Safari in the crater of Ngorongoro volcano

Safari in Ngorongoro - one of the most famous in the world.

This is the same travel brand as the Eiffel Tower, Tower Bridge or the Statue of Liberty. And, I must say, it is not in vain that it enjoys such wildly popularity among wildlife lovers. There are an incredible amount of animals here and they absolutely do not need to be looked for, as in many other national parks. Here antelopes, lions, zebras and gazelles surround you from all sides ...

The natural habitat is to blame for everything - a natural reservation formed in the crater of an ancient volcano, from which animals almost never exit.

In fact, this is a giant natural zoo, formed by itself ...

The Ngorongoro Crater, which hosts a safari, is located on the territory of the national park of the same name, where entry is allowed only on special safari jeeps and only organized tourist groups. The easiest way to get to the park is to buy a package tour from one of the many safari operators.

Entrance to Ngorongoro costs $ 200 per car + $ 50 per person.

Before entering the park, the driver-guide will independently carry out the necessary formal procedures and then you will go to the crater. During a half-hour wait, while the paper is being drawn up, you can "chat" with the local mafia - unceremonious baboons who behave quite impudently, and sometimes boldly. The windows in the car should not be left open, as monkeys can steal everything that is bad ...

A traditional safari in Ngorongoro is organized as follows. In the afternoon, you arrive at the national park and settle in one of the hotels located right on the top of the crater. As a rule, hotels have a large terrace-viewing platform, which offers stunning views of the caldera of the volcano, which has become a huge natural zoo.

From here you admire the sunset, have dinner here and stay for the night, so that in the morning, one hour before dawn, go down to unity with nature.

The bottom of the crater in the rays of the setting sun looks amazing ...

In the morning, everyone tries to leave early to be earlier than others on a narrow serpentine that descends directly into the crater. In fact, there isn’t much point in this, because you can’t stop to take pictures of the dawn (other jeeps back up);

So with the first rays of the sun you come down or not with the first - there is not much difference ...

Personally, I do not really like shooting in the first hour and a half after sunrise. White balance at this time is not very, then you have to fiddle with photos for a long time, trying to overcome the excessive yellowness in each color.

But an hour or two later - very much nothing.

Safaris are conducted here on such jeeps with a rising roof, which allows you to stand in the cabin at full height and conduct a circular review or shooting. Getting out of cars in Ngorongoro is strictly forbidden.

The nature in this park is amazing, and the number of animals is amazing!

Sergey Dolya visited many safaris and said that this is the coolest, because animals are everywhere and they don’t need to be looked for at all, as on many other excursions into the wild.

Thompson's gazelles twirl their short black tails, constantly looking around in search of danger

The famous Magadi Lake, known for its huge flamingo population. Unfortunately, the road runs quite far from the lake and we did not have the opportunity to take large pictures of these beautiful birds

Hyena had time to have breakfast with someone, judging by the dried blood on her face and neck

A jackal runs after her ... He picks up everything that remains after the hyena

Handsome Crowned Cranes

This is a mongoose. Honestly, after the movie "Riki-Tiki-Tavi" I thought that they look different.

One of the Ngorongoro features that everyone wants to see is a rhino.

Unfortunately, we were not able to see him close, and only thanks to the TV set did we manage to make a more or less good photo

Safari as it is. Everyone is looking at the lion. Dozens of cars, having barely heard on the radio that they had seen a lion or a rhino somewhere, immediately rush in full steam to the desired point.

Lions go, cars go, photographers shoot ...

All for the sake of these photos ...

Lions drink water from a puddle

Largest Flying Bird - African Great Bustard

African buffalo

I even managed to see an elephant, although there are not many of them in Ngorongoro, not like in Tarangir.

There are in Ngorongoro and hippos. True, to see them on the shore is almost impossible. They are always in the water, only occasionally surfacing

Gazelles

At the very end, almost before the ascent from the crater, we met a huge herd of baboons, which grazed on the grass ... So the monkeys live not only in trees

Just looking up from the viewfinders of the cameras, we realized that 9 hours among the animals in the Ngorongoro crawl flew almost imperceptibly ... Still, a safari is mega interesting!