The Awe-Inspiring Ngorongoro Crater

24 December, Friday; Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. We woke up early to see the sunrise over Ngorongoro Crater. What a great way to start Christmas Eve, though it doesn’t feel like it’s Christmas.

It’s really starting to hit me that this is our last full day in Africa. The schedule today is to visit the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, which is technically a caldera formed after the volcano collapsed. The descent road is steep and affords great views of the crater, er, caldera. The animal life here is similar to the Serengeti, though there are no giraffes since there are not enough trees. Ben is hoping to see this gigantic elephant whose tusks are so long they nearly touch the ground. He saw him on his trip here eight years ago and the elephant is famous in these parts. We didn’t see the elephant Ben was looking for and as a matter of fact, the only elephant we saw surprised us alongside the road before we even made it to the descent road. At the time, I was on the phone with my travel agent (Mom) to make sure our flights were on time and our itinerary hadn’t been mysteriously cancelled again. Just as I got her on the phone, we spotted the elephant and I said to her, “Wait a moment. I’ve been distracted by an elephant.” Not something I ever thought I’d mutter into a phone.

This time, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.


The King of the Jungle	Red-backed Jackal	Flamingos

The Crater Floor	A rare photo of Ben	And a less uncommon one of me

Kudu	Ostrich	Springbok

A Huge Eland	Black Rhino	Wildebeest

Warthog and baby	Eagle	Who got spooked by our jeep

Silver-backed Jackle	Zebra	An Elephant skull

Hippo	Two male lions	And a female using a jeep for shade

The Female	The Male	Without a care in the world

The crater is small and it is uncommon for an itinerary to contain more than one game drive on the crater floor. That is largely due to the cost (at $200, it’s about twice the cost of a day in the Serengetti), but also because you can see everything in a couple of hours. I think the photos above show how truly amazing it is. We left the crater with an amazing view with sad feelings that it was the last of our Honeymoon visit. On a positive note, we’re certain we’ll be visiting more National Parks in Africa, as we are certainly coming back.