GUIDE ON NGORONGORO FARM HOUSE IN TANZANIA

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Ngorongoro Farm House is a hugely successful, popular African travel lodge set on a 500 acre coffee farm a few miles from the Lolduare Gate to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, with views of the massive Oldeano Volcano towering to 9,000 feet on the edge of the Great African Rift Valley. Like its smaller sister, Tloma Lodge, a short distance away, it offers comfortable Tanganyika Wilderness accommodations set amidst beautiful and productive gardens, with decor reminiscent of the Colonial era.

Ngorongoro safaris from Arusha can be arranged with AfricanMecca whilst staying at the farm house. The nearby Ngorongoro Conservation Area fulfills its purpose of integrating the conservation of its impressive wildlife with the pastoral life-styles of indigenous Maasai and Dagota tribes people within the framework of community enhancement projects funded largely by eco-tourism.



At the heart of any Tanzanian safari, the unique biosphere of Ngorongoro Crater itself is protected by rules restricting the Maasai herdsmen in grazing their cattle on the crater floor in certain areas only for conservation purposes, although they may mostly be encountered outside the crater area. Similarly, Ngorongoro Crater game-watching tours are limited to six hours a day for any vehicle.

Given the necessity for an early start to reach the crater from Ngorongoro Farm House, you will have a full and fascinating day, with the added opportunity to see secretive nocturnal animals on your return trip in and other species, such as oribi, topi, impala and giraffe, not found, for lack of suitable fodder plants, within the crater itself.

Accommodation At Ngorongoro Farm House

52 large chalet rooms with corrugated sheeted roofs, semi-detached cottages set along a forest fringe provide generous living space in 25 twin, 17 double, and 7 triple room – six of them are interconnected. A further 3 suites can accommodate larger groups and families (Read more on Ngorongoro crater accommodation options).

All rooms and suites are incredibly spacious, with large, comfortable, mosquito netted beds, easy chairs, table and a telephone. They are decorated with delightful ethnic hangings, carved wood and wrought iron. All have roomy en-suite bathrooms with tiled shower. Some suites have beautiful carved stone baths. Sunny, private verandahs with expansive views front convenient walkways. Wheelchair access is no problem.



An elegant, thatched main lodge houses a restaurant, cosy lounge with ornamented fireplace for cooler nights, and an extensive stilted decking for outdoor dining overlooking superb views of looming Oldeani Volcano. A central fire pit illuminates a display area for Maasai music and dancing. Limited internet, cell phone and landline access are possible. A massage room is available for relaxing therapy – book in advance with AfricanMecca.

There is also an attractive swimming pool where lantern-lit evening meals can be enjoyed. Extensive gardens, fragrant with Queen of the Night in huge flower beds, banks of scarlet canna lilies and massive, isolated banana palms, lead away to vegetable gardens and geometrical rows of coffee bushes before the eye is drawn to misty, distant hills. Marabou storks, like dispirited pterodactyls, stalk the lawns, heads down and shoulders hunched. You are in no doubt that you are on safari holiday in Africa.

Safari At Ngorongoro Farm House

A Ngorongoro Farm House safari with AfricanMecca would not be complete without a game-viewing visit to the eighth Wonder of the World, an UNESCO World Heritage site, a collapsed volcano with steep, unbroken caldera rim enclosing forest, grassland, swamps and central permanent lake. Ngorongoro Crater is home to thousands of hoofed animals, wildebeest, zebra and many other species, as well as the Big Five game animals, formerly prized by hunters: prides of black-maned lions, herds of bad-tempered buffalo, heavily tusked old male elephants, an occasional leopard, and rare black rhinos (Read more on Ngorongoro Crater wildlife experiences).

Several hundred species of birds are also permanent or migratory residents, such as ballerina-like lesser flamingos on the lake fringe, bizarre kori bustards on the plains and Verreaux’s eagles soaring on thermals above the encircling crags. Your Ngorongoro Crater trip is sure to stock your memory bank with unforgettable cameos of your African tour. You might also drive to visit the museum at Olduvai Gorge, to see evidence of your own evolution, or visit the breath-taking lakes at Manyara or Eyasi.



You could also consider a walking safari to the adjacent forest leading to the Oldeani Volcano which is thought to be the source of stone tools used by man’s earliest ancestors over a million years ago in neighboring Laetoli. Or you could take a guided walk around the nearest paths in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, or perhaps visit Karatu village or the Njia Panda School, where contributions from tourists in Tanzania are enhancing the development of rural communities.

Closer to home, you can take a walk on the farm or coffee plantation with a Maasai guide, learning about his daily life, his culture and the herbal lore of his people. Your African cultural safari has the potential to change your view of the world.

Dining At Ngorongoro Farm House

Food at Ngorongoro Farmhouse is freshly produced from the home farm and gardens or local growers. Fruit, vegetables, and herbs in season compliment dairy produce and richly flavored, newly fermented and roasted, Tanzanian coffee. Any special dietary requirements will be accommodated wherever possible. Simple, filling, buffet meals are served in the dining room.



Packed lunches are available for early starts on un-missable Ngorongoro tours, when the 45 minute journey by specially designed 4 x 4 through forests and farms of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area gives you ample time to discuss your dearest wishes for your photographic record of your safari vacation in Tanzania with your skilled professional AfricanMecca guide.

He is also updated on wildlife movements by discretionary radio links with other guides, thus guaranteeing you exciting game viewing on the crater floor, where you will be able to track and watch exhilarating encounters with animals you only dreamed of meeting up close and throbbing with life. Lunch buffets may be set up around the pool, and special groups can be accommodated in the dining room.



Typical lodge meals consist of soups, salads, roasts, bread, cold meat and, quiches, cheese platters, biscuits, fruit, and individual desserts all buffet style with table order service of wines, juices, beers, tea and coffee. Sundowners can be enjoyed in the gardens and candle and lantern-lit evening meals may be taken around the pool; in the dining room, or on the expansive decking around a blazing fire pit.

Related Pages

1. Ngorongoro Crater Safari Park Guide	2. Best Time & Weather To Visit Ngorongoro Crater
3. Ngorongoro Crater Map	4. Safari Lodges, Camps & Hotels In Ngorongoro Crater