{"id":18389,"date":"2017-02-21T09:46:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T22:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures?p=18389&preview=true&preview_id=18389"},"modified":"2025-03-18T21:51:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T10:51:50","slug":"on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the windy lookout point, Ngorongoro Crater <\/a>isn\u2019t quite what I expected. Under the gloomy\u00a0sky the crater floor looks bleached and barren, smeared with mineral lakes and mapped with the shadows of clouds. There\u2019s a hint of green and, in the distance, a thread of animals moves slowly across the basin. But aside from that, there\u2019s little sign of life.<\/p>\n

Doubtfully, I turn to our local tour leader Florence. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look very lush. How does anything survive down there?\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs. \u201cIn the wet season, it\u2019s completely in green. But even now, the grass is good and the soil is salty. And the poombas<\/em> (warthogs) are so fat! Don\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll see tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NgorongoroI mean really, what would<\/em> you expect a volcanic crater to look like? Certainly nothing this huge; at over 20 kilometres wide and more than 600 metres deep, Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken, unflooded caldera in the world. On a gloomy day like today, it\u2019s hard to see from one side to the other.<\/p>\n

The Heritage-listed crater is part of the greater Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is home to some 25,000 wild animals, including a small population of endangered Black Rhinos and the densest concentration of lions in the world. With those stats, it\u2019s no wonder it\u2019s one of Tanzania\u2019s<\/a> biggest drawcards. What all that looks like in real life \u2013 well, tomorrow would tell.<\/p>\n

Down into the crater<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Watching<\/p>\n

At dawn the next morning, we pack up our campsite, pile into 4x4s and whiz down the crater walls to the caldera floor. Everything is awash in orange-purple light, setting the shutterbug hearts of our group aflutter.<\/p>\n

Our local guide\u2019s name is Zac. As he drives, Zac explains the caldera was formed three million years ago when a volcano bigger than Mt Kilimanjaro erupted and caved in on itself, leaving an environment rich with short grass, minerals and fertile volcanic soil known locally as \u2018black cotton\u2019. In other words, food paradise.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, when we get down there we find the crater flush with life. White-bearded wildebeest, greater and lesser flamingos, zebras, lions, Thomson\u2019s gazelles, spotted hyenas, African elephants, a vast array of birds\u2026 we see them all.<\/p>\n

The landscape changes as we zip across the caldera floor \u2013 from gravelly plains to grassy savannas, ashy marshlands to patchy forest layered with liquorish allsort-like colours: pink flamingos, grey birds, zebras stamped in trippy black and white. We stop at a waterhole bloated with hippos and cruise past a hyena dragging the meaty spine of a wildebeest through the grass. We spy the skeletons of buffalo and the giant skull of an elephant. The whole thing is like something out of the Land Before Time<\/em>, and for a few hours in that windy truck I feel like a kid again.<\/p>\n

\"HyenaWhile many animals never leave the crater, deterred by the steep walls and satiated by the ample food supply, others drop by to visit. Ancient elephants come to retire and enjoy the soft grass. During our lunch break, an enormous African elephant appears through the trees and sways slowly towards us. Zac points to his left tusk, worn down after a lifetime of felling trees. \u201cThat\u2019s how we know he\u2019s left-handed.\u201d No-one breathes as the creature plods past our truck. Tell you what, this doesn\u2019t seem like a bad place to retire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A migration<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Finally, we come face-to-face with what I\u2019d seen yesterday from the lookout point: a long, snaking line of wildebeest and zebras, plodding nose-to-tail along some invisible course. Zac kills the engine as the procession cuts in front of us \u2013 a real life zebra crossing! Mothers nudge skittish babies across the road. At a nearby patch of ground, the zebras drop to the ground one by one for a gleeful dust bath, holding up the queue behind them.<\/p>\n

\"LocalIn the truck, we squirm with delight. We\u2019re finally seeing the Great Migration \u2013 the annual journey of over a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebras and Thomson\u2019s gazelles across the plains of East Africa. This is Attenborough-level stuff. But Zac soon sets us straight: these animals aren\u2019t technically<\/em> part of the Great Migration. Instead, they\u2019re local residents, perpetually on the move in search of good grass and water on the caldera floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do they stick together, the zebra and the wildebeest?\u201d someone asks. \u201cThey\u2019re friends,\u201d says Zac. \u201cThe wildebeest are good at finding water because they have an excellent sense of smell, whereas the zebra are smarter and have better eyesight. They help each other survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living in harmony<\/strong><\/h2>\n

