Ngorongoro in March

March is a relatively warm month in Ngorongoro, and one of the wettest. The average daily maximum is 22°C, night time temperatures on the crater rim typically drop to around 10°C, and the average annual rainfall is 135mm, though this tends to fall mostly in stormy bursts rather than long bouts of drizzle. The crater floor is lovely and green at this time of year, and there is plenty of wildlife around, not only on the carter floor itself, but also in the more westerly Serengeti border area, where the wildebeest migration is still concentrated in the immediate aftermath of the main calving season.

For birders, most of the Palaearctic migrants are present, and many resident species are sporting colourful breeding plumages. Tourist volumes tend be slightly down from February, partly because the calving is over, partly because the monsoon season usually hits Zanzibar - the region’s most popular beach destination - in late March.