After an early breakfast, you descend over 600 meters down the steep, winding crater road onto the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater. The descent is an adventure in itself, winding through dense montane forest before the crater floor opens before you like a lost world.
The crater floor is a patchwork of diverse habitats, each supporting different wildlife:
· Open grasslands are where zebras, wildebeests, and Thomson's gazelles graze in massive herds, always watched by predators.
· Acacia woodlands provide shelter for elephants, giraffes, and the shy bushbuck.
· Swamps and marshes fed by perennial springs attract hippos, waterbucks, and giant tuskers (elephants with exceptionally large tusks).
· Lake Magadi, a shallow soda lake, is often tinged pink with flocks of lesser flamingos, along with avocets, stilts, and other waterbirds.
The crater supports approximately 25,000 large animals, including all of the Big Five. The endangered black rhinoceros is often spotted here, as the crater provides a protected sanctuary with abundant browse. Lions are abundant and often seen resting on the open plains, sometimes with cubs playing nearby. Spotted hyenas hunt in large clans and are frequently seen at their den sites. Leopards are shyer but can sometimes be seen in the acacia stands near the Lerai Forest. African buffalo roam in large herds, often accompanied by oxpeckers riding on their backs.
You will enjoy a morning game drive on the crater floor, with a picnic lunch served near a hippo pool. Here, you can watch these massive creatures lounge, yawn, and occasionally jostle for space, while yellow-billed storks and sacred ibises wade nearby.
In the early afternoon, you ascend back to the crater rim and begin your drive back to Arusha. The journey takes you through the Ngorongoro highlands, past Maasai villages and terraced farmlands, before descending into the Arusha region. Upon arrival, you will be transferred directly to the airport for your onward journey. As you depart, you carry with you the unforgettable contrasts of Tanzania: ancient baobabs, endless Serengeti plains, and the lost world of the Ngorongoro Crater.
Tanzania
