Ngorongoro

It can be said that Ngorongoro Crater is one of Tanzania’s most visited areas, and no wonder with its vast array of Africa’s best known wildlife. The crater itself contains a large and diverse variety of animals and vegetation from salt pans, forests, grasslands, swamps and freshwater lakes.

While travelling through this region you will encompass a variety of animals such as elephants, lions, buffalos and rhinos as well as other herbivores such as zebras, Thomson’s gazelle, reedbuck and wildbeest. Thousands of flamingos wade amongst the shallow depths of the Lake Magadi, the soda lake at the crater’s base.

The land between the crater and Lake Manyara is intensively farmed, which is why there are is a large variety of animals that feed and live amongst the steep walls of the Crater. The permanent water and pasture at the foot of the crater is also what counteracts this living and breeding area of the Crater.

There is a local tribe that lives amongst this crater they are known as the Massai people and have the right to graze. It is quite likely that you may come across these people tending their cattle whilst on your journey through this Crater Highland. There was once two settlers’ farms in the crater during the German colonial era, of which today you can still see one of the huts.