Ngorongoro Crater

Today we drove to the Ngorongoro crater. On our way we stopped to eat lunch at Snake Park. This reptile park reminded of a reptile park you might see in the states with the exception of the insane amount of venomous snakes on display – snakes that are all found in Tanzania! Some of the snakes (such as the black mamba) have been known to kill people in a matter of minutes!

After the snake park we visited the Maasai Culture Museum. It was an extremely fascinating visit. The Maasai are people indigenous to Tanzania. They live off the land as hunters and gatherers. They are a nomadic group, building a village and using it for a few years before they move on to another area and rebuild their village. They do not hunt the wild game animals found in the national parks (such as zebra, lions, wildebeests, etc.). If you have ever watched Travel Channel’s show Bizarre Foods when they visited Tanzania, then you might know one of their diet staples – coagulated cow blood mixed with milk. Yum!

On our way out of the museum there were camels you could ride for 1.000 shillings (about .60 cents US). Riding a camel proves to be much more challenging than riding a horse! Then it was off to the crater.

I find it interesting that while many people have heard of Serengeti National Park, few have heard of Ngorongoro crater. I was one of those people before this trip.

The crater is located in the East African Rift Valley. For you non geology majors out there, this is an area that has diverging plates underneath it, which causes volcanoes to form. Most of the volcanoes are inactive now. The Ngorongoro crater is an inactive volcano that has collapsed forming a huge crater called a caldera. The crater has been made into a national park and has become a haven for all kinds of animals including zebras, elephants, wildebeests, water buffalo, warthogs, lions, ostriches, hyenas, and hippos to name a few (and we saw all of those animals peering out from the roof of our Land Cruiser!). The park is not closed off and so animals are free to roam in and around the park as they please.

The Maasai tribe shares the crater with the animals. The Serengeti was originally home to many of the Maasai, but when the national government decided to declare the Serengeti a national park the Maasai were asked to leave. They were told if they moved to the Ngorongoro crater they would never be asked to leave, and so they accepted.

That night we stayed at the most beautiful lodge that rested on the rim of the crater. As the sun set we could sit on the deck of our hotel and peer down into the crater through our binoculars looking at herds of animals grazing. It was an amazing end to an amazing day.