Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Gayle and Pete had a good night’s sleep and then organized gear yet again. Drove back through a road near Ngorongoro and on to Olduvai Gorge, one of the world’s most prehistoric archaeological sites. It was here, in the 1959 that Mary Leakey discovered the fossilized bone fragments of one of our earliest hominid ancestors. Heard brief talk and then looked around the museum and ate our box lunches overlooking the Gorge. It was very interesting and very cool to see where the Leakeys worked for so many years and where so many important fossils were found.
Went on to the Serengeti and encountered ‘The Migration’. We saw untold numbers of wildebeest, many, many zebras, lots of Thompson’s gazelles and some eland. We may have seen as many as hundreds of thousands or even a million animals, mostly wildebeest. We could see animals as far as we could see, which was probably several miles. This went on for miles and miles and miles. We also saw a few ostriches, hyenas, lions and buffalo. The experience was impossible to photograph and is indescribable. A guide we met at a stop we took said there were zero wildebeest there yesterday, so we were very fortunate. This demonstrates the movement of this vast herd.
While driving, our guide recognized a friend of his that was Maasai along the road. A group of Maasai had killed a goat and were cooking it. We were invited to go talk with them and learn about what they were doing. Our guide’s friend spoke English well and we were offered a taste of the meat. Nobody in our group tried it.
We arrived after dark at a Tanzania Bush Camp after encountering a porcupine in the road and a large herd of buffalo. In the dark, it was hard to get a good feel for the camp. We had a quick dinner, shower and went on to bed. Tent was nice but somewhat primitive, but had a shower, toilet, furniture, lights and some electricity. They had a special setup for Joyce so she could use her oxygen machine while she slept.
