Touch Down On Planet Ngorongoro

Mention “Ngorongoro” around the braai and people will look up from their drinks. It’s one of Africa’s most iconic wildlife destinations – an entire world within the crater of a volcano and unlike anything you will have seen in southern Africa.Here’s how to plan a visit.

- Toast Coetzer

Ngorongoro is not a place you’ll easily forget. From the moment you first look out over the crater, you’ll know: Everything here is different. It’s as if nature chose not to follow its own rules. Forest hugs you close at the viewpoint over the crater rim, but down below on the crater floor it’s pure East African savannah. And although you’ve just driven through a string of small towns on the way to the entrance gate, wilderness has now taken over.

Ngorongoro isn’t a national park, it’s a “conservation area”, which means that people and wildlife co-exist within its borders. There’s no fence between the Maasai cattle and their lion neighbours.

I’m here with my girlfriend Alice Inggs and two old friends: Patrick and Grace Cairns. It’s a while before the four of us come to our senses. We take selfies and WhatsApp them to other friends back home. We’re here, we made it!

Patrick and Grace flew from South Africa to Zanzibar, which is where we all met up. For the past two weeks we’ve been exploring the parks in northern Tanzania together: Amani Forest Reserve followed by Mkomazi, Arusha, Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks. After Ngorongoro we’re going to the other big one: the Serengeti. (Read about that part of the trip in next month’s issue.)

Alice and I drove all the way from Cape Town in a Toyota Fortuner. Ngorongoro is one of the main reasons for the epic road trip. It’s a classic destination and a place we just had to visit.

You arrive with high expectations. The Ngorongoro Crater is packed with animals – plains game have food all year-round, and therefore so do the predators… Except for the long grass, there’s very little hiding place in the crater, which makes Ngorongoro a prime destination for people who want to see lions.

Will we be so lucky?

Starters