Africa Safari Lake Natron

Africa Safari Lake Natron sits on the edge of one of East Africa's strangest and most striking landscapes. The lodge occupies a stretch of lava desert in the Rift Valley depression, where a shallow, highly alkaline soda lake shimmers against dark volcanic ridges and the horizon runs north toward Kenya. Directly behind the property rises Ol Doinyo Lengai, the active volcano the Maasai know as the Mountain of God. The grounds are spacious and the accommodation deliberately varied, so the same camp works for a family, a small group or a couple. Choices run from simple safari tents and a campsite with shared facilities through to Safari Comfort Bungalows, permanent structures looking out over the lake, and air-conditioned Luxury Glamping tents raised on wooden decks with rustic timber interiors. Rooms have fans and solar-heated water, and there is generator backup for the power. Daily life centres on the swimming pool, which faces the volcano, and on the elevated restaurant and bar above the lake, where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served with flamingos and passing giraffe and zebra as the backdrop. Wi-Fi is available in the common areas. What sets the place apart is what lies immediately outside it. Guests walk the flamingo shallows, follow the Ngare Sero river gorge to its waterfalls, criss-crossing the water on the way, visit the preserved hominid footprints nearby, or take on the demanding six-hour night ascent of Lengai to reach the crater at sunrise.