Wed. Feb 28
Bags out at 6:15 as we head for breakfast. I've found that their "porridge " is quite tasty with a little brown sugar....don't know what it is made from, but texture is like oatmeal.
It is raining today, on and off. We see a few dik-dik, very small antelope, and some birds including these guinea fowl. Storks. zebras, a hyena and some giraffes too!
The road is pretty rough, with puddles added to the muddy mix!
Montana has nothing over the big skies here. At times you can see for miles in every direction. It is cool to see the rain and clouds in different areas.
Our new saying with George is "sawa-sawa", which means let's go. When we stop for pictures and everyone is done, someone calls sawa-sawa to let George know.
Along the highway we had seen logs hanging in trees and Adam explains that the logs are hollowed out and wrapped with flowers or vines to attract bees. The bees nest in the logs and people collect honey that way. We see a few people selling honey.
We go through an area that is pretty wet and there are rice fields here. Lots of businesses and people selling things near the road.
Adam says the government tries to discourage settlements here because of the mosquitos and poor health conditions. Still, the road is busy with traffic, so people come here.
Adam says the government owns land but leases it to citizens at no cost and there are no taxes. He says that about 45% of the population can't read or write. The concept of a post office and mail are unknown in the rural areas.
We stop at what Adam says is a very nice gallery (shop) which sells tanzanite as well as many other products. They have a little talk and photos about tanzanite mining, but it is obvious that the goal is sales. A few of the people in our group make purchases. Mary buys a beautiful 1 carat pendent which is set in 18 ct gold. They were asking $2,000, but come down to $1,000! I had texted Chap and asked about the cost of tanzanite...he says Tanzania is probably one of the most expensive places to buy it, but $1000 isn't too terrible, as he would probably sell it for around $700. (I don't share his info, of course.) We buy a Christmas ornament, and a couple of post cards and stamps - will be interesting to see if they ever are delivered!
Some beautiful carvings.
We stop for gas for the 1st time (with us in the vehicle). We figure it is about $7-8/gallon. The young attendant asks where we are from and guesses six or seven states. (Then he tries to sell us a hat, haha).
We climb in altitude as we are near Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a huge crater and we travel along its rim. We will descend into the crater itself later in the week. It is a rain forest area and quite lush.
We stop for the awesome view! That's Lake Manyara in the distance.
These baboons are along the road, watching the world go by...
We stop at Nytai Picnic Area and enjoy a box lunch at a couple of picnic tables. As we are leaving, Beth discovers a few "ants in her pants"! If this is my worst brush with nature, I feel lucky! (Luckily there is a washroom of sorts handy so I can get rid of them!)
We notice a sign for a campground, and Adam says yes, there is tent camping allowed! Yikes! Not for me! We continue on and things get drier and dusty again.
Next stop is Olduvai Gorge which has a nice museum and amphitheater. We don't have time to read everything, but this is a famous paleoanthropological site where Mary Leaky and her husband Louis uncovered many humanoid fossils thought to be our homosapien ancestors. Homo hablilis, probably the first early human species occupied Olduvai Gorge approximately 1.9 million years ago! Homo sapiens are thought to have occupied the gorge 17,000 years ago! There are signs that stone tools were used by some.
Below is "Lucy", composed of 40 percent fossils of a female predecessor about 3.2 million years old! Older fossils have since been found in Ethiopia.
We sit for a brief history lesson and enjoy the views. The gorge runs along what is thought to have been a prehistoric lake. Below, someone is herding his goats in the area.
Even today there are several universities from around the world digging here. This has been a drive quite out of the way and Adam asks opinions as to whether it should be included in future tours. We are glad to have seen it, but not sure it is worth the hours to get here. Tickets, I learn later, are $100 per person!
Beth with Adam leaving Olduvai.
We pass some Maasai homes. Adam points out that the houses we see cost zero, as walls are sticks and mud and dried grasses make a thatched roof. There are very small windows because they want to keep out bugs and snakes.
See the elephants in the foreground?
Finally we reach Serengeti National Park. Some rain in the distance, but not where we are.
We see a few animals, but will do a full day game drive tomorrow. The parks are very large and often it seems the animals are concentrated in just a few areas on any given day.
Our camp, Embalakai Camp, is about an hour outside the park. We arrive there around 7:00 and go directly to dinner. This is a tent camp and seems a little more primitive than the earlier one, but it is still fine. Beds are mostly quite firm, but comfortable and there are private showers and toilet. Again, there is a solar hot water tank for each tent. (It is nearly dark, so this pic is from tomorrow.)
The platform isn't exactly level, and we have a double zippered entrance - one layer is screened, the other is canvas. There is a walkie-talkie that we are shown how to operate should we need anything, and a bright lantern. Animals are around 24x7, we are told, so there are Maasai men who will patrol the grounds. We are escorted to our tents and our escort stops and says "Listen! Do you hear that?" Greg and I don't hear that well, so.... He tells us that the sounds are from lions, "but they are not close." I wonder if they tell everyone that...lol.
The water gets hot and shower feels good. There are some noises outside for a while and we are told next day that there were some hyenas fighting in the area.
They do have laundry service so we turn in a few things to get us through the last days.
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