Ngorongoro crater : a 3Mn year old geological miracle, Anthropological treasure, Garden of Eden, a self-contained biological eco-system, a UNESCO world heritage site
30th September,2019 : A 180km drive from Arusha,Tanania got us to Ngorongoro Crater , The Ngorongoro conservation area, Tamzania. While I read extensively about it and watched all available online videos, nothing could prepare me for this incredibly unique spectacle. It’s a pity so few people even talk about it. Everyone knows Serengeti, but how could they miss talking about this one of a kind place.
A humongous volcano, estimated to have been as high as Mt Kilimanjaro (about 6000 m in height) imploded onto itself about 3 million years ago and created a 640 square kilometer crater with an unbroken rim. That’s one of a kind on this planet and it is huge. (please remember that Singapore is only 720sq km in size). One theory says that the volcano became inactive and its immense cone collapsed under its weight to form the crater. The other theory is that there was a massive eruption and the entire upper part collapsed. Either way, what we have is an incredible spectacle – world’s largest unbroken crater.
The real story started then on.
The fertile volcanic soil supported by uninterrupted annual rains gave rise to a huge area with year-round water bodies, swamps, acacia forest and a prairie with enough food all year round. An unmatched biological diversity with over 25,000 mammals, enormous collection of carnivores ( 3 lion prides, leopards, a huge hyaena clan, herbivores (cape buffalo, elephant herd, zebras, giraffe, thomsons gazelle, reedbuck, Warthog, wildebeest, a large society of baboons, huge colony of hippos, black rhinos), bird species (ostrich, flamingos etc.,) moved in and thrived over the millions of years. With a year-round unending supply of food and water, none of them needed to participate in the annual migration and – together – they formed an astoundingly self-contained biological eco-system : a veritable Garden of Eden.
Various native tribes, from time to time, made this a part of their lives. The Masai people still graze their domestic animals here. The 2009 Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human settlement and subsistence farming in the Crater. Fossil evidence shows that early hominids lived here 2+ million years ago.
As with most of the planet, climate change is creating a new pressure of sustenance in the caldera with rains and weather becoming less and less predictable putting pressure on the flora, the herbivores and the carnivores.
When we stopped our car to stand on the rim of the crater and took our first look .. it blew our breath away. I would have found it hard to visualize anything like it. A 2000 feet descent into to spend an incredible afternoon spent driving around in the crater, we drove to overnight stay in the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, soaked in the sunset over the crater and were still gushing about the absolutely one of a kind of a wildlife and natural spectacles ….
Here is an attempt to share the day and the feeling pictorially through my amateurish and evolving medium of communication : my photographs.
If you are ever planning a holiday to Eastern Africa, do not miss putting Ngorongoro on your itinerary .. you will love it.
