Day 47 3/02/99: Olduvai Gorge/Lake Ndutu
We spent our second (also our last) night camping at Ngorongoro Crater. We started
our day with a morning game drive at about 8:30 a.m. We were traveling on the floor of the
caldera on our way to Olduvai Gorge and Lake Ndutu.
I told you already that I liked taking pictures of acacia trees. I promise that the best
is yet to come.
Before we were out of the caldera, we encountered a group of lions feeding on the
right-hand side of the road. We then noticed that a mother lioness were bring her three
cubs from the right-hand side of the road. It was fun seeing these three cubs playfully
tagged along their mother. They came very close to where we were.
With her cubs safely across the road and on their way to breakfast, the mother lioness
looked at us one final time and probably thought, "Tourists! Welcomed to Ngorongoro
Crater, now go home!" :-)
We arrived at the Olduvai Museum at about 11 in the morning; I took a picture of a relief
map on the wall. You can see Lake Manyara at the lower right-hand corner. We just came
from Ngorongoro Crater (right of center). Olduvai Museum (center) sits right below the
Olduvai Gorge. Later on we will continue our safari at Serengeti (upper left) by first
staying overnight at Lake Ndutu (left of center).
Laetoli Site has huminid footprints that were dated over 3.5 million years old.
On the upper right-hand corner you will find Oldoinyo Lengai, which is an active
volcano. The Tanzanian government has been trying but so far failing to convince the Masai
who lived right on the mountain to move since it's an active volcano. Foolish people?
Well, I lived in California, and my house is pretty close to the major Hayward
Fault...Maybe I'll move to Oldoinyo Lengai and take my chances there... :-)
Here is a two-frame panoramic shot of the
Olduvai Gorge. Olduvai should really be spelled as Oldupai, which is the name of a sisal
plant that grows around here. At Olduvai many fossils and artifacts dating from the last
two millions years have been found. Louis and Mary Leaky did many of their important
archeological research here.
At 11:45 a.m. we checked into the Lake Ndutu lodge. Yes, there was an acacia tree in the
front of the lodge.
Theresa was enjoying some Kilimanjaro bottled water.
The locals hanged out at the bar at this lodge. :-) It's a drawing of animals drinking at
the bar; the animals include an ostrich, rhino, elephant, wildebeest, and buffalo.
Note that this establishment has reserved the right of not serving lions--a picture
of a lion is X-ed out! No carnivores wecolmed!
We had quite a few bottles of Kenya's Tusker beer in 1991 to refresh ourselves after long
and dusty afternoon safari game drives. Theresa and I did not pass the chance of ordering
a Tusker beer for old time's sake.
We were in front of our room at Lake Ndutu Lodge at 1:14 p.m. This was one of the few
times I remembered to use my REI mini trip-pod. Worked well, I think!
After having a nice lunch, we read and took a quick nap prior to our afternoon game drive
starting at 4:00 p.m. Here is another one of those pictures that I held my Canon PowerShot
A5 digital camera out as far as my arm will go, sort of aimed the lense toward Theresa and
myself, and hoped for the best. Pretty good; I do say so myself. :-) Looked at
Theresa's and my matching pairs of prescription sunglasses. We took a shower using the
very alkaline well water at Lake Ndutu Lodge. I felt very slippery.
With the top of the Toyota Land Cruiser opened, Theresa was on top looking for elephants.
I decided to help to look for elephants also.
Let's see how good your eyes are. Can you see the elephant in this picture? We finally
found one at 5:48 p.m.
Here was a lone, young male elephant.
On our 1991 Kenya trip one of the most memorable antelopes we saw was the Dikdik since
it's the smallest antelope. It got its name due to the sound it makes--dik-dik. Since we
stayed at the Dik-Dik lodge in Arusha, we were disappointed on our safari so far until at
Lake Ndutu where we finally saw a couple of Dik-Diks. Cute!
I took this picture of Lake Ndutu with the REI panoramic camera. What are those pink
things in the picture?
I took this picture of the pink things with my Canon EOS camera with the 80-200mm zoom
lense. What are pink, have wings, and long legs? Flamingoes, of course. Due to El Nino's
effects on weather, the lake was actually very dry. We traveled a long way on the flat and
alkaline lake bed before coming to this spot.
Dinner time at Lake Ndutu. Zebra was on the menu--for these vultures.
Nearby was a spotted Hyaena. Has he eaten already?
Here was a Jackal waiting for his turn for dinner. Or was he checking out Theresa?
After the game drive Theresa and I were the first to come out here to enjoy a bon fire in
front of the hotel bar at 7:00 p.m. We enjoyed a sunset cocktail before dinner. We were
later joined by almost everyone. It was nice. Yes, I had another Tusker beer.
Lake Ndutu at sunset.
I told you that I'm hopeless with acacia trees. Still some more are coming...
Charito and Norman enjoyed the dinner. I thought the fresh fruit pie with the cream sauce
was delicious.
We had a full moon. It then started to get cloudy. It's a pity that my attempts at
capturing some lightening storms were not successful. All the lightening flashes happened
when the shutter was not open; I wasted more than 5 frames. Oh well, I guess I'll just
have to try harder on our next journey to Africa.
At
least the next morning I was rewarded with a glorious sunrise.
To continue the safari to Serengeti click here 
