Safari Day 3

Safari - day 3 - Serengeti 

We awoke this morning to the most beautiful sunrise over the crater. Quite a way to start the day!  By 8 am we were stuffed full of yummy breakfast and back on the road. We were headed to the Serengeti today by way of the Olduvai Gorge. 

The Olduvai Gorge is part of the Great Rift Valley and is a very famous archeological site, often referred to as the birthplace of man.  There is a small museum there that we visited. The true name for the site is Oldupai, but the first white people here misunderstood the Maasai, and heard Olduvai.  Oldupai is the Maasai word for the sisal plant that grows in abundance here. Louis and Mary Leaky made this place famous by finding bones and fossils from ancient species of man as well as many extinct animals. The skull from Australopithicus (sp?) was found here and a skull and other bones from homo habilis. Also the famous footprints unearthed here are the first evidence of "man" walking upright that is known. It is a fascinating area, and excavation work is still ongoing, with a primary connection to Rutgers University in NJ.

The rest of the day was spent in the Serengeti National Park. Correct pronunciation here is Siringet, a Maasai word meaning "the grass plains with no end." And that is exactly what they seem like. The plains are so vast, and the farther we drove in, it seemed the farther they went in all directions. 

We saw thousands of wildebeest. We are entering the rainy season now, so many animals migrate here and have their babies around now. At the height of calving, 8000 wildebeest will be born each day.  There are many little wildebeest calves around now, who are so ugly they're really cute! Also many baby zebras, who are still very brown and absolutely adorable. 

I can't even remember how many lions we saw today, but it was over 12!  And many of them were up in the trees, taking a nap. They lie on their bellies on the big branches and let their legs dangle down.  In one tree we saw 4 lions napping up in the branches. Another tree that overlooked a water hole had one female who was waiting up there for some unsuspecting little zebra or gazelle to come and get a drink. 

We also saw many hippos today in the river. They splash in the water with their tails and make lots of noise.  There were 2 crocodiles in the water with them and lots of little birds who sit on their backs and eat flies and other bugs. 

In the distance we saw 2 leopards in a tree after lunch. The safari vehicles are not allowed to drive off the road, so we couldn't see them very closely. The leopards stay in the trees mostly during the day and do their hunting at night. 

My favorite moment of the day was when we came upon a big watering hole.  There were many zebras, hartebeest, topi hartebeest (with different coloring than the regular hartebeest,) warthogs, many birds, and a jackal. They were all milling around in the water, drinking or just wading, and seemed to all get along quite well. The warthog mother was a bit apprehensive about the jackal around her little ones, but the jackal was more interested in finding some eggs from the many birds around. The zebras are really cute and are constantly biting at each other and playing. The Swahili name for them is Punda Mlia, which just means donkey with stripes. That is definitely what they are.  They bray like a donkey and are such tough little creatures!  

We also saw thousands of Thomson's gazelles and Grant's gazelles today. Ignasoro told us that the Thomsen's gazelles can go over 2 weeks without water, which is why we saw them very far away from water, but the wildebeest need water every other day, so we never saw them too far from their next water source. 

Tonight & tomorrow we are camping at Pindi campsite, which means "rock island" in Swahili. There are big rock outcroppings here. We have been told that the hyenas are very active here at night. We are not to leave anything outside our tent, and I'm going to try not to drink too much at dinner, because I don't want to go out  to the bathroom by myself with the laughing hyenas lurking!!