Hi all,

im planning a 4x4 trip to tanzania at the moment and thinking about parks whilst there.

the crater, where can i get, or can anyone provide upto date info on self-driving into the crater?

regarding other parks, where is a good source for information on all of them, im interested in the more remote parks such as

Ugalla rive game reserve
Moyowosi game reserve
kigosi game reserve
rukwa game reserve
ruaha national park

thank you very much

Pete

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If today was perfect there would be no need for tomorow

Taking a foreign registered vehicle into the Ngorogoro Crater is rather expensive.

Park fees for the NCA are US$50 per person for 24 hours, add US$40 for the vehicle, US$30 per person to camp at Simba, and then a ridiculous US$200 per single entry vehicle access into the crater itself. All of which adds up to US$400 for two people to go into the crater for a day.

Given this, you need to time your entry and exit to optimise your time in the crater itself. Either arrive late in the day at the NCA (ie after 5ish), camp at Simba and head into the crater at 6am the following morning and then exit late afternoon. Alternatively head into the NCA around 9ish, go direct to the crater and spend the day, camp at Simba and then head out (or into Serengeti) the next morning. If you are heading to Serengeti afterwards you will need a few hours to get the Naabi Hill gate, and stop at the Olduvai Gorge museum.

If you have Tanzanian plates the vehicle fee into the crater and the NCA is much cheaper. The guards at the crater entrance will also try and sting you into taking a guide (at additional cost) into the crater if you have a spare seat in the vehicle. Best to make sure you are full if you want to avoid this.

A Quick Few Tanzania Notes

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Dawie du Plessis
www.pictureafrica.org
www.photographersa.co.za

ref Ngorogoro, I might suggest it is better to see if you can get a seat in one of the safari tours and go into the crater as taking your own car is in as said, hellishly expensive, and not really worth the money.
Also don't do as i did, and pay $140 dollars to drive into the reserve and just view the crater from the top - biggest rip off of my life. You can only stick to the main road, which is so badly corrugated it caused serious damage to my Landy rover, there is very little wildlife to see (saw an elephants arse and a zebra), nowhere to stop, and there are only a couple of small car parking points where you are able to see a hazy view of the crater. Most expensive photograph of my life.
Also the road on through to the serengeti is in extremely bad condition (so bad, my shock absorber punched a neat hole through the axle mounting within two hours on it) and we had to turn back as it was getting too damaging and highly uncomfortable (and we have driven her from the UK on some of the worst roads in Africa!)
In terms of value for money, I've found that the parks in Tanzania are way overpriced and can be pretty poor - compared to the $120 we paid to spend an absolutley action packed day in Masai Mara in Kenya (who don't insist you take a guide and give you much more freedom to roam around the park)

Rant over have a great time there! Tanz is a great country and there is lots to see and do, we are particularly enjoying the coast at the moment : )

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www.simba4x4.com

Ahmen to that brother!

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Dawie du Plessis
www.pictureafrica.org
www.photographersa.co.za

thanks a lot all of you for your help. shame, how they make it so expensive. well probably still go to one! as if i needed convincing, ill avoid that road, dont want to destroy the old girl

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If today was perfect there would be no need for tomorow

When we started our trans africa trip I read many reports of people who had paid the $400 and was really disapointed. When we got to the area though, I wanted to be disapointed myself instead of believing those before us.

The result was that we spent $1 000 to visit 4 parks for one day each. They were Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorogoro and Serengeti.

We saw 24 Lions, three cheetah, one leopard and many many other amaizing sightings. We missed the migration in Serengeti, but cought up with it in the Mara. In Ngorogoro we saw one mega herd of wildebeest and wathced some lions stalking them while cheetah were looking on.

So this beggs the question: Is it all worth it?

For us, travelling for a year and doing once ion a life time things, I would say it definitly was! The horrible Serengeti road did no damage to our LC, but at times we drove at 10km/h. The secret is to have enough time not to rush.

If you read my Tanzania notes (Link above) you will see clearly how we did it.

On that note, Masai Mara is only about $125 a day for two people in one vehicle and I definitly prefered that to Serengeti.

It's a tough one, like paying $1 000 for two people to spend one hour with Gorillas or paying $1 000 each to climb Kilimanjaro. If the budget allowes, do it all! That would be my advice.

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Dawie du Plessis
www.pictureafrica.org
www.photographersa.co.za