The remnants of a volcano and 19km wide, this national reserve is home to a huge variety of fantastic animals. Only accessible by jeep, which you can organise in Arusha or Karatu, it is a totally unspoilt animal’s paradise.
From the crater rim you can see the whole way across, with the plains and the lakes, I have never seen such a vast sight. Once inside, there is no end to the game you will be able to see.
We saw all the usual kind of game that we had seen in many game parks before, but the absolute highlight was the lions. We found then just sleeping in the sun on the cracked mud plains. When we arrived there, there were already a couple of other jeeps there already. We stopped about 10m from them. The whole jeep held its breath, and we just watched awe struck. They were barely moving, and we just couldn’t keep our eyes off them. Two young males, you could just see the beginnings of manes. Suddenly one of them got up, and walked over to our jeep, his huge feet padding softly on the ground. We wondered where he was going, and then we realised – into the shade of our jeep! He stopped and lay down, my heartbeat faster, he was so adorable, so cute, so easy to forget that he was a killer. I cold have reached down and touched him! Everyone in the other jeeps were so jealous, we had a close up, and they couldn’t see anything!! In the end we actually went back to see them 3 time! They never moved from that spot, obviously used to tourists.
Another amazing sight were the very rare black rhino, which can be very aggressive. We spotted 2 in the distance, and our driver began to take us closer. The rhino were not impressed, they crossed the road in front of us, and proceeded over towards the watering hole, away from us. We carried on watching them through binoculars and telephoto lenses, and suddenly there was a big commotion, and a lot of running around. The rhino were chasing about 7 lions away from the water! Even the driver was amazed, and said that he had never seen anything like it before.
There is plenty of game to see here, and it is very concentrated, so you are unlikely to be disappointed. It’s a haven for bird watchers as well as game viewers.
Visit this place as soon as you can, before it is spoilt by commercialism. This is not to far in the future, as the Japanese are planning on building a new highway up to the crater so that hoards of tourists can be bussed in easily!!
This is now thought to be the top site to view game, and I totally agree.
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