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Tanzania 2014 Arusha Coffee Lodge, drive to Ngorongoro Crater

Tanzania is in eastern Africa, just below Uganda and Kenya, and on the Indian Ocean. At the end of our eleven day/ten-night Zambia safari, we flew from Livingston to Johannesburg for an overnight stay. The next day we flew to Arusha, Tanzania via Nairobi. Arriving at Arusha Coffee Lodge at around 8 pm, we spent two nights and one full day relaxing there before our next adventure. On the morning of 28 August 2014, our driverguide, Nelson, picked us up at ACL in his 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser for the trip to Ngorongoro Crater. After three nights and two full days in the Crater while staying at Lemala Ngorongoro Camp, we flew by Coastal bush plane out of Manyara airstrip to Kogatende airstrip for four nights at Sayari Mara Camp in the remote NW corner of the Serengeti near the Mara River and the Kenyan border. All arrangements for our requested Tanzanian safari beginning with our arrival at ACL until our return to Arusha and departure from ACL on 5 September 2014 were made by Africa Travel Resource.

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At "Crater View", one of the most spectacular vistas in the whole world. With a diameter of about twelve and a half miles, the crater is the world's largest unflooded caldera, created two million years ago when an enormous volcano exploded and then collapsed. Containing a soda lake (that white spot in the distance), forests, streams, most of the mammals of East Africa except for giraffe, which can not traverse the steep crater walls, this is one of the best game-viewing locations anywhere. Of course, being world-famous, lots of other travelers are also to be found in the crater, as you will see later. So we selected a camp that is inside the NE gate and part way down the descent road. This affords, with an early morning departure, an hour or so head start on the others who are staying at lodges and camps further up on the rim.
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At "Crater View", one of the most spectacular vistas in the whole world. With a diameter of about twelve and a half miles, the crater is the world's largest unflooded caldera, created two million years ago when an enormous volcano exploded and then collapsed. Containing a soda lake (that white spot in the distance), forests, streams, most of the mammals of East Africa except for giraffe, which can not traverse the steep crater walls, this is one of the best game-viewing locations anywhere. Of course, being world-famous, lots of other travelers are also to be found in the crater, as you will see later. So we selected a camp that is inside the NE gate and part way down the descent road. This affords, with an early morning departure, an hour or so head start on the others who are staying at lodges and camps further up on the rim.

  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater, "African Foods"!
  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater and climbing the steep, southern slope of Ngorongoro Crater, we stopped briefly at this outlook to see where we had been. Baobab tree and, probably, a bead-bean tree. Please comment if you can definitely identify the bead-bean tree as something else.
  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater, flowers of the bead-bean tree.
  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater, shops and people gathering at the local strip mall on a mid-morning Thursday.
  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater, a furniture store, two and a half hours out of Arusha.
  • On our way to Ngorongoro Crater, metal fabrication shop next to a cafe.
  • At last at the Ladoare Ngorongoro Park Gate, the info center offers this 3-D map of the crater and other thoughtfully presented large photo panels describing wildlife in the crater and surrounding highlands. A pleasant way to pass the time while our driverguide is dealing with the official paperwork and the baboons are pinching our stuff from our vehicle. This is where the asphalt ends and the dirt roads begin. Entering the crater rim from the lower right, we traveled counter-clockwise along the rim to a crater observation post and then on to camp just inside Lemalala Gate and ranger post on the Northern Descent Road. It is near the longish white strip on the NE/upper right rim.
  • This is the Ladoare Ngorongoro Park Gate, the official entrance into the Ngorongoro Conservation area and the Crater. Info center on the left and business office on the right.
  • At "Crater View", one of the most spectacular vistas in the whole world. With a diameter of about twelve and a half miles, the crater is the world's largest unflooded caldera, created two million years ago when an enormous volcano exploded and then collapsed. Containing a soda lake (that white spot in the distance), forests, streams, most of the mammals of East Africa except for giraffe, which can not traverse the steep crater walls, this is one of the best game-viewing locations anywhere. Of course, being world-famous, lots of other travelers are also to be found in the crater, as you will see later. So we selected a camp that is inside the NE gate and part way down the descent road. This affords, with an early morning departure, an hour or so head start on the others who are staying at lodges and camps further up on the rim.
  • Panorama of Ngorongoro Crater. Check another one off my bucket list!
  • Acacia trees surrounding Lemala Ngorongoro Camp, our home for three nighs and two full days in the Crater. Most viistors spend one day in the crater, but we wanted two just in case the weather was bad on the first day and so that, even tho it is a limited area, there is still the possibility that we would see something the second day that we missed the first day. See for yourself in the following galleries.
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