Tanzania
Empakaai Crater
Flamingos scatter pink across a crater lake, with Lengai smoking on the horizon.
The rim gives it all at once: a deep soda lake 600 metres below, flamingos as pink scatter across it, forest down the crater walls, and Lengai smoking on the horizon.
Empakaai is the Crater Highlands' quiet masterpiece, a six-kilometre caldera whose floor holds a deep soda lake ringed by forest, lesser flamingos gathering seasonally far below the rim, with Ol Doinyo Lengai on the horizon. The descent runs on foot with an armed ranger or Maasai guide, a highland morning down and back, and the paths stay honest from June through October, and again from December to February. It folds into the Ngorongoro circuit, picnics packed from the lodges.
Solo
Solo walkers can join the required ranger for Empakaai if comfortable with a much harder return climb.
Couple
A walking pair can share the lake descent and pace the two-and-a-half-hour ascent without rushing.
Friends
Friends should match fitness before Empakaai and book the conservation-area ranger in advance.
- A deep soda lake fills the crater floor 600 metres below the rim.
- Flamingos gather seasonally on the water below.
- Lengai's active cone stands on the horizon from the rim.
- The descent is walked with a ranger or Maasai guide.
Highland picnics come packed from the Ngorongoro and Karatu lodges.
Nothing is on sale past the trailhead, which is much of the charm.
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