On Safari

Well, it's settled. I don't have to go the Serengeti after all. I saw the Big Five (Water buffalo, lion, rhinoceros, leopard, and elephant), and much, much more in the Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyara this weekend. And I saw the Serengeti from a distance...well the beginning of it anyway, and not only that, it's not the time for the great wildebeest migration, when a million or more of these creatures travel to the Serengeti from Kenya for procreation activities. So, I feel like I can spare myself that expence and time (It is a full days drive to get there, so it's hard to do it on a weekend.)

The Ngorogoro Crater is part of a large national park here that is a world heritage site. To get there we drove for three and half hours and then crossed the Great Rift Valley (which stretches from Jordan to the end of Tanzania), then over a mountain range to the crater which is a collapsed volcano formed some millions of years ago. The crater has the largest concentration of wild life in Africa, I believe. We spent our first day driving around the floor of the crater looking for and observing hundreds of zebra, thousands for wildebeests, a few elephants and hippos, three lions, a cheetah and lots of gazelles and birds. I was surprised that I loved it so much as I have never been a big zoo fan, and this was like going to a super deluxe zoo. It was very relaxing on one level because you stay in the van the whole time and when you spot some animals, you sit and observe them for awhile. But it's also exciting on another level to find the animals, especially those that are hard to find, like the lions and the elephants who happily forrage right next to the vehicles.

We spotted three lions, who clearly were not hungry, lounging about watching the wildebeests in front of them and the zebras behind them. The wildebeest and the zebras wanted to go to a river which was precariously close to the lounging lions, so they watched the lions for about ten minutes without moving. When the wildebeests concluded that the lions were not planning to attack, they send a scout to go down to the river and after another five minutes the others cautiously followed. The zebras at the other end did the same and in the end both groups made it down to the river with no interference from the lions. At one point something spooked the wildebeests and a group dashed up the embankment, but they then later calmed down and went back down. It was so interesting and fun to watch all this. On our way out of the crater we spotted a leopard sauntering down the road, but she dashed into the brush when our driver slammed on the breaks. We saw her watching us from behind a bush, but then he got bored with us and slipped away.

Day two we went to Lake Manyara which is a 250 square kilometer reserve area with scrub dessert, beaches and thick Forest. (the lake itself takes up the majority of the kilometers). We watched a clan of baboons grooming and playing with each other, tons of elephants foragin about, a couple of elegant zebras munching on trees and lots of zebras and wildebeests. Everyone was pretty much involved in the same activities: foraging and feasting. We also came across three lions who were having a big-time feast on a wildebeest. Oh yes, and the flamingos. Hundreds of them, but too far to see well, so at one point at a rest stop near the lake, I wandered off to get a closer look and was called back after a very short jaunt. I was then scolded by a ranger type person who said it was too dangerousbecause an elephant or rhino could appear and attack. Rhinos, I was surprised to learn, can run at 35 miles per hour, which is pretty darn fast.

Afterwards we had a picnic on a ridge above the lake with wonderful views of the lake, elephants foraging below us, and all manor of exotic birds flying above us. We also watched a girafe, every so slowly, walk down the beach. My travel companion suggested she might be suicidal walking on the beach alone because what would She have done is a Rhino had shown up. It felt prehistoric because there was no signs of human habitation: no structures or noise or even, for the most part, people. We all felt somewhat melancholy when it was time to leave and one person in our group (of three) was so moved by the experience that she is planning another safari in the Serengeti in a few weeks.

Not far from the Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyara is the Olduvai Gorge were the Leakey's discovered the oldest human fossils - the birthplace of our earliest ancestors. I would love to get over there as well, but I think it is too far (and expensive) to go for a weekend.

Instead, I have booked a trip to Rwanda where I will go on a gorilla safari in the misty volcanic mountains in the north and then in Kigali I will visit the office of Women for Women International, an organization that sponsors women in war torn countries to get a new start in life. I have been sponsoring women through this organization for five years or so. I think I might have had a sister in Rwanda a few years ago and if so, I might try to visit her.

So, I am becoming an wild life enthusiast in my old age. Fun.