Ngorongoro Crater

candid safari tips

 

Ngorongoro Crater
insights

Consensus choice

Seasoned safari-goers consider the Ngorongoro Crater to be one of the world's two greatest safari destinations (the other being the Serengeti National Park during migration).

Many animals

The Ngorongoro Crater has an unrivaled high density of big safari animals including lions, elephants, hippos, cape buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests, and the endangered black rhinos. It has a year-round population of approximately 30,000 large safari animals.

Where are the giraffes?

You won't see any for two reasons. First, the giraffe has long, spindly legs, which makes it difficult for it to climb into and out of the steep-walled Ngorongoro Crater. Second, nature designed the giraffe's long neck for nibbling on the leaves of tall trees, its chief food. Although such trees exist in sufficient number in the other major game reserves, they are rare here.

Always there

One of the Ngorongoro Crater's major appeals is that the animals will likely be there en masse when you are. There are no seasonal shrinkage of the game population (except during droughts). Reason: There is little need for animals to migrate. The crater's lakes, ponds and streams supply ample water - and the grasslands provide sufficient year-round food for grazers. In turn, this creates food for lions and other predators.

Great sightings

Another tourist appeal is the openness of its vast grasslands - this increases your game viewing.

Immense

The crater is 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. Its ring-shaped wall is as high as a 200 story building and hems in the 260 square kilometer (105 square mile) flat crater floor where a year-round population of approximately 30,000 large safari animals roam.

If you built stadium seats on the crater's sloping wall, you could comfortably sit over 30 million spectators.

Not a real crater

Technically, the Ngorongoro Crater is a caldera, not a true crater because its circular wall is the remnant of collapsed sides of a dormant or extinct volcano. Its peak once rose 8000 kilometers (26,000 feet) above sea level.

Bring a sweater or jacket

The rim is about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, so expect chilly evenings and mornings even though you are near the equator.

About the Ngorongoro 
Conservation Area (NCA)

Geography

The Ngorongoro Crater is part of the vast NCA. It is only a tiny fraction of that land mass.

Neighboring lands

The NCA borders Kenya and the Serengeti National Park. The western NCA is a natural extension of the Serengeti. Many of the animals in the Serengeti migration slowly pass through it from mid December through early April.

Olduvai Gorge

This famous anthropological site, like the Ngorongoro Crater, is a component of the NCA. Click the "See Olduvai Gorge" link below for my description of the Olduvai Gorge.

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