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Wednesday, December 27, 2000 We left the curtain open last night so that we could see the lake on rising. We always sleep well. I seem to be dreaming an awful lot. It’s crazy stuff usually from home not here. Last night I flooded my new house from the bathtub on the second floor (which I don’t have)… I was also Christmas shopping… I guess since I never did that this year! Rusty and I took an early morning walk around and sat on the terrace for a while. We were reflecting on the trip and solving problems for the world. We reflected that two items that are a NECESSITY on a trip like this are binoculars and a ZOOM camera! I will have a new camera before the next big trip! We were pulling out of Ngorongoro Serena Lodge this morning and heading to Olduvai Gorge. Any time we are traveling we see Maasai boys and men along the rode in what seems like the middle of nowhere. We passed some today that were all dressed in black and their faces were painted. They circumcise the boys in age groups every few years. After that ceremony they are supposed to live in the bush for three months completely on their own. When they go back to the village after that there is a big ceremony and they then will be allowed to wear the traditional red cloth. We are in the conservation area outside of the crater so Maasai can live here (not allowed to live in the National Park areas any more). There are as many animals here as well. It’s not unusual to see the Maasai cattle grazing with zebra and gazelles and giraffes! Giraffe don’t live in the crater because there are no Acacia Trees there, which is what they eat. Andrew has really been looking forward to being at Olduvai. He wants to take a picture to send his anthropology teacher. There is lots of wild sisal here – Olduvai is the native word for sisal and hence the name in this area. There are faults in this region because it’s a volcanic area. That’s what had allowed the artifacts to be exposed here. Leakey started here in 1931 with research. This is where Mary Leakey found 40% of a skull and from that they recreated the full skull which indicates there was a line of folk here at one time that died out. They were vegetarian eaters. That area is about 50 km from the Laetoli footprints that were found. The little museum here was quite interesting. The items here are replicas of the real for protection. They have actually reburied the footprints to preserve them. By the time they were discovered erosion had begun to take it’s toll on the prints. These are the earliest known footsteps of upright walking creatures with a large toe in line rather than at the side of the foot. We took a little side tour to the marker where the find was made but the guide had no additional information for us. We were a little disappointed that it wasn’t more. Andrew wanted to get the information sheet but they had run out of copies in English. From here we were headed on to the Serengeti – the Swahili word for “endless plains”. There is something like 2 ˝ million wildebeest, 750,000 zebra and 500,000 gazelles in this area. It is mind-boggling. We are going to spend the bulk of our time in the south or southeastern section because that is where the animals have migrated to at this time of year. One of the interesting things about the Serengeti is the Kopje’s (pronounced copies). They are the rock outcroppings. When the volcanic ash filled in the area it made the plains but the kopjes are the tops of what were the mountains. Kopjes are little islands of a different habitat in the middle of the plains. After 1951 when this became a National Park the Maasai could no longer live in these boundaries but they are just outside the boundaries. There are no fences so the wild animals come and go in and out of all of these areas we have visited. The first views of the Serengeti were just breathtaking! There are animals 360 degrees around for as far as you can see. This is the largest park in Tanzania at 14,766 sq km. I’ve been surprised at how many birds there are all over the plains. White storks are everywhere. We just saw a female lion with a wildebeest kill on the side of the road. She looked very tired!! We also saw our first pack of hyena. We’ve not seen many of them up close yet but think we will here. The entrance of the park appears to be out in the middle of nowhere…..not even a definitive crossroads. The wooden sign over the dirt road is the only way to recognize it. Into the park a little way is a rise in the scenery called Naabi Hill. They have moved the check-in point there. There are a few trees and a picnic area and the park headquarters. A walking path will take you up to the top for a 360-degree view of scenery. We didn’t take the time today to do that but will sometime during our visit. The kiosk said there are 530 species of birds here. Some will be birds migrating through certain times of the year. New birds we saw today were Abdims stork, Eurasian Roller, Caspian Plover and the Yellow Wagtail. We arrived at the Sopa Lodge about 1:45. It is beautiful décor and