Lake Natron Camp

Lake Natron is a sublime and ethereal presence in an area dominated by rocky escarpments, vast open plains and volcanic mountains. While the lake is one of the most important nesting sites of the lesser flamingo, you absolutely mustn't come here with the principal objective of seeing wildlife; Natron is dramatically harsh and beautiful and as yet, mercifully untouched by the hand of man, and it is to soak up this rarified atmosphere and scenic beauty that we'd highly recommend taking the very long, spectacularly dusty and bumpy road to this place. Natron is located North of the Ngorongoro Crater and Highlands in the bottom of the Gregory Rift area of the Rift Valley. To the south is the active volcano, Ol Donyo Lengai, and to the west, above the rift escarpment, are the Salei Plains, the Gol Mountains and the edge of the Serengeti Ecosystem. Natron is best accessed from a mobile Camp en route to or from the eastern Serengeti or as the destination for superb walking safaris of several days from the Ngorongoro Highlands, as part of which you can also climb Ol Donyo Lengai, although it has only very recently erupted in quite a major way in late 2007. The sheer scale of this part of the country is breathtaking. The Ngaresero River provides an extraordinary and truly unexpected contrast to the heat and dust as it flows clean and cool out of the rift valley wall into Lake Natron. This area is home to nomadic Maasai and it's both impressive and not a little humbling to see how they manage to conduct a lifestyle, unchanged for many hundreds of years, in such a harsh environment. You probably begin to get the picture...If the words, harsh, rocky and dramatic excite you, then you will fall in love with Natron, otherwise, stay well away. Read more?