Heroes Point

Heroes Point

Credit: Naona Moru Camp

Coming from the direction of Arusha, the road from Lodware Entrance Gate to the crater rim switchbacks uphill through fertile slopes swathed in Afromontane forest to Heroes Point, which is where most visitors catch their first breathtaking view to the crater floor. It is here that German conservationist and filmmaker Michael Grzimek (son of the legendary Professor Bernhard Grzimek of Serengeti Shall Not Die fame) was buried in 1959 after his tragic death in an aeroplane crash over the Serengeti at the age of 24. Look closely at the crater floor below and you should pick out a few hundred-strong herds of wildebeest, zebra and buffalo moving across the crater floor, as well as elephants on the edge of Lerai Forest or flamingos in the shallows of Lake Magadi.