Safari Day 3

Well Lake Manyara was definitely the climax of our safari, but just as when you go hiking the top is usually the most spectacular view but after you descend the ridge you still see stunning beauty. After Lake Manyara we spent the day driving to Serengeti via Ngorogoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge.

We actually drove just around the rim of the crater not down into it. The crater is too large to see animals in the crater from the rim. For some reason it felt really weird to see the Masai huts on the rim of the crater. I kept wondering how they could live with all the wild animals so close or vice versa, then remembered that not long ago this area would not have been a game reserve, just normal land. If you would not live near wild game, you probably wouldn't have a place to live. It is also conceptually difficult for me to grasp how similar it would be to life on the American plains 200 years ago.

Speaking of history our next stop was Olduvai Gorge. I was surprised to find it was very dry and it reminded me a lot of deserts in Nevada. I was rather underwhelmed by the museum but I think it is more because I had high expectations and also expected to do a foot tour of the site. Instead we saw a replica of the foot prints in a one room museum. To be fair it was possible to go down but we did not take the time and Lucy was on tour.

When we reached the Serengeti plains we were overwhelmed by wildebeests. The ground was so flat that it makes the big sky of Idaho seem small, and as far as you could see were wildebeests and/or zebra. We probably saw more than one million wildebeests and maybe even two. Mysteriously, after the entrance to the Park the game disappeared. And the rest of the drive to the hotel was uneventful.