Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Day 30

We woke up early from our camp in Amboseli and headed for the Tanzania border. When we got to the border, we were shocked to be asked for $100 each for our Tanzanian visas. When we checked the visa prices online, it said $50. We went out to ask our guide, and he was surprised we were being asked that much as well. After a long conversation between our guide and the border guard, we learned that the visa fee had just been raised. So, after putting a serious dent in our wallet, we paid the the visa entry fee and headed on to Arusha. We had a brief stop in Arusha before heading on to our campsite in the very aptly named town of Mosquito Creek.

Day 31

We left early in the morning so that we could head into Ngorongoro Crater for the day. We got to see some really beautiful scenery on the way to the Crater.

The Crater was created when a volcano collapsed 2 to 3 million years ago. We got to see some really beautiful scenery, and once we got down into the Crater, we got to see quite a few animals as well.

Fun Fact: The name “Ngorongoro” is the way that the Maasai describe how a cow bell sounds.  They named the crater this because so many of their cattle graze here.

It really was very pretty here, so once again, I’ll just leave it to our pictures to tell the story:

This is were we stopped for lunch. The lumps in the water to the right are hippos.

A view from the rim of the crater. The other side of the giant bowl is barely visible.

A Maasai village along the way to the crater.

A group of Maasai herding cattle close to the crater.

A pride of female lions in the Crater.

There is a large salt water lake in the center of the Crater which is home to more flamingos than a front lawn in Miami. You can just barely see all of them in the distance.