Lake Manyara to North Serengeti: Week 2 / Day 14 / Jan 24
Serengeti, Tanzania: After all that we got to see yesterday it seems that we have already seen just about everything. In fact, Linda commented last night that maybe we could have just done a one day safari since we saw so much.
Before entering the Serengeti National Park we first had to pass through Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is home to a crater of the same name from an extinct volcano. We will be visiting the crater on the next to last day of our safari.
Upon entering Ngorongoro we encountered a small group of monkeys walking the trail that leads up to the rim of the crater.
The drive up to the top of the crater rim was a rather steep ride and involved quite a number of switchbacks. The only drivers allowed in the parks are trained guides. As a result the roads are not crowded and everyone knows what they are doing. Almost every time a pair of safari vehicles pass each other going in opposite directions the drivers will yell “Jambo” (Hello in Swahili) to each other and then chat for a few minutes. It seems as though our guide is on a friendly, first name basis with every other guide in the park.
After reaching the summit of the road we pulled off to have a look down into the Ngorongoro crater.
Leaving the crater we began the descent back down and away from the wet forest surrounding the crater and out towards the plains of the Serengeti. As the forest thinned out and the ground leveled out we began to pass by a number of Maasai villages.
The Maasai are the only people still allowed to live within the park boundaries. Their small, nomadic villages are comprised of a series of small huts built with sticks, cow dung, and mud. The men are often seen in the areas around the villages tending herds of cows and sheep.
As the ground leveled out even more we saw a small herd of giraffes and got out of the truck for a closer look.
Shown in the last picture is a closeup of a whistling acacia tree. Favored by giraffes, the fruit of this tree will be hollowed out leaving the shell with a hole in it. When the wind whips up the tree will whistle as the wind passes through and over the shells.
Shortly after we saw the giraffes we stopped in at one of the Maasai villages for a tour. For a small donation ($50 to be used for water and medicine for the village) we were shown some traditional dances of the Maasai, and given a brief tour of the area. The dance which we participated in involved a jumping contest. I believe if you really zoom in on the picture of me you can see daylight between my feet and the ground. The Maasai on the other hand can jump ridiculously high using only their calves.
After the brief dance we were given a tour of the village and shown their fire making techniques.
We also stopped by their kindergarten and went into one of the huts. The huts are very small, very dark, and extremely hot (see the last picture).
The village we visited had a population of about 140. We were told that the village consisted of 14 families. Because the Maasai practice polygamy, I assume this means that there were 14 men in the village with multiple wives. We were told each wife builds her own hut and the husband rotates between the different huts that his wives have built.
The children attend the kindergarten learning the basics of Swahili and English. After kindergarten they are sent off to residential schools, which we saw many of on our drive from Arusha to the parks.
The Maasai are still a nomadic people living roughly as they have for thousands of years. When we asked about their diet we were told that they eat only milk, meat and blood from cows. They do not eat any vegetables or fruits as they consider this the food for the cattle. Sounds like somebody has been doing the Atkins diet since long before it was cool.
Leaving the village we continued across the plains and made it to the entrance to Serengeti National Park.
We stopped here for lunch and again saw a number of birds and lizards.
This picnic area was built on a kopje (a small rock outcropping in a large plain). From the top of the kopje we could see back to the road leading up to where we were and across the plain.
After lunch we continued north into the Serengeti. As we drove we saw numerous gazelles, pronghorn antelope, wildebeest, zebras, and birds.
We also got our first clear look at a lion. Seen from quite a distance the lioness we saw looking out over the area was still quite impressive.
Shortly after this lioness we saw a pair of leopard brothers lounging on a rock outcropping. As we were watching them, they decided to get up and crossed the road right near our truck.
Within this same area we saw the rock outcropping that I believe was from the original set for the Lion King movie.
Looking at this, I was again reminded of how oddly happy the zebras and other animals seemed to be about the prospect of getting turned into lion poop in that song (circle of life and all that stuff). In this same area we also saw a number of zebras, but never too close to where the lions or leopards were. The herd of zebras seemed to stretch for ages with always more zebras off in the distance.
As we neared our camp for the night we drove by a pond that had a number of hippos in it. It was a little hard to tell just how many there were as they tended to stay low in the water.
Right near the hippo pond was a tree loaded with Maribou storks. Looking at these birds closely they looked more like vultures to me and seemed to conjure up images of death rather than something that delivers babies.
Arriving at our camp we were greeted with moist towels (sitting in a truck all day being chauffeured around is hard work), fresh juice, and staff to carry our bags to our tent. At this camp we were told not to leave our tent at night alone, but to flash our light several times to request one of the staff to come walk us to where we needed to go.
As before, the staff, the food, and the surroundings were all top notch. We did not see many monkeys or baboons today, but we got to see our first big cats clearly and some hippos. All in all, a very good day of safari.
