Lake Eyasi is a seasonal shallow endorheic salt lake on the floor of the Great Valley at the base of the Serengeti Plateau, just south of the Serengeti National Park and immediately southwest of the Ngorongoro Crater. The lake is elongated, oriented southwest to northeast, and lies in the Eyasi-Wembere branch of the Great Rift Valley.

The Hadzabe Bushmen inhabit this region, as do the Datoga and Iraqw tribes. A visit to the Bushmen is worthwhile and they will graciously show you where and how they live and hunt. They subsist entirely off the bush and by bow hunting. Everything they use is made from local materials, including their bows which are strung, and their arrows which are coated in lethal poison. Their language resembles that of the Kalahari bushmen tribe (who were featured in the 1980 film ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’) with clicking language. The Datoga tribe is pastoralist like the Maasai people and the Iraqw tribe is both pastoralist and farmers.

The scenery of Lake Eyasi differs dramatically to that of surrounding areas. Compared to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Highlands this area seems downright tropical. Palm trees border the lake and make homes for birds such as Fischer’s lovebird. The weather is nearly always very hot and intense, as the lake is located in the floor of the rift valley, the oldest rift in the world. The rift is thought to have opened over 65 million years ago, shortly after dinosaurs became extinct.