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| The Crater |
September 2010: Our first sighting of the crater
February 2013: Traveling with family
Overview
The Ngorongoro crater is one of 3 craters that falls into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). Originally part of the Serengeti National Park, it was annexed because the NCA allows people to actually live in the NCA, whereas the national parks do not allow it. The people of course are the iconic Maasai people, who share the land with the wild animals while tending their cattle. The Ngorongoro crater itself is the largest inactive volcano caldera, formed when the volcano collapsed in on itself. The floor is approximately 260 km2 and hosts a variety of wildlife, with one of the densest lion populations in the world. Check out Wikipedia for more detailed info.
When did we go?
September 2010 (camping)
February 2013 (lodge)
August 2014 (lodge)
Getting there
It's a tar road all the way from Arusha to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area gate, although there have been some major roadworks along the road. (Sept 2016 - they are now complete) The drive takes about 3,5 hours sticking to the speed limits, going through Mto wa Mbu and then Karatu. (If you're going through to Serengeti after the crater, consider filling up in Karatu - fuel in the parks can be expensive. Having said that, we fill up in Arusha and then fork out the extra in the park as we've heard the fuel in Karatu is dirty)
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| Lake Mgadi |
Once you enter the NCA, it's gravel from there. You travel up the crater to the rim (where you have a breathtaking view of the crater floor) and then along it to get to one of the lodges or the public campsite. Depending on whether the road has been under maintenance recently, it varies from ok to dusty... it's a windy road which the safari vehicles like to do at pretty fast speeds. Also be wary of the buses and trucks going up and down as well :)
The roads inside the crater floor are fine, all gravel, well maintained and well used.
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| The animals are awfully calm around vehicles |
There are 3 roads - 1 descent only road, 1 ascent only road, and 1 road that goes both up and down. Problem is that they are redoing the ascent road near the campsite , so you need to go down on the descent road of the crater (about 20 min from the public campsite) and go up on the two way road on the opposite side. Once you have taken the ascent road, it takes at least an hour to drive along the rim to the campsite - and that's at tour operator speeds!
It's really frustrating, because if you're camping you can get down early, but you need to get out of the crater floor just after 4pm to be able to make the campsite (or any of the lodges on that side) by 6pm, which is official closing time. So if you're staying in a lodge, consider which one you want to stay in if you want to catch an early morning, or a late afternoon in the crater. The SOPA lodge is by the two way ascent/decent road and would be the best lodge option in terms of time for now.
Update in August 2014 - ascent / descent road has now been completed, so staying on either side of the rim is no longer a problem.
The ascent and descent roads are ok, but you may want to engage in 4WD to get up and down. (We didn't when we self-drove, but that's only because we found out on the way down that 4WD wasn't working!)
Accommodation
There's lodges or the public campsite called Simba A. Contrary to belief - there are none in the crater floor - they are all along the crater rim. There are apparently special campsites, but chances are (like all the northern parks) these will be booked out way in advance.
The lodges and the campsite are all along the rim looking into the crater floor, except for one lodge called Rhino Lodge. It's on the other side of the rim so no view of the crater floor, and as a result is cheaper than the other places, but we've never been to know what the place is like.
We stayed at Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge during Feb 2013 and Aug 2014, and we thought it was really good (despite some of the reviews). I think all the lodges have spectacular views of the crater, and what was fantastic for us was that the rooms all have views of the crater floor as well. There are a lot of people, the food was adequate, but overall we were happy with the lodge. I know a lot of the tour operators recommend to rather stay away from the touristy hotels and rather stay in Karatu, but if this is a one off trip, consider the crater rim lodges - there's something pretty fantastic about having sundowners while looking over the Ngorongoro crater floor.
Camping facilities
One public campsite - SimbaA - is set up as a big open clearing of grass with a couple of toilet blocks and a big caged kitchen. And it caters for all the campers that are planning to stop in the crater or overnighting before heading in (or out) of the Serengeti, including the overland trucks. The first night we stayed there, it was like a rock festival - it was busy with 2 overlander groups and plenty of other tents. Considering it can cater for 200 tents, it can get really busy. And then the following night, it was dead quiet with hardly anyone else around. Just the luck of the draw I suppose. Toilet blocks are okay - when we were there, there was hot water one night, cold water the next ;) Animals are well used to people, there was a herd of zebra wandering through the camp the first night, and a bushpig around the edges the second, so be alert - even with all the people, you never know what is lurking in the darkness.
It's not ideal camping, but it gives you the best chance of getting into the crater floor early, so consider it. If you've already done the crater floor and heading out of the NCA, I'd rather consider staying in Karatu.
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| Camp site |
An option people take is staying in Karatu and then going into the crater the next morning. Karatu is only about 10km from the gate, so it's a much cheaper option than lodging in the NCA, but once you get into the gate (which opens at 6am) it will still take another 45 minutes at least to get to the descent road that leads to the crater floor. So if you're looking for an early start, it's not going to happen staying outside the NCA. But there are plenty of options in Karatu and surrounds from camping to 5 star accomm. We stay at Kudu Lodge and Campsite when we come out of the NCA. There are however, overlander vehicles that camp there as well, so it may be noisy.
