Jan 25/2006

As we walked to the restaurant this morning we saw 7 baboons running around on the roof and hotel employees tossing rocks at them, hoping they would leave. I just get a kick out of baboons on the roof! Clever little beasts. When we had the monkeys on our sundeck, one of them kept pressing his little hand on our window and peering through the glass at us.

We gathered up our box lunch and headed out into the Serengeti for the last time. We drove for, oh, 45 seconds and spotted 3 lionesses walking down the road beside us, out for their morning hunt...within mere yards of the hotel. No wonder there are signs all over warning you not to leave the grounds.

There is a small airstrip near the hotel too, just a dirt road and a windsock, but a lot of people fly right in and start their safari from there. This morning there were warthogs running all over the airstrip!

We drove past the hippo pool again and looked at their big, gray backs, looking just like rocks in a tide-pool and we saw a couple of hyena's out for their morning hunt too, glancing at us and smiling at us with those hyena teeth.

We drove to yesterdays "leopard tree" and noticed one other vehicle there and Hamisi said: "Leopard!" and there she was, walking around the tree, looking glorious with the sun behind her. She jumped up on a lower tree branch and was poking at something with her paw and to our astonishment she proceeded to haul a small (and headless) red buck (or reed buck) up the tree! She nearly dropped it a few times but she eventually settled down and put her arms around it and proceeded to munch on her breakfast. We stood and watched her for about 15 minutes, in this tree not 15 feet from us, close enough to actually hear the crunch of the bones as she chewed. Hamisi was as amazed as we were, you just don't get to see a leopard this close, and with only one other vehicle there as well. It was quite a feeling.

We continued on our way, having to stop now and then for a herd of wildebeeste to cross in front of us. They are hysterical creatures; as they see you coming down the road they put down their heads and run as fast as they can beside the truck and then as they get even with you they put on this burst of speed and gain a little and then dash in front of the truck and as soon as they are safely on the other side they toss their heads and give a little fling of the heels as if to say:"Ha! Beat you, beat you!." And when one starts to run, they all start to run, and you can see this line of dancing wildebeests stretching out for miles. They mingle with the Cape Buffalo who simply stand there and stare at you, with a little touch of madness in their eyes.

The topi are the sentinals--you always see just one gazing intently at the horizon, scanning for enemies, often surrounded by the smaller gazelles who can't see as far. The giraffes just stand, stare and eat, looking morose and then they'll slowly turn and canter away looking so lopsided that you can't believe they are not going to tip over and when they run it looks like a camera has been turned on to slow motion.

There are no mosquitoes in the Serengeti so our hotel didn't have mosquito nets and we sort of missed them, they are so cozy to sleep under.

We drove out of the Serengeti and up the hill to the top of the Ngorongoro Crater, a 3 hour drive and then we descended down the to the crater floor by a steep, steep road that was switchbacks all the way down. There is one way down and on the other side of the crater is the road up. It's too narrow and twisty to have traffic going both ways.

The crater is 265 sq. km. and has a small lake in the middle, lower than usualy because of the drought. It's odd because everything looks SO green and lush, you'd never think there was a water shortage, but apparently everything should be much greener and much lusher. And the roads are very dusty...we were so covered when we arrived at the hotel that we were embarrased to wipe our faces with the cool, damp cloths they give you, we almost made mud!

The scenery is amazing. The area around the the lake is flat and spreads to the edge of the crater wall. On one side is a forest called The Lerai Forest. There are no giraffes down here as the foliage that they eat doesn't grow here, and no female or baby elephants, just the males. Other than that there is the greatest concentration of wildlife in Africa, which seems funny because it looks so flat that you can't imagine there is anything other than the herds of wildebeest which are, as we all know by now, everywhere!

As we were driving through the forest Nicole spotted an elephant coming through the bush, and then another and then yet another and then a female and a baby! Hamisi was astounded, he has never seen a female down here before and has never heard oof such a hting, but again, because of the drought, a lot of the animals are changing their habits.

We stopped at a little lunch spot to eat our box lunches and Hamisi asked us to eat in the truck and just to go outside to use the little bathroom since there are vervet monkeys all over and they are quite aggressive and apparently their bite (or their saliva I guess) has something in it that is poisonous, and the nearest place to get treatment is in Nairobi. I'm not sure how correct this is, there are vervet monkeys all over Tanzania so you'd think they'd have some sort of medication, but I sure wasn't going to question his decision.

We continued on and saw more amazing sights- a mother cheeta and her cub, mama was making a half hearted attempt to stalk a gazelle but she eventually just sat down and decided to rest.

Zebra's are all over the place here, and much less skittish than the ones in the Serengeti and Lake Manyara, so we got some really good photos. Nicole even got a little film of 2 males fighting each other, kicking and biting while running through the shallows of the lake.

We saw more hippo's, but these ones were quite active, rolling over in the water, what a funny sight to see their huge pink bellies and frantically waving toes as they force themsleves to turn over in the mud. They were roaring and yawning and shifting places with each other, it was quite a treat to see them doing something other than imitating a big gray rock.

We saw a jackal sitting beside a rock, his ears perked up looking just like a pet dog waiting for his master to come home, and an eland, a huge type of an antelope. and then we headed up the ascent road on the other side. Yikes! It was STEEP and the drop-off beside us was too close for comfort. The only good thing was that we knew no one would be coming around a corner towards us going down. It was a little nerve-wracking, but I just kept telling myself that all sorts of vehicles take this same road all day long....breath...breath....

The hotel perched on the top of the cliff and overlooked the crater floor, an amazing sight. Each hotel has such a different view and each one was so perfect that I couldn't possibly pick a favorite, although if I HAD to I think it would be the Serengeti simply because of the proximity of the wildlife.

Since it was our last night we each had a glass of wine, I had a red that was made in Africa and it was very good (I guess, I know nothing about wine, but I liked it) and after dinner there was a local acrobatic troupe who put on a show. Quite an extravaganza, but nervewracking to watch as they used no nets or safety devices and the floor was cement. They did some pretty fancy balancing acts; balancing on chairs, tables, bricks and each other...all at once!

The deck had one of those huge telescopes so you could look down and try and spot some wildlife. You could se the game trails and the pepper specks of wildebeeste and I spotted (with my bare eye I might add) an elephant near the forest.

In the morning I watched the sun rise and saw the shadows of night move down the crater wall and across the floor as the rays of sun lit it up. It only took a matter of minutes and it was daylight everywhere. We ran into Hamisi as we were making our lunch for the ride back to Arusha and we took a few pictures of the 3 of us and off we headed. It was a little sad, I am always a bit melancholy when I leave somewhere.