Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area

Ngorongoro conservation area, for lack of better words to describe its magnificence has been dubbed Africa’s eighth wonder of the world a prestige reserved for the likes of the mighty river Nile. Hence, an accolade well awarded to it by its ardent visitors whom it unreservedly showers with plentiful unrivaled authentic wildlife scenery far more than their expectations and wildest imaginations making it the best safari destination in Africa.

This pristine park was initially established in 1951 as part of the Serengeti national park which was split later in 1959 establishing Ngorogoro conservation area to mitigate the local community “maasai” strife since they had been displaced by the establishment of Serengeti national park whereby they were now allowed to mutually live with the wildlife in the ngorongoro conservation area.

The park which is laden with splendid wildlife, geological and archaeological magic is an extension of the Great eastern rift valley of East Africa hidden in the far northern Tanzania approximately 90 kilometres west of Arusha and its sandwiched by the obviously famous Serengeti national park in the north and the overwhelmingly beautiful lake manyara national park in the south. The park is one of the last intact ecosystems in the world spreading over roughly 8,300 square kilometres and because of variations in latitude, landforms and climate numerous stunning overlying ecosystems and divergent habitats are in place in form of savannah woodlands, savannah grassland, mangrove, lush catchment forests, montane forests, high open moorlands mountains, volcanic craters, rivers, lakes and swamps a size equivalent to Sicily or Rwanda.

The park has many glorious features littered all over its rich magical belly. However, the unparalleled one of all is the marvellous world renown geological grandeur ngorongoro crater since there are just a handful of craters in the world but ngorongoro acing all of them because it’s the worlds largest intact crater that hasn’t turned into a lake just yet. This heavenly pristine bowel has a depth of over 620 meters and a diameter of well over 270 kilometres with its own ecosystem and its mineral rich flat floor comprising of several habitats that include lush forests, swanky grasslands, juicy springs, marshy swamps.

Lake Makat (meaning salt in the masai dialect) that is fed by river munge all which sustains an impressive Africa safari wildlife paradise slice for an extraordinary number of herbivores and predators alike that make it to the caldera and never make it out because of the plentiful water , vegetation, salts and mates coupled with the steep slopes of the crater. The caldera’s rim at an altitude of 2,200 meters has its own climate different from the bowels flat floor and from some of its vantage points one can view shapes of various animals far-flung below on the crater floor going about their natural business in their natural habitat. Because of the suitable conditions in the heavenly wildlife bowel all the safari big five are present with a remarkably healthy population of black rhinos in town and because of over inbreeding the intriguingly black maned lions in the bowel paradise have inferior genes since they never leave the caldera and they kill all the new entrants to the caldera thus no new gene pools are admitted in the caldera. The lakes, rivers, springs, forests and swamps attract a titanic number of birds to the wildlife bowel paradise hence making the ngorongoro conservation area an undoubtedly the best safari destination in Africa.

Beyond the ngorongoro crater in the ngorongoro conservation area is the inactive volcanic empakasi Crater Lake that is filled with salty water and is a home to the large drove of pink flamingos that beautifully line its shores painting the lake in a beautiful pink reflection from the flamingo plumage. The majestic olmoti volcano mountain ranges and Gol mounain in the area also are inhabited by abundant amazing fauna and flora.

A visit to ngorongoro conservation area is not complete without visiting the archaeological sites at Oldupai gorge and Leatali which are also encompassed in the conservation area with all the sites having museums documenting works done by the legendary archaeologist Dr. Leakey.

Since ngorongoro conservation area is a multipurpose establishment that is, it is a mutual home to the masai and wildlife but the ngorongoro crater areas and empakasi crater areas exclusively reserved for the wildlife and the rest shared by the wildlife and masai. The masai are proactively encouraged to cultivate the land which is not a typical activity of the nomads they are but the management of ngorongoro conservation area insists they do so because it controls unwanted intruding flora species in the conservation area as well as well controlling sporadic bush fires meaning the masai are a part and parcel of this wildlife jewel so a visit here involves an immersion in the vintage cashless way of life of the mystic regal masai folks.

Ngorongoro conservation area gets its name from ngorongoro crater which was christened duly so by the masai pastoralists who grazed their animals in the area and could hear echoing sounds of cow bells (ngoro ngoro) of stray cows from the wildlife mineral rich volcanic floor of the paradise bowel.