The Best Time to visit Oldoinyo Lengai : In order to properly prepare for your Tanzanian-Odoinyo Lengai adventure safari, you must take into account the weather and outdoor temperatures when planning your trip to the active volcanic mountain. This will allow you to unwind and enjoy your activities to the fullest without any disappointments. Tanzania lies south of the equator, and the “mountain of God,” Odoinyo Lengai, is situated along the Great Rift Valley’s western escarpment. As an active volcano with the alkaline soda lake Natron at its base, the region experiences hot, mostly dry weather most of the time. The dry season, which runs from June to October, is the best time to visit Odoinyo Lengai for climbing and walking tours around Lake Natron. The steep and unsuitable mountain slopes of ash and crumbly rocks are dry and not slippery to climb during this time, and the temperatures are also cooler, though some visitors find them to be tropically warm because Tanzania is located just south of the equator.
Odoinyo Lengai is open year-round, but keep in mind that it is an active volcano, so climbing is prohibited during eruptions. However, the short and long wet spring season, which runs from November to May and includes hot, muggy spells in January and February, can also be considered the best time to visit Odoinyo Lengai because it brings new life to the area surrounding Lake Natron with lush vegetation, which is ideal for tourists who prefer an African active-adventure safari.
For Tanzania safari visitors who want to see flamingos at Lake Natron, the wet season is ideal for visiting because the flamingos lay their eggs in September and October, which is when the long dry season ends, but they begin hatching in the early months of the wet season and reach their peak by December.
How to get to Oldoinyo Lengai
In order to have the appropriate transportation for your Tanzania safari, tourists who are interested in visiting Odoinyo Lengai must think about how to get there. Odoinyo Lengai is accessible from Arusha town or any other Tanzanian city and is situated in the Arusha Region in North-eastern Tanzania, approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Arusha town. There are two ways to go to Odoinyo Lengai: by road and by aeroplane.
By Air
It will take approximately one hour for visitors to Odoinyo Lengai who arrive in Tanzania via Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha to reach the town of Arusha. From there, they can choose to take scheduled chattered flights from Arusha to Ngara Sero airstrip, which are run by local private charter flight companies like Arusha Aero Cabs or coastal aviation. Focus East Africa Safaris assists you with booking your domestic flights. If you are in Dar es Salaam, you can also take a plane to Arusha and continue your adventure from there.
By Road
Driving from Arusha to Odoinyo Lengai Mountain takes approximately six (6) hours. This is another alternate method of accessing Odoinyo Lengai. Once you arrive in Arusha, you will be driven to the volcano region. One of the two routes to Odoinyo Lengai Mountain is by road. The west road leads 116 kilometres to the Mto-Wa-Mbu River, after which you take the dusty road north to Lake Natron. After 6 hours, you reach Odoinyo Base Camp, and it takes just 30 minutes to get to the trailhead on the Lengai slopes. Driving to the Odoinyo Lengai region near Lake Natron and the Volcano is an incredible journey in and of itself, and you may also take the Longido road, which takes five hours to get there.
Tanzania safari attractions in Oldoinyo Lengai
The Masai people refer to Odoinyo Lengai, an active volcano situated along the western escarpment of Tanzania’s Great Rift Valley, as the Mountain of God. This magnificent volcano, which stands as an almost perfect cone, provides adventurers with a singular and exhilarating experience.
It is situated with a view of Lake Natron on the Great Rift Valley’s western escarpment. It rises roughly 2000 meters from the East African Rift Valley depression to a height of 4566 meters. Mountain’s summit craters. The northern summit crater is the active one of the volcano’s two summit craters. There is volcanic ash inside the dormant southern crater.
Oldoinyo Lengai volcano
The main tourist destination in Odoinyo Lengai is the Odoinyo Lengai Volcano, which is still active and usually only erupts at its summit, filling the deep pit summit crater of the cinder cone that sits in the volcano’s active northern crater with lava flows. The thin, silvery lava can occasionally flow faster than a person and cause rapid alteration of flows roaring in a more dramatic fashion worth witnessing. The ash deposits from the eruptions that occur whiten the volcanoes slopes like snow as they run down these slopes, with the cone flank occasionally forming small landslides.
You may gain amazing views of the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, the Ngorongoro crater, the Serengeti plains, and the dazzling Lake Natron at its base by scaling this beautiful active volcano.
Wildlife
Wildlife is another tourist attraction in Odoinyo Lengai. The area is uniquely succulent and enriched with pasture, drawing some wildlife species, particularly large numbers from the annual migration of wildebeest, to inhabit it. The carbonatite ashes, sand, fragments of lava, and slag spread over the surrounding lower level grasslands of the volcano planted in scattered vineyards and citrus, while the steep higher slopes are covered in oak, birch, and beech. The area has also turned into a nursery for the birth of several thousand calves.
Lake Natron
Lake Natron, a fascinating tourist destination in Odoinyo Lengai, is located at the foot of the mountain. With 75% of the world’s population of Endangered Lesser Flamingos living in the Great Rift Valley, Lake Natron is thought to be the most significant breeding location for these birds. The soda lake, which is located on the lowest point of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, is relatively shallow—less than three meters deep—and varies in width based on the water level. Its temperatures can reach over 40 degrees Celsius, and evaporation results in high alkalinity. Because of the lake’s high alkalinity, the environment acts as a barrier to predators attempting to reach the flamingo nests.
Olduvai Gorge
The renowned Olduvai Gorge, a collection of 3.6 million-year-old hominin footprints at a site called Laetoli, and a “dance hall” of ancient Homo sapiens footprints at a site called Engare Sero are all less than 70 miles away from the Odoinyo Lengai Volcano, which is also about 70 miles from the city of Arusha. Travellers can visit these amazing historical sites along the way to add some spice to their trip.
