Lamai Triangle Ngorongoro Tanzania
Lamai Triangle Ngorongoro Tanzania – Triangular shaped watershed
Lamai Triangle Ngorongoro Tanzania – The mountain stood higher and mightier than nearby Mount Kilimanjaro. Its summit scraped the ceiling of Africa and its slopes were so vast they directed their own weather patterns and water flow. All was well with this sleeping sentinel until one day the mountain woke up. Then it fell down.
The volcano erupted with a blast so ferocious that it caved in on itself, an implosion creating a caldera spanning a hundred square miles: 12 miles wide and 2,000 feet deep. What had once claimed the highest peak on the continent was now a mere impression, inverse to its former glory.
But the glory returned. Over the course of a few million years this geologic divot filled with life. First, it caught pockets of fresh water. Second, lush vegetation developed, and third—you guessed it—the wild ones arrived.
Abundant water and grasses attracted ungulates, large predators, and countless bird species. Because of its enclosed topography, animals would descend into this bowl-shaped place and never leave.
Lamai triangle Ngorongoro Tanzania information.
Lamai is a triangle-shaped watershed area north of the Mara river that marks the South border, while the Masaai Mara National Reserve borders to the East and West.
This is a haven for wildebeests and zebras coming up here during the dry season, the green red oat grasslands are similar to those of the Masai Mara and the gently rolling hills are dotted here and there with acacia trees; a completely different landscape from the rest of North Serengeti.
It is one of East Africa most fascinating and least known places, a secret spot that is rarely visited; on an all-day safari trip, it is difficult to encounter other vehicles.
Unlike in other areas of the Serengeti, you can drive along off-beaten tracks or, even better, there being no tracked trails, it is possible to move around freely in every direction.
You can also go on a walking safari along the banks of the Mara River, but always escorted by an armed park ranger for security reasons.
Usually the Migration is here from July to November, during the dry season; during this time the herds scatter in this area and will move continuously in search of pastures.
In the dry season this is one of the best places to spot the eland, Africa massive yet elegant antelope.
This area is also home to many other resident animal species, such as buffalos, topi antelopes, elephants, warthogs, ostriches and giraffes.
The Lamai Triangle of Lamai was added to the Serengeti National Park in 1965, after it was noted that many herds of wildebeests took refuge here during the dry season and in view of protecting this area against intense poaching activities implemented in the 1950s and 1960s by the Wakuria, a tribe who lived nearby.
During the years when poaching was practiced intensively, the migrating wildebeests were in a very small number compared to today.
As a matter of fact, in 1961 the wildebeests were only 250,000 and it was observed that at the time very few specimens used to cross the Mara River on the way to the Lamai Triangle Ngorongoro Tanzania and the Masai Mara in Kenya; only when they started to grow in number, reaching 1.5 million today, more and more specimens have begun, year after year, to face the crossing of this rushing river and the reason is quite simple: the pastures of Northern Serengeti were overgrazed and there was not enough grass to feed all these herbivorous for the duration of their stay there, they inevitably had to look for new pastures to the North, facing risky crossings of the Mara River.