lovely scenery. We had lunch and then had a glorious 45 min nap before leaving on our 3:30 afternoon game drive. We saw about ten Topi starting out. These are horned antelope looking animals that are brown with black fur areas on their thighs. This was a first again. The herd had about three or four babies with them. They like to stand on termite mounds to look around. We passed several herds of impala. There seem to be more here but they also seem to be a little more skittish here. We crossed a flowing river with about a two-foot drop. We laughed because if it rains much more we won’t be going home! We were just driving along without much “luck” at seeing anything special when the vehicle slowed and backed up… There was a spotted leopard in the treetop… spread out on a limb NAPPING. He didn’t let us disturb him one bit and we had a beautiful view of him. He was the best “find” yet. We saw huge numbers of impala in here.. more than we’ve seen in one place before. We passed a vehicle that said they had been there three days and not seen a leopard – they let us know there was NOTHING down this road and they were turning back. Lots of guides had been driving out to the airport (remote) to try to find a leopard as more are usually out that way. We shared our “find” with them and probably made their day. We went to a beautiful soda lake, which was filled with water birds. Here we watched hippos. It was great to get out and walk around for a while. There are LIMITED places where you can actually get out of your vehicle. We spotted a reedbuck on the way out. A first spotting… We concurred that we wanted to spend the rest of our game drive time this evening watching the leopard so we’ll go out to the plains tomorrow. We found a group of about 30 giraffe on the way home. Lots of babies were in the group. Some things we saw today were Red Hornbills, Fiscal Shrikes, Red-Billed Ducks and we saw two Secretary Birds today for the first time. They are huge birds that have to run a distance to take off and run a long way when they land. We got back to the lodge just before dark. It has been a beautiful day. Everyone is loose and we are having such a good time. Conversations and stories are fun. Andrew and Rusty get into some deep philosophical conversations on the drives sometimes. Dinner conversations are topics that should NEVER be at the dinner table but ALWAYS are!! I guess part of it is that we’re split between the two vehicles during the day and meals are the times we are all together. Tonight at dinner there was a fiery birthday display! A surprise for someone! All of the staff came out playing kitchen instruments and torches etc. This lodge is beautiful, in a scenic location, and we are really being pampered, but we are all looking forward to being back out in tents. We’ve seen our first Agama lizards here. They are very colorful - almost look like someone painted them by accident. We have tubs, bidets, blow dryers and all the amenities here, but we are finding we really prefer being more isolated and closer to nature. We know we are in for some big things and we are getting excited. Ben and Ephata are beginning to tell more stories. Andrew talked to Ben and I think he’s getting information from Ranger Safari for his Kilimanjaro climb. The highlight for Andrew today was Olduvai Gorge. He sat in the beautiful lobby till late talking… life planning etc. He’s been such fun for me on this trip. I’ve gotten a kick out of watching him use his Swahili and kid around with folks. He’s made a great “interpreter” for us. Jane Wojecki |
Wednesday, December 27, 2000 After breakfast we headed for Oldupai Gorge where traces of early man were uncovered. It is believed to be man’s first foot prints said to be 3.6 millions years old was discovered by the Leakey’s in 1959. It was preserved by the volcano lava in this area. After a visit there we continued to the Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti Plains are just so large it is hard to describe. There are no trees or bushes just grass and animals. After entering the park we saw a fresh wildebeest kill with the lion laying alongside catching its breath. Only the nose had been eaten at that time. We started seeing thousands of animals along the road and also more hyenas, vultures and lions. We made it to the Serengeti Sopa lodge for lunch.
After lunch we took off for an afternoon game drive. The Sopa lodge is located in a woodland area alongside of the Serengeti plains. We found a leopard lying up in a tree alongside the road. Also saw several new species of animals including a Topi and Reed buck. Headed back to the lodge for dinner. On the pathway to our rooms there was a sign stating not to leave the path when traveling back and forth from the room. We later found out that some of the staff were killed and eaten by a pride of lions on the road that traveled along the path to our rooms. We had another good dinner and at one point the staff came in with torches, etc. and same Happy Birthday to someone at an adjacent table. The Hazels
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