An African safari in the ngorongoro crater and the larger ngorongoro conservation area is to be experienced to be believed. Here lies a 600 meter deep crater floor, 20 km in diameter and 300 square km teaming with wildlife, pools and ponds. One gets to see not just the big five group of lions, elephants, leopards, rhinos including the rare black rhino and buffalos among many more. For bird lovers, the crater is a host to a variety of species that are not even found in the neighbouring Serengeti National Park. Large birds among them ostriches, flamingos, bustards, secretary birds, to name but a few are abundant on the crater floor.
The crater rim is enclosed in a cold highland forest where accommodation is available from a number of lodges, camps and a camping site. When you enter through the main gate, the area is so well- preserved that it is straight out of the Jurassic park. As you drive ascending 10 or so kilometres to the crater rim for accommodation, you catch a glimpse through the forest of a sunny, yellow, grassy open landscape in the horizon gradually falling away. The contrast to the cool, green forest you are in is unbelievable.
Nothing had prepared me for what I was to see when I got to the crater rim the first time I went to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Standing on the panoramic deck of the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, you look down a 600 Meter crater wall of a thick highland forest gradually fading away to an open grassy landscape of the crater floor. All around you is a thick forest and the only sounds you hear are trees waving in the wind. The weather is quite cool but when you look down, it looks hot and sunny. As you look more keenly, you notice safari vehicles slowly criss crossing slowly on the crater floor on late afternoon game drives.
You feel just like standing there for eternity just taking in the scenery and savouring every moment. I thought I was the only one getting sentimental but noticed the same happening to a number of tourists close to me. As more guests came into the lodge to check in and register, they would drop their bags and rooted on the spot, exclaim "oh my God". They would just stand open-mouthed enjoying the extraordinary and humbling scenery. They would even forget to take photographs.
Evening came quickly and with it the weather turned quite cold. To pass the evening, I made good use of a telescope mounted on the deck and was able to view quite well our neighbouring galaxies, the beautiful Andromeda and the Magellanic cloud. To be able to gaze at the vastness of the universe in atop a rim of the Ngorongoro largest collapsed crater in the world is a humbling experience.I turned in for the night and couldn't wait for morning to come and tour the crater floor and see the wildlife and scenery from close quarters.
