Ngorongoro Crater

Descending into the Ngorongoro Crater for the first time is one of the strangest, most affecting experiences in wildlife travel. You drop 600 metres from the rim through cloud forest, and then the world opens — a collapsed volcanic caldera 260 square kilometres wide, containing one of the most concentrated assemblages of wildlife on the planet. There is no fence. The animals simply stay, drawn by the permanent water, the rich grass, and the natural walls of the crater rim. Black rhino move through the long grass here — one of the last places in Tanzania where you can reliably see them. Flamingos paint the soda lake pink. Lions sleep on the crater floor beside the bones of last night's hunt. This is not a game park. It is something older and more complete.