All too soon we\u2019re speeding towards the exit. In an effort to avoid crowding and protect the local environment, each safari vehicle is allowed a strict number of hours in the crater \u2013 and our time is up. Back along the rim, kids grin and wave to us from the roadside.<\/p>\n

Ngorongoro is derived from the Maasai word El-Nkoronkoro, <\/em>meaning \u2018gift of life\u2019. The NCA is the only conservation area in Tanzania that protects wildlife while also allowing human habitation. Over 40,000 Maasai pastoralists call the region home, although they\u2019re no longer allowed to live inside the crater (just visit to feed and water their animals during the day). Their traditional way of life means they\u2019re seen as having little threat to the local environment.<\/p>\n

\"NgorongoroOn our way out, I ask Florence whether she thinks Ngorongoro has changed. She points to a Maasai house with a satellite dish on the roof. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t there last year. And it seems warmer here these days. Maybe things are <\/em>changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are few places in the modern world where you\u2019d find so many living things co-existing in such a small space. I look out the truck window and return the shy smile of a Maasai kid. In the distance, a family of giraffes stalk across the wide plains.<\/p>\n

The author travelled on Intrepid’s 8-day Serengeti Trail adventure<\/a>. Discover the wildlife of Ngorongoro Crater on our range of small group trips to Tanzania.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the windy lookout point, Ngorongoro Crater isn\u2019t quite what I expected. Under the gloomy sky the crater floor looks bleached and barren, smeared with mineral lakes and mapped with the shadows of clouds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15735,"featured_media":18419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[286],"tags":[65,384,264,73,292],"class_list":["post-18389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-africa","tag-east-africa","tag-safari","tag-tanzania","tag-wildlife","ipf_theme-wildlife","ipf_region-tanzania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Good Times by Intrepid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-20T22:46:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-18T10:51:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philippa Whishaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philippa Whishaw\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/\",\"name\":\"What it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-20T22:46:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-18T10:51:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7d32a8e8d8ee2879c0b25ccb7f7c2642\"},\"description\":\"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What it’s like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\",\"name\":\"The Good Times by Intrepid\",\"description\":\"adventure news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7d32a8e8d8ee2879c0b25ccb7f7c2642\",\"name\":\"Philippa Whishaw\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d9954770ae4c1f871b01e57b3497872f14dc01275486cd241b6c29d4317417d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d9954770ae4c1f871b01e57b3497872f14dc01275486cd241b6c29d4317417d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Philippa Whishaw\"},\"description\":\"I like travelling, writing words and taking pictures. Lucky for me, these things go together rather nicely. I dig sticky weather, abandoned buildings, visiting planetariums and getting from A to B in the most interesting way possible (husky sled, old yellow school bus, rollerblading etc). While I think the phrase \u201cgetting under the skin of a place\u201d is kind of gross, I\u2019m totally on board with the idea behind it. One time I spent a week in an apple orchard with an artist who restores old gypsy caravans for a living. I was in charge of riding his donkey, but it was so stubborn it made me cry.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/pippa-whishaw\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid","description":"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid","og_description":"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/","og_site_name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/","article_published_time":"2017-02-20T22:46:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-18T10:51:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philippa Whishaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_site":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philippa Whishaw","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/","name":"What it's like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater | The Good Times by Intrepid","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-20T22:46:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-18T10:51:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7d32a8e8d8ee2879c0b25ccb7f7c2642"},"description":"Where would you find retired elephants, migrating wildebeest and one of the densest populations of lions on earth? Inside a volcanic crater, of course!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg","width":800,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/on-safari-in-ngorongoro-crater\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What it’s like to safari in the Ngorongoro Crater"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/","name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","description":"adventure news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7d32a8e8d8ee2879c0b25ccb7f7c2642","name":"Philippa Whishaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d9954770ae4c1f871b01e57b3497872f14dc01275486cd241b6c29d4317417d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d9954770ae4c1f871b01e57b3497872f14dc01275486cd241b6c29d4317417d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Philippa Whishaw"},"description":"I like travelling, writing words and taking pictures. Lucky for me, these things go together rather nicely. I dig sticky weather, abandoned buildings, visiting planetariums and getting from A to B in the most interesting way possible (husky sled, old yellow school bus, rollerblading etc). While I think the phrase \u201cgetting under the skin of a place\u201d is kind of gross, I\u2019m totally on board with the idea behind it. One time I spent a week in an apple orchard with an artist who restores old gypsy caravans for a living. I was in charge of riding his donkey, but it was so stubborn it made me cry.","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/pippa-whishaw\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Tanzania-safari-Crate-Intrepid-Travel.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4OQMK-4MB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83064,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18389\/revisions\/83064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}