Crater Ngorongoro Highlands Game Lake

Unique is a thoroughly overused word, but it really does apply to the Ngorongoro Crater. This is the largest unbroken caldera in the world - and it's full of big wild animals. The difficulty here is remembering that it isn't artificial.

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At Natural High, we've all lived and worked in Africa, so our knowledge is born of hands-on experience rather than simply visiting on holiday. We can't over-stress how worthwhile it is to take a few minutes to call us. We're not in the business of churning out thousands of packages so if you'd like to discuss things in detail, take a few minutes and call Catherine, Fiona, Vanessa & Alex on +44 (0)1747 898104.

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of those sights you really have to see to believe; It's the largest caldera in the world; the remains of a massive volcano preserved as a perfect bowl some 18 km across. The ground area is just over 260 square kilometres and within this relatively small space most of the major east African habitats and mammal species are represented. What's more you have an incredibly good chance of seeing them here on your safari.

Game viewing can begin on the crater rim, where often you come round a corner to find a solitary bull elephant feeding absent mindedly and inadvertently blocking the road and even leopard are occasionally seen shooting across the track on the eastern rim into the dense woodland. From the rim and often from your lodge window you can sit with a pair of binoculars and watch the game far below you.

And it really is a long way down. The Crater is over a third of a mile deep and the scale and perfection of the thing is staggering.
Once in the Crater floor, most of the animals at Ngorongoro, whilst totally wild, are very used to vehicles. This means that they all but ignore them (which at time must be very hard to do) and as a result they can be approached fairly easily. This makes the Ngorongoro Crater an ideal first place to visit on your safari and an excellent place to take children as intervals between animals are generally short and the game is often close enough that you won't need to look with binoculars (don't leave them behind though).

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The Rest of the Ngorongoro Highlands The highlands, of which the Ngorongoro Crater is only a small part part, encompass a large area, from Ol Deani on the shores of Lake Eyasi in the south, to Empakai crater some 50 miles further north. Ngorongoro Crater is only the best known of a large number of volcanic mountains in the area; the underlying geology is the result of volcanic activity along the edge of the Rift Valley some two million years ago. Now the landscape contains a stunning range of dormant volcanic peaks rising to over 10,000 ft above seal level; Ol Deani, Olmoti, Loolmalasin, and Empakaai.

If you are just going to see the crater it's often enough to spend a night at one of the lodges perched on the rim en route to or from the Serengeti. Alternatively, for a more in depth visit to this stunning area, one of the more dramatic ways to see the Highlands is from a mobile camp - for example, the (Ngorongoro Wilderness Mobile}.

There are also some spectacular walking safaris in this area; from the highlands north towards Empakai, Ol Donyo Lengai and Lake Natron as well as south towards Lake Eyasi or south west towards Ndutu. This gives ample opportunity to see the Ngorongoro crater as well as a chance to explore the other mountains and craters, which are visited by far fewer people.

See also:
Safari Camps and Lodges in Ngorongoro Crater and Highlands

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Ngorongoro Crater and Highlands, Tanzania