Mapped & Noted

TANZANIA - PART III

Beauty, exhaustion, and a gentle ending to a complicated journey

Dec 10, 2025
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If the Serengeti was the emotional peak of our trip - full of awe, contradictions, and uneasy truths - then Ngorongoro and Lake Natron were the descent: quieter, more introspective, and physically demanding in a way we hadn’t anticipated. This is the part of the trip that made us reflect not just on Tanzania, but on ourselves.


🐃 Leaving the Serengeti for Ngorongoro

After heavy rain overnight, we left the northern Serengeti early. The roads were rough, and we were tired with the kind of slow, accumulated fatigue you only feel after days of long drives and intense sensory input.

We spotted a baby giraffe and its mother, then a lion surprisingly close to tourists at the gate. It was a reminder of how blurred human <> animal boundaries have become (more on this in our Namibia posts, stay tuned!).

By the time we reached Ngorongoro Lodge, the hot shower felt like a small miracle. Buffalo grazed outside our tent. The air was cool and restorative.

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