8-Day Ngorongoro Highlands Trek to Lake Natron

After breakfast you drive west through Karatu and up into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, then descend to the crater floor for a game drive. Lunch is a picnic at the hippo pool, and in the afternoon you look for black rhino, lion, buffalo and the flamingos on Lake Magadi. In the evening you climb back to the rim and camp at Simba Campsite, high on the crater edge, where the nights are cold.

After an early breakfast you follow the rim road north with your guide to Nainokanoka village, about 50 kilometres from Simba Campsite. If you arrive in good time, you walk for 45 to 60 minutes up to Olmoti Crater, a smaller caldera with views over its grassy floor and the Munge River waterfall. The Munge rises here and flows down into the Ngorongoro Crater. Dinner and the night are at the Nainokanoka campsite.

Today the walking begins. With Maasai escorts and donkeys to carry the luggage, you walk for five to six hours through Maasai grazing land and small villages, while your guide explains local customs and life in the highlands. The route crosses the Embulbul Depression, where Maasai cattle graze alongside zebra and wildebeest, and the birdlife is rich. You camp for the night on the rim of Empakaai Crater, with its deep soda lake far below.

Rise early for the sunrise over Empakaai's crater lake, often pink with flamingos. After breakfast and lunch at camp the donkeys are loaded again, and you walk about seven kilometres along the crater rim towards Nayobi village, four to five hours in all. There you refill water bottles and spend time with the local Maasai community before walking on to a campsite under the acacias for dinner and a well-earned rest.

The last walking day is a descent of three to four hours from Nayobi to the floor of the Rift Valley. As you drop, the view opens across Lake Natron, the cone of Ol Doinyo Lengai and the plains towards the Serengeti. After lunch and a rest, 4x4 vehicles collect you for the drive to your campsite beside the river that feeds the lake, where you can cool off in the fresh water. Dinner and the night are at the riverside campsite.

After an early breakfast you head out to the shore of Lake Natron, a shallow soda lake that is the main breeding ground of the lesser flamingo in East Africa. Depending on the season, thousands of flamingos may be feeding in the shallows, along with many other water birds. You return to camp for lunch, then walk up the river gorge to the waterfalls for a swim in clear, fresh water and a quiet afternoon. Dinner and the night are at the campsite.

At around midnight you start the climb of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai Mountain of God and the only active volcano in the world that erupts natrocarbonatite lava. The path is steep and loose, and it takes six to seven hours to reach the summit at about 2,960 metres. On a clear morning you see Lake Natron, the Serengeti plains and sometimes Kilimanjaro and Meru while you eat a packed breakfast. The descent takes three to four hours, then after lunch you drive to Arusha and on to the airport.