Landscape
A soda lake, and two million flamingo.
Lake Natron is shallow, intensely alkaline and often stained red by salt-loving micro-organisms. That hostility is exactly why it matters: predators cannot reach the nesting islands, and roughly three quarters of the world's lesser flamingo are hatched here.
A guided walk up the Engare Sero gorge ends at a waterfall and a cold pool, which is welcome — Natron is one of the hottest inhabited places in Tanzania. Nearby, a set of hominin footprints preserved in volcanic ash records people walking this ground over sixty thousand years ago.
The area around the lake is Maasai land, and visits here are arranged with the communities that live on it rather than staged for vehicles. It is remote: expect a long, rough drive and simple accommodation.
In pictures
3 journeys
The northern circuit plus Lake Natron and Lake Eyasi — wildlife, Rift Valley landscapes and time with the Hadzabe and Datoga.
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Rift Valley at its rawest: a soda lake full of flamingo, a waterfall gorge, and an overnight climb of an active carbonatite volcano.
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A midnight ascent of the only active carbonatite volcano on earth. Short, brutally steep, and finished by breakfast.
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