Day Trip to the Ngorongoro Crater

This is a day trip to the Ngorongoro crater with Worldwide Safaris Tanzania Limited. It is a short safari for those who do not have enough time to go on a long trip, but yet have time to wander to this picturesque paradise! You can still be able to see the big five in a day!

Arusha – Karatu – Ngorongoro Crater – Arusha

Leave Arusha at 5.00 am and drive via Mto Wa Mbu and Karatu to the Ngorongoro. After registration procedures, you descend over 600 meters into the crater to view wildlife for a half-day safari tour. Supported by a year-round water supply and fodder, the Ngorongoro Crater supports a vast variety of animals, which include herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo, and giant African elephants. Another big drawcard to this picturesque place is its dense population of predators, which include lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and the ever-elusive leopard, which sometimes requires a trained eye to spot. You will visit Lake Magadi, a large but shallow alkaline lake in the southwestern corner, which is one of the main features of the crater. A large number of flamingos, hippos, and other water birds can usually be seen here. Late afternoon you ascend up the rim and drive to Arusha for drop-off.

About the Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact and unfilled volcanic caldera and is indeed the flagship tourism attraction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Measuring an area of 260 square kilometers and extending about 20km in diameter, the crater is actually a huge caldera of a volcano that collapsed to a depth of 610m about three million years ago. Over the course of time, streams of water made their way down the crater to form little ponds, and vegetation developed all over, attracting a wide range of wild animals.

The crater is host to over 25,000 animals including populations of large mammals such as elephants, buffaloes, elands, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, hippos, and rhinos, as well as such carnivores as lions, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs. The ponds or rather small lakes on the floor of the crater also host a wide range of water birds including flamingoes and pelicans. Away from the crater floor, the forests on the crater rim are home to leopards, reedbuck, warthogs, and forest birds to complete a natural zoo, and Africa’s ultimate destination to see the “Big Five” (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard, and buffalo).

Many animals stay in the crater for a large proportion of their lives, but others move out and may move back again.

There are nine craters in the Conservation Area, of which Ngorongoro Crater is the biggest and most stunning. Before it collapsed, geologists estimate, its height was about 4,587m above sea level.

The stunning landscape of Ngorongoro Crater combined with its spectacular concentration of wildlife is one of the greatest natural wonders of the planet. The crater was voted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in February 2013, by the organization Seven Natural Wonders, based in the United States, which had conducted a campaign since 2008 to determine the most phenomenal natural features of Africa.