Sunday, February 24th, 2013
Today was set to be another full day. After some pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast we speed our way through Serengeti National Park on our way back to Ngorongoro Crater. We did hit some traffic along the way......vehicle and animal alike. We also found ourselves with a flat tire but not to worry we had 2 spares and Hassan had us quickly on our way again. As usual the landscape was spotted with little wildebeest and zebras.
Serengeti pedestrian crossing.
Before we hit the crater we made a stop at Olduvai Gorge. It is 55 kilometres long and is the site of some serious archaeological significance. It contains the remains of 5 different levels of human evolution. Louis and Mary Leakey (everyone has heard of them I'm sure but just in case http://www.leakey.com/) made some extensive discoveries here including the humanoid footprints. At 3.6 million years old, there footprints are indistinguishable from modern human footprints. The trail of prints have been extensively photographed and cast and copied and then to protect them have been covered up again. You can no longer see or visit the actual footprints. The government decided that once studied they should be protected against erosion and vandalism and other things so they will be around for years to come. As much as I would love to see the real thing, I think that is a great idea.
Olduvai Gorge. Just imagine the millions of years of history hiding down there.
The little museum on the site. Actually a lot of information jammed into a small little space.
A replication of the humanoid trail. So amazing to see. So glad they have covered the real thing up so they can hopefully survive another 3.6 million years.
We then made our way back to Ngorongoro Crater. The drive down was a little adventurous but once at the bottom it was instant animal viewing. The Crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On our way down. The road as a little narrow and steep but we had a good driver.
A few more zebras. Of course the crater is full of them.
How cute is this little baby zebra?
Another jackal. They are mostly a scavenger but they will hunt small rodents like mice as well.
What do you call a group of flamingos? Well there are many terms including a colony, a stand and a regiment. However my favourite noun that can be used to describe this picture above....a flamboyance of flamingos. This is Lake Magadi, the alkaline lake from earlier post. It also goes by the Maasai name "Makat" which means salt. The flamingos are drawn here due to the green algae that grows in the salt water. They filter the algae out because they don't drink the salt water. The rest of the water found in the crater is fresh water that comes from springs.
Little wildebeest.
Baby hippo!!!! Check and check!
One of the many crowned cranes you'll find in the crater.
Another ostrich. Even when sitting down they are gigantic.
And there it is......the final check on my Big 5 checklist....the Black Rhino. There are only about 22 black rhinos living in the Crater so even though this is the best place to see them, there is no guarantee you will. We actually saw 4 today although this is the closest we would get (and I'm pretty zoomed it). The other ones we saw we had to watch through binoculars. They were fighting....it was awesome.
Look the big black rhino has a little friend......a warthog.
More simbas. They are a mating pair.
This is some kind of a bustard (sorry I don't know which one). This male was all dressed up and strutting around. There was a female close by but from my view, she wanted nothing to do with him. But he kept trying.
Our lunch stop. It was a really nice picnic spot near this lake....however due to the birds we had to eat in the car. After lunch though we were able to get out and check out the pond......there were hippos in it.
Did I mention it was lion mating season? A mating pair of lions will stay at it for about 7 days, only taking breaks to drink water. A male will need to eat about 60kg (130lbs) of meat before mating to sustain their energy.
Another serval cat. They just always seemed to be walking away from us when we saw them.
There were lots of hyenas around. Most seemed to be assessing the herds of wildebeest and zebras for potential meals.
Little baboons everywhere. Wouldn't be a day on safari if there weren't a few around.
Baby buffalo......and I mean very new baby buffalo. We arrived moments after the little guy was born. How do we know how recent his arrival was? Well he was still learning to walk (he fell down several times....it was so cute) and there was actually still after birth attached to the mother. There was also a hyena very close by. The mother was working hard at getting this little one back to the protection of the herd but that hyena was close behind. No we did not see this baby get eaten by a hyena. The hyena was distracted by the afterbirth (I'm sure Nat Geo Wild has taught me that is a very nutritious meal) and the baby made it safely back to the herd. YEAH happy ending!!!!!
Eventually we had to leave the park and make our way back to our hotel for the night. While we waited in the parking lot for Hassan to sign us out of the park (you have to sign in and out to ensure everyone is gone) we were thoroughly entertained by some very clever baboons. I watched as one baboon....which a little tiny baby attached to her I might add, jumped into the open window of a near by vehicle, and jumped back out with a bag of garbage before anyone had a chance to do anything. Hassan told us this is actually very normal at the park entrance, however, the baboons will not jump into a vehicle if a black man is sitting inside. They appear to be able to tell the difference between the African tour guides and the tourists and they don't mess with the tour guides.
Eventually we made it back to the Kudu Lodge for our final night on Safari. Again we were treated to some fantastic food (they had an amazing BBQ with pepper steak and lamb and a whole lot of other things) and got to relax by a fire place.
Day #4 of Safari over.....just one more day of animal viewing to go.
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment