dawn: bring a fleece.
- Black kites will steal sandwiches at the picnic site. Eat inside the vehicle.
- Toilets are at the picnic sites only.
Fees change often
Seneto descent road
About this story
Neema MushiAuthor
Wildside ExpeditionsPublisher
Reviews
Write a reviewAverage rating 5.0 out of 5
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Priya Raman5 out of 5 stars21 SeptBooked our camp from this and it was everything described. Waking up to elephants at the waterhole was unreal.
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