Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater

Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater, originally a massive volcano, is the world’s largest preserved crater. Some say it would have been higher than Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro before it erupted.

It is now a large highland area with the famed 600-meter-deep Ngorongoro Crater as its focal point, decades after having collapsed and crumbled. The ancient caldera, which is about three million years old, is home to one of the most spectacular wildlife havens on the planet.

An awe-inspiring array of wildlife accompanied by lone Maasai, resplendent in beads and furled in scarlet shuka robes, may be found on the Crater walls and on the floor, fever and fig tree forests give shade for an awe-inspiring diversity of species.

All of the residents’ thirsts are quenched by fresh springs and a big soda lake. Within its border, black rhinos is protected, gigantic tusked elephants roam the forests, black-maned lions prowl the grasslands, and flamingos swarm the soda lakes.

This bowl of plenty is home to an estimated 25,000 large species, including a population of 6,000 resident wildebeest, 16 critically endangered black rhino, and over 70 lions. Leopards are most typically seen in the beautiful Lerai Forest, while cheetahs travel in and out of the Crater.

Golden and black-backed jackals are common among the smaller carnivores, while the generally cautious and nocturnal serval can be observed during the day. Buffalo, zebra, and Thomson’s gazelle can all be found in large numbers.

The Serengeti National Park, which covers 14,763 square kilometres and stretches up to the Kenyan border in the north, is perhaps one of Africa’s most beautiful parks.

The Serengeti region is home to two World Heritage Sites and two Biosphere Reserves and is known for its large open grasslands and exceptional wildlife observations.

The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the world’s oldest, with little change in climate, vegetation, or species during the last million years. There are 35 species of plains-dwelling mammals in the park, as well as a plethora of wildlife.

The Serengeti, which in Maasai means “endless plains,” is located on a wide plateau between the Rift Valley’s eastern arm and Lake Victoria’s great extent. The Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, which sits across the border to the north, is part of the same Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.

A Serengeti safari, especially during the peak of the Great Migration, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebra, and other herbivores traverse the several rivers in the course of Africa’s annual Great Migration every year, risking the jaws of gigantic crocodiles and bearing the continual pressure of lions, hyenas, jackals, and other predators.