KARIBU TANZANIA

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

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Ngorongoro Crater is a rare protected area where people (the Maasai) and wild animals co-exist in harmony. A large permanent concentration of wild animals can be found in the huge and perfect crater. Ngorongoro is technically a “caldera”, the largest sunken ancient caldera in the world. Estimated three million years old, the once-volcanic Ngorongoro is now considered one of “Africa’s eighty wonders”. We think it is truly one of the world’s greatest treasures.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest collapsed volcano, forming a bowl of 265 square kilometres with sides up to 600 metres deep. The collapse also created a unique combination of elevations and ecosystems that have become home to the most famous species of African wildlife. The crater’s edges are covered in woodland and forest, merging into an open grassland of small streams. The conditions in the crater, with enough rain and sun, holds everything African wildlife needs to exist and do well.

Also known as the “Garden of Eden”, the Crater floor is a natural safe haven for thousands of animals such as wildebeest, more than two hundred lion prides, zebra, elephants, hippos, hyenas, Thomson gazelles, African buffalo, crocodiles, ostriches, and many species of birds, not to mention that this is one of the best places to spot an endangered Rhino. A visit to Ngorongoro is a must, and a great place to add on a cultural tour to a Maasai village.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the best place in Tanzania to see 'The Big Five'. A healthy population of black rhino and some of the largest tusker elephants left in Africa today are the prize spots, but the crater is also home to good populations of lion, leopard and hyena along with healthy herds of wildebeest, buffalo and zebra. Other wildlife here includes serval cat, cheetah, jackal, Grant's and Thompson's gazelle, flamingo and bat-eared foxes, as well as approximately 400 species of bird. A Ngorongoro safari is action packed to say the least - and for a relatively small park, it really does have the highest concentration of wildlife of any one place in the whole of Africa.

Ngorongoro Crater: Maasai village trips

Part of the reason behind the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has been to preserve the environment for the Maasai people who were diverted from the Serengeti Plains. Essentially nomadic people, they build temporary villages in circular homesteads called bomas. There are possibilities to visit a couple of these now, which have been opened up for tourists to explore. Here you can see how the huts are built in a strict pattern of order according to the chronological order of the wives, and experience what it must be like to rely on warmth and energy from a fire burning at the heart of a cattle dung dwelling with no chimney. These proud cattle herding people have a great history as warriors, and even though they are no longer allowed to build villages inside, they continue to herd their cattle into the crater to graze and drink, regardless of the predators nearby.

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