In fact, the lake is home to the highest concentrations of lesser and greater flamingos in East Africa where they feed on the lake’s spirulina – a green algae with red pigments. The views alone are worth the journey! Home to the Maasai and over one million flamingos, Lake Natron is a perfect base for amazing adventures! The area around the lake offers different attractions like a large number of volcanic implosion craters, numerous waterfalls and ravines with nesting places for Rüppell's Griffon Vultures.įor many plants and animals, the saline waters make the lake inhospitable, yet the salt water marshes surrounding the lake are a surprising habitat for flamingos whose leathery skins make them able to withstand the deadly waters. The country surrounding the lake is hot and often very dusty and dry, which isn’t very conducive to travel, but the people who choose to visit Natron are rewarded with some of the most visually compelling scenes in the world. It’s less than three meters (10 feet) deep, so it’s very shallow, and it varies in width depending on its water level, which changes due to high levels of evaporation, leaving high concentrations of salt magnesite and sodium carbonate (natron) on its surface…which shows as a pinkish-white soda crust. The lake is fed by the Southern Ewaso Ng'iro River and by mineral-rich hot springs. Situated between its volcanic hills and deep craters, Lake Natron is at the lowest point of the rift valley – 600m above sea level – and is probably the world's most caustic body of water. If you’d like to include Lake Natron in your big Tanzania safari, keep reading to find out more about this amazing place. Lake Natron is home to ancient hominid footprints, the largest breeding ground for Lesser Flamingo and to Ol Doinyo Lengai, and it’s the only active carbonatite volcano in the world. We recommend this itinerary for travellers who seek a different experience to the classic safari.Lake Natron is situated in northern Tanzania on the border with Kenya, close to Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Accommodation at Natron is limited and pretty basic. This isn’t a difficult trek but part of the route requires walking through water (which rarely reaches the knee height) so requires swimwear and non-slip footwear. The hike to the edge of the lake offers a magnificent sight the hike along the Engare Sero creek, which flows through a narrow rocky gorge, leads to a beautiful waterfall where it is possible to swim. The trails to reach Lake Natron (both from the Serengeti, taking about five to six hours, and from Manyara, taking about three to four hours) are extremely scenic and you will be able to meet the Maasai communities who live off most tourist circuits. At that time we stopped offering trekking on Oldonyo Leng’ai. The last eruption was in December 2007 – January 2008 (which we witnessed in person as we were right there!) and it made the climb to the volcano summit even tougher since the lava completely erased the temporary trail that could sometimes be followed, and the small flat areas for stopping to catch your breath have gone completely. After emission, when it comes into contact with water, the colour of natron-carbonatite lava changes rapidly to white, so that the top of the volcano seems to be cloaked in snow. When the lava is flowing it resembles a kind of very fluid, dark “river” that some have likened to a stream of mud. The area is extremely arid and dominated by the perfect cone of Oldoinyo Leng’ai, the volcano sacred to the Maasai people, who consider it the abode of the divinity Leng’ai.Īt an altitude of nearly three thousand metres above sea level, Oldoinyo Leng’ai is the only volcano in the world that emits natron-carbonatite lava, rich in sodium carbonate, with very low viscosity and temperatures since it rises at 500–590 ☌. Natron is the usual nesting area for millions of lesser pink flamingos who are fond of the cyanobacteria present in high concentration in the lake water, especially during the dry season (June to October), so they flock to its shores. It is a highly alkaline lake that occupies a depression created by the Rift Valley, a lava desert area of rugged beauty in the extreme north of Tanzania. Lake Natron is fifty kilometres in length and about twenty-five in width. Safari Crew Tanzania wins Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award.Why is Tanzania the best Safari Destination?.Lake Natron and Oldonyo Len’gai volcano.
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