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| Crater wall |
Everything except giraffes are in there, and since it's all concentrated in a pretty small area (260 km2) so you're bound to see plenty. It has the highest concentration of lions and spotted hyenas for the area, and one of the only places that you'll be able to see black rhino in Tanzania. Antelope especially wildebeest and zebra are plentiful and so used to cars that they won't move if you stop next to them, which makes it great for close up photos :) People have seen some spectacular scenes, like a lion hunt right next to the road, servals wandering around etc. We haven't been especially lucky with the crater, but on our last trip we had both caracal and serval, so you never know.
Wildness factor
Mmm... lots of people driving around looking for predators. Any predator sighting draws a slew of cars, so you're lucky if you catch a sighting on your own. But in the end these animals are wild and able to move freely in and out of the crater, so if you keep that in mind, it doesn't feel so much like a zoo ;)
Other logistics
If there was a trophy for the ability to rip off the tourist, the NCA would win it hands down. Costs are as follows:
NCA permit: $60pppn (24 hours only)
Camping: $40 pppn
Car: $40 per car pd (for foreign registered)
Going into the crater floor: $200 per car per day (although I heard they were going to make it a half day only)
Guide to go into the crater floor: mandatory at $20
(Note: I think these are the latest rates as at September 2016, although I can't find the official rates - for some reason they don't display it on their website even though there is a section for fees...)
If you are traveling to the Serengeti and only passing through the NCA along the crater rim, you still need to pay the permit and car fees. And likewise when you come back from the Serengeti - you need to pass through the NCA again, so you need to pay again but you cannot go in to the crater floor!
To travel through to the crater, spend the evening camping, going into the crater floor for the day and then heading out will cost 2 people over $400. It's expensive.
Regarding the guide: Yes, it's mandatory. I know there are reports of guys talking their way out of it, and I'm sure it's possible, but we just took one despite struggling to make space for him in our overloaded car. The one advantage is that he will find you the predators if they're around. He may do the whole "tracking" thing in the beginning, but by the end he'll be on his cellphone calling the other guides for sighting information ;) You can organise a guide at the HQ the day before so you don't need to wait the next morning.
The permit drama (updated in Dec 2014): NCA have now adopted a pre-paid card system, like the Tanzania national parks board (TANAPA) have done, but made it more complicated.
(They keep changing the process, so I'm leaving all the procedures, so you have an idea of the hoops they make you jump through. We just went through the NCA in September 2016, so that procedures is at the bottom of this section.)
You need to go to one of the banks in Arusha or Karatu (I think Exim, but this can change anytime, so check). Once depositing the money, they will give you a receipt. Make sure you have receipts for both the permits and the car because I think they are deposited into 2 separate accounts, therefore 2 receipts.
Then... (this has been recently changed - we found out in December 2014) you need to go to the Karatu NCA office. It's on the edge of Karatu on your way to the NCA - look for the Country Lodge and Karatu Motel - there's a service station there, and the NCA office is located there. You then go to the office and an unpleasant woman will give you cards in exchange for the receipts. Try to make sure they give you the correct cards (entry, not exit cards) - they gave us the wrong cards, but luckily a helpful man sorted it out for us at the gate. Make sure you also have the correct balance reflected on the cards...
When you get to the NCA gate, you present the cards and they will give you a permit, with the amount of money paid for. Unlike the TANAPA card which you keep permanently, this one you hand back at Naabi Hill (Serengeti), so make sure you have the correct amount loaded or you've just donated to the NCA fund.
Keep the cards and paperwork safe and in an easy to reach place - you constantly need to take it out and show someone or other. When you leave the NCA, make sure you hand the card back. (If you are carrying on through to the Serengeti and then passing back through the NCA, and you haven't handed in the card when entering the Serengeti, they will "assume" you stayed the whole time in the NCA and charge you permit/car fees - they're sneaky like that)
Update September 2016: And it's changed again... The bank is currently National Bank of Commerce (NBC), so you deposit the money in there - one account for the car, one account for the fees. We went to the Karatu office and all the woman did was give us a quote, so it doesn't seem that is a necessary procedure anymore, since when we got to the gate, we had to fill out the same paperwork and got the same quote.
The gate will then sort you out and it seems now that the private cars no longer get cards. Since we had deposited the money for in and out of the NCA, we got them to give us paperwork for both ways. It seems to work okay now, but who know what they will think up next to make things more complicated...
The crater isn't the only attraction in the NCA - there's also Olduvai Gorge (earliest footprint of mankind) and of course Lake Ndutu (where the wildebeest migration stops to calve). At the right time Ndutu can be spectacular. We haven't been to Olduvai, but if it's your interest, it may be worth a stop.
Our impression
How many times have we been? 3
There is no doubt the the crater is impressive - it's just so unique, it's definitely worth a visit. But it's also very expensive, and for the amount of money we need to spend to have a day in the crater, we'd rather spend 2 or 3 days in one of the other parks. If this is a once-off trip, do it!
For us, it's a bit like Zanzibar - we only go there when we are touring with visitors, because it's something you need to see ;) So we're waiting for our next set visitors to go check it out again...
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