Ngorongoro
The largest unbroken caldera on earth, the Big Five on its floor, Olduvai and the Laetoli footprints on the plains to the west, and a tarmac strip at Lake Manyara.
- Arrival
- Kilimanjaro International · JRO
- To the crater
- About 40 km in a straight line from the Lake Manyara strip
- Private jets
- Into JRO; light aircraft to Lake Manyara
- Best time
- June to October
The city
A caldera, a gorge and the first footprints.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers 8,292 square kilometres of the northern Tanzanian highlands, and its authority describes the crater at its heart as the largest unbroken caldera in the world. Elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino all live on the floor. Beyond the rim lie two more craters, Olmoti and Empakai, the Ndutu Plains, and the sites where the story of human evolution was traced: Olduvai Gorge and the footprints of Laetoli.
Altitude keeps the days cool: highs reach only 19 to 23 °C. The wet months stretch from November to May, and April alone brings more than 200 mm. From June to September barely 10 to 22 mm falls a month; October brings the first showers back.
- The crater floor Inside the caldera walls, elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino share a single enclosed world.
- Olduvai Gorge A key site in the history of human evolution, with a new museum and a second one named after Mary Leakey.
- Empakai With Olmoti, one of two further craters in the conservation area, away from the main caldera.
Arriving
Kilimanjaro, then the Manyara strip.
International flights land at Kilimanjaro, between Arusha and Moshi. The nearest airstrip to the crater is Lake Manyara, about forty kilometres away in a straight line, reached by light aircraft from Arusha, the Serengeti or the coast.
- Nairobi 40 min
- Addis Ababa 2 h 10
- Johannesburg 3 h 45
- Muscat 5 h 20
- Mumbai 6 h 30 long-range jet
When to go
June to October.
High and temperate: afternoons of 19 to 23 °C all year. The rains run from November to May, heaviest in April. June to October is the dry season, with as little as 11 mm in September.
- 23° J 108
- 23° F 89
- 22° M 136
- 21° A 213
- 19° M 100
- 19° J 22
- 19° J 12
- 20° A 15
- 21° S 11
- 22° O 55
- 22° N 114
- 22° D 137
Elsewhere in Tanzania
More reasons to come.
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