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Tanzania
Searching for wildlife in Ngorongoro crater
We find our guide on the streets of Arusha, in Tanzania. Parked alongside a street-side bead seller, where the day before my Dad had bought a hand-made beaded wrist band.
We weren’t buying beads, not today; we had just finished eating lunch and were walking back to our hotel when Dad noticed the RAW Africa Eco-Tours logo on the back of a four-wheel-drive.
“Isn’t that who we’re travelling with? RAW Africa?” he says.
“There’s the car, our guide must be here somewhere.”
And so we found Hussan, the guide who would lead us on our Tanzanian adventure and bring the country, and its wildlife, to life for us.
It’s strange to me now to think that we would stumble upon our guide on the side of the road in a country halfway across the world. That he would just appear as if out of nowhere.
But the thing with Africa is that these things just happen.
We had travelled from Uganda, where we’d just spent two weeks on safari, trekking for chimpanzees and gorillas and visiting a school in rural Uganda that I once volunteered at with my sister, Julie.
Africa is not new to us. And yet I’m constantly surprised by the way that things you don’t think will work out, just seem to work out while the things that really should just work out often don’t.
We travel to Africa for the wildlife, which never disappoints, but it’s those human interactions that also leave us smiling.
This stop – Tanzania – is about going deeper. Deeper into the jungle to immerse ourselves in national parks that should just about guarantee us good sightings of the Big 5 (rhino, lion, leopard, elephant and cape buffalo).
We’re here with my Dad who, at 80, is still craving adventure, and one of his friends who has fast become a committed travel friend to the three of us.
The first stop on our Tanzanian adventure is Ngorongoro Crater.
On the edge of the crater we spot a grant’s gazelle and a wildebeest, and then a herd of zebra outside a local Masai village.
Our Tanzanian wildlife adventure has begun.
We snake our way through thick forest, and down into the base of the caldera that is Ngorongoro Crater.
A blanket of white mist settles into the gully, obscuring our view and lending an eerie feeling to the scenes around us as we descend.
Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest inactive and unfilled volcano caldera. Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site it is home to more than 25,000 large animals, including the Big 5.
We hope to see as many as we can, of course, but also just to sit with the animals. To take in their habits, understand their movements, and of course to capture every movement on camera.
We descend further into the caldera, below the mist, and our wildlife safari begins in earnest.
We see a warthog, a thomson gazelle and a kori bustard.
Hussan drives us to the edge of a giant lake – Lake Magadi – in the centre of the caldera where pink flamingos dot the edges and fill the air with their unmistakable honking sound.
In the distance we see rhino and the biggest line of safari vehicles we’ve ever seen all edging closer for a better view.
By 10.30 we’ve ticked off the first of the so called big 5.
We drive on and see a flock of guinea fowl scratching at the side of the road, a marabou stork and a martial eagle.
The plains are teeming with wildlife. Everywhere we look we see babies – baby gazelle, baby zebra, baby warthogs, playing across the open plains.
And there is water, so much water.
Strong rains in the past two years have swelled the size of Lake Magadi. Neither Ade nor I remember the lake from the last time we were here, but that was 23 years ago.
We stop at the flamingos and see a row of cars on the side of the road.
One lion? Two? Or is it a pride? We join the cavalcade, craning our necks to see a lion. There are six, all lying in the grass. We see them from a difference.
The thing we notice about Ngorongoro Crater this time is that much of the wildlife is seen from a distance. Few roads and vast plains means that the wildlife can easily keep a good distance away from the safari vehicles.
We move on and see two jackals on the move and a blue heron hunting a mouse. It’s foot stamping the ground so hard we can almost hear the stomp.
Nearby, an Eland munches grass on the side of the road.
And each time, with each new wildlife sighting we stop, take in the animal antics, learn more about wildlife behaviour and photograph each animal from every possible angle.
At lunch we stop at a watering hole where dozens of Toyota Land cruisers jostle for a position to view the resident hippos.
Hussan warns us to stay in the vehicle while we eat, and it’s not long before we understand why as a group of tourists loses their food to a swooping Kite.
We listen to the hippos grunting and watch as heads bob up and down in the water. But the putrid smell of the hippo-filled lake means none of us want to stay out of the car for too long so we drive on.
At one point, in the afternoon as we drive over the crater roads towards our next stop – the Serengeti – we find ourselves surrounded by wildlife.
There’s a hippo to the right and a lion and her cub to the left. Closer this time. Zebra, and gazelle graze the plains.
It’s a smorgasbord of wildlife wonder.
We drive on and see elephants, a grey crowned crane, a saddle-billed stork and a giraffe loping along the side of the road.
And I can’t help but think, it doesn’t seem to matter where you are in Tanzania, the roads are definitely never dull.
Want to wander further? Read about the time we were surrounded by lions in Kenya here.
Read more about our adventures in Africa here.
Fast Facts
We travelled to Tanzania in 2026 (and in 2003).
We travelled with RAW Africa Eco-Tours
We were in Tanzania for 16 days, we spent two days on safari in Ngorongoro Crater, on our way to and from the Serengeti
We stayed at Karatu Simba Lodge
Highlights: Descending into the crater is beautiful, the vista is stunning, seeing the Masai villages dotted along the landscape, watching lions in the wild – there are few things as thrilling as sitting next to Africa wildlife in the wild.
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