My First Day On Safari In Tanzania – Ngorongoro Crater
After my long journey to Africa and a much needed rest at the hotel in Arusha, my driver and guide Leo was ready to take us to Ngorongoro National Park where the Ngorongoro Crater is. This is a sunken volcano resulting in a land mass of 260 square kilometres surrounded by a the crater rim. Within this crater as you will see in the video is amazing wildlife as well as spectacular scenery making this a very special place. This was the first game drive day of my safari tour and even though the Serengeti is the main star area of a safari in Tanzania, Ngorongoro Crater should most definitely be included as part of the itinerary in my opinion.
The roads after leaving Arusha and into the Ngorongoro park area are among the worst I’ve ever been on. In fact there were no paved roads roads for the rest of the safari tour until we returned back to the city at the end. Imagine roads or pathways that were not only unpaved but were very bumpy and extremely dusty. These continued throughout all the national parks we went through which is why they tend to use Land Rovers made by Toyota here with specialized shock absorbers which need to be replaced regularly. But when going on safari in Tanzania, expect to be on very bumpy rides all day and expect to be covered in dust from the roads. So no need to dress fancy on safari as my clothes and hair were covered with dust after each game drive day.
The Wildlife In Ngorongoro Crater
The wildlife within the crater is so rich that I was able to see four of the Big Five animals on this first safari day. I saw water buffalo, lions, elephants and even the elusive rhino here in the crater. The rhino spotting was very lucky since they are the most difficult to spot as there are only about thirty of them living in the crater and unless it is a mom with a baby, rhinos tend to live solitary making them even harder to spot. The one we spotted was at a distance through binoculars so I was not able to get any photos nor video of it. This case does prove the usefulness of having binoculars on safari as there were many occasions animals were a bit too far in the distance to see without using them.
In addition to the four Big Five, we saw many zebras, wildebeest or gnu, baboons, hyenas, ostrich, impalas and several different species of birds. Some of these animals were right by roadside and didn’t even move away as we drove by or stopped to take photos and video since they were so use to seeing safari vehicles every day.
Below is a nice video summary of all the animals I saw at Ngorongoro Crater as part of my first day on safari.
We stopped at a nice pond to have lunch which was provided by the Arusha hotel we stayed at last night. Friendly little birds came by hoping for some scraps. At this lunch spot I could see just how beautiful this crater is. Leo told me that that during the rainy season (it was now dry season) the landscape is green rather then the dark yellow colour I was seeing which is still a lovely scene.
After our game drive in the crater it was time to go back up to the rim where we saw local Massai tribes and their livestock as well as more wildlife along the way.
My First Tented Lodge
Our next destination was the Serengeti National Park as our next accommodation for the night was my first tented cabin which we reached right at nightfall after a long 13 hour day. We saw more wildlife along the way as we were about the go through south and central Serengeti. I shot video footage of not only the animals along the way but of both lodges I stayed at which are shown in my previous article in case you missed it.
