A Peaceable Kingdom: The Ngorongoro Crater

On a clear day, you can see forever!

The Ngorongoro Crater is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) southeast of the Serengeti and west of Lake Manyara in Northern Tanzania. The NCA is a vast biosphere reserve where the iconic Maasai people live alongside a bewildering diversity of wildlife.

The crater itself is actually a collapsed volcano or caldera that lies in a cluster of other still active volcanoes. The original volcano is believed to have been larger than Mount Kilimanjaro before collapsing in on itself to form a perfectly complete basin. Believed to have been formed some 2 million years ago, the crater harbors an astonishing variety of landscape from forests to lakes to plains and is home to an even more astonishing diversity of fauna.

The very steep and bumpy drive down into the crater begins high up in the crater rim mist forest. We were lucky to have a clear day on which to descend into the crater.

And at the very bottom, the crater floor is truly a peaceable kingdom.

hyenas and zebras

Where prey and predator literally lay side by side!

we saw ten lions lying within meters of a herd of grazing gazelles

Note: If you are self-driving, you will not be allowed to drive into the Ngorongoro Crater without a guide. It is mandatory so make room! You are assigned a guide at the entrance to the Crater who accompanies you down to the crater floor and stays with you for the maximum of six hours you are allowed to stay down on the floor per visit. P.S. The mandatory guide costs $20.

A peaceable kingdom