BAILEY: Today we left Ngorongoro Crater and made our way towards Serengeti. We woke up at 6:00AM so we could try and be on the road by 7:30 and quickly grabbed breakfast, grabbed our boxed lunch and loaded in the Land Rovers. Most of us were pretty tired, so we slept, or at least tried to sleep while on the bumpy road. When we left it was cold and rainy. We were up in the mountains near the clouds, and could not see much of anything around us.
As we drove and faded in and out of sleep, we stopped to see different animals early in the morning, the best of which included a few cape buffalo nearby. It seemed like we traveled to the end of the earth to get anywhere we were going, but eventually we arrived at the geographic phenomenon known as shifting sand. Scientists have been tracking this pile of sand for over 40 years now, and have noticed that it moves an average of 17 meters a year in a linear direction. The wind is constantly moving the pile of sand year after year and it stays together because the black sand has magnetic properties keeping it together. We left shifting sands and traveled shortly to a Masaii boma, which is where a small family of Masaii live. Their boma was built up on a hillside with steep, rocky hills behind it to protect their village from attackers. From the front of the boma, I could see for miles the rolling hills of the land in front of me. We talked to the Masaii as best we could and toured ourselves around their home which consisted of a few small huts (you can tell how many wives a man has by the number of huts in the boma), I think five in total, and lots of cow and goat dung. We left and made our way to Old Du Pai, which can be called the “cradle of mankind.” Here Dr. Whitney told us all about the excavations found in the late 1950s of the first hominids among many other large animals fossils and findings. It was interesting, but it was also hot by this point in the blazing sun.
Now we finally made our way to Serengeti, and our afternoon drive consisted of us getting to our hotel, which was about eight kilometers from Kenya. It was a beautiful drive. By this point zebras, wildebeests, and giraffes had pretty much become common place to us, so we drove by herds upon herds of animals, and I felt like I could see for days. As was typical we also saw tons of gazelles, thompson and grant, hippos, among other animals. The highlight of the drive was when we saw a cheetah about 100 meters from us sitting in the bushes. It was hard to see it because all you could really see was its head through the binoculars. It couldn’t have been but another 100 yards from a herd of thompson gazelles, so we were hoping it would attack, but we weren’t that lucky. We kept on until we finally reached our hotel around six. The most eventful thing that happened at the hotel was when a baboon came right by the lobby and stole the rest of someone’s boxed lunch and went up on the roof and ate everything it could. It was quite humorous. By this point most of us were exhausted, so we all napped before dinner, and some didn’t even get up for dinner, but just slept through till the morning. As for myself, I fell asleep at about 9:00PM and slept till 7:30 the next morning.
As we drove and faded in and out of sleep, we stopped to see different animals early in the morning, the best of which included a few cape buffalo nearby. It seemed like we traveled to the end of the earth to get anywhere we were going, but eventually we arrived at the geographic phenomenon known as shifting sand. Scientists have been tracking this pile of sand for over 40 years now, and have noticed that it moves an average of 17 meters a year in a linear direction. The wind is constantly moving the pile of sand year after year and it stays together because the black sand has magnetic properties keeping it together. We left shifting sands and traveled shortly to a Masaii boma, which is where a small family of Masaii live. Their boma was built up on a hillside with steep, rocky hills behind it to protect their village from attackers. From the front of the boma, I could see for miles the rolling hills of the land in front of me. We talked to the Masaii as best we could and toured ourselves around their home which consisted of a few small huts (you can tell how many wives a man has by the number of huts in the boma), I think five in total, and lots of cow and goat dung. We left and made our way to Old Du Pai, which can be called the “cradle of mankind.” Here Dr. Whitney told us all about the excavations found in the late 1950s of the first hominids among many other large animals fossils and findings. It was interesting, but it was also hot by this point in the blazing sun.
Now we finally made our way to Serengeti, and our afternoon drive consisted of us getting to our hotel, which was about eight kilometers from Kenya. It was a beautiful drive. By this point zebras, wildebeests, and giraffes had pretty much become common place to us, so we drove by herds upon herds of animals, and I felt like I could see for days. As was typical we also saw tons of gazelles, thompson and grant, hippos, among other animals. The highlight of the drive was when we saw a cheetah about 100 meters from us sitting in the bushes. It was hard to see it because all you could really see was its head through the binoculars. It couldn’t have been but another 100 yards from a herd of thompson gazelles, so we were hoping it would attack, but we weren’t that lucky. We kept on until we finally reached our hotel around six. The most eventful thing that happened at the hotel was when a baboon came right by the lobby and stole the rest of someone’s boxed lunch and went up on the roof and ate everything it could. It was quite humorous. By this point most of us were exhausted, so we all napped before dinner, and some didn’t even get up for dinner, but just slept through till the morning. As for myself, I fell asleep at about 9:00PM and slept till 7:30 the next morning.
