Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti

This trip did not involve using the main truck. Instead it was an excursion using a local company that packed us into 6 or 8 seater jeeps. They moved us from the Arusha campsite to another campsite closer to the crater so that we would get there for dawn. Dinner was excellent, though we had a different cook. And the entertainment was awesome...first some East African dancing with live music, then some acrobats proceeded to wow with some flips and jumps....on guy bent over backwards and put a hat on with his feet. As soon as it was over, they wanted us up there 'shaking our skeletons' (a brilliant new phrase I'm hoping to import back home, customs permitting). Up until then, i had avoided buying any silly souvenirs, but I gave in and bought a Masai blanket (a essentially a rug that Masai usually wear, but can be used for wrapping around a sleeping bag at night in the colder stops on our journey).

We woke up at 4h30, had breakfast, were delayed by a driver who had overslept, and finally got on the road by 6h30/7.

Unfortunately the clouds were low, so when we reached the top of the crater, we could not see the impressive view. Our driver even said "This view point, but today, useless". We did however see some naughty Baboons that, in almost staged fashion, stopped in front of each jeep to pose suggestively.

The crater itself is a recognised national park, full of wildlife populating its 19.2km wide flat lands. We saw plenty of lions. In fact, one sat in front of a truck to warm herself up from the heat of the engine - it was a cold September morning after all. We saw the usual giraffes, zebras, warthogs and the odd lonesome elephant. Apparently this is where solitary elephants come to live out the rest of their days.

We stopped for lunch by an idyllic lake. They provided us with lunchboxes which had a piece of fried chicken wrapped in foil, a few pieces of buttered bread, and a few other things; I wouldn't call it a meal, but it was a hunger-satisfying eccletic mix of foods, so I can not complain. Birds hovered above us preparing to swoop and steal. No lunchboxes were lost.

We moved on to Oldabye gorge to see a vast landscape where archeologists and paleontologists have discovered the oldest known footprint and evidence regarding the cradle of humanity (bipedal hominids, homo erectus, homo habilis, etc...). It was very interesting, and if you have been following my postings, you will know I have an amateur's interest in this subject, but due to a miscommunication between Ruth and the drivers, we ended up rushing through it unnecessarily, even though we did have the time to see it properly. I will not go into detail, but it did end in a heated discussion involving yours truly reminding the driver about the delays his team had caused us earlier in the day.

Finally, we made it to the campsite in the middle of the Serengeti at 21h00 after two cars had suffered from 3 flat tires between them and the bearings on a third car gave in. Having been crammed into a jeep, I ended up standing for part of the way through the Serengeti - jeep surfing as I aptly named it. Bed by midnight as dinner took, what was seemingly, forever.

Next day, another 4h30 start. Pack tents. Have breakfast. See the sunrise at 6h30. Then we drove all day. We were lucky enough to see a cheetah, but admittedly the rest of the Serengeti was pretty lifeless. Very few animals, and when you did find one, it wasn't up to much more than sleeping.

At one point, a few people in my car had fallen asleep and I could only imagine how it looked from the front of the car. Our driver, like an African Mr. McGee was small, old and blind, so the steering wheel towered above him while he skwinted at oncoming bumps. The cook in the passenger seat, tall, calm and constantly reminding us that he was a hustler. Four Mzungus in the back, three of whom were fast asleep, heads bobbing like those small toys with oversized heads springing from their disproportionately small bodies. And me, being thrown around as if fickle gravity is trying to make up its mind about whether to exist and if so, in which direction to exert its force. All of which made for a somewhat surreal Serengeti comedy. The drive back was long to say the least, but we did get back to the Arusha campsite before dark.