Today is the last day of the game drive. I've been quite lucky so far as I have seen so many animals, all but the Rhino.
We left the lodge in the Serengeti around 8 for the grueling and bumpy 5 hour drive to the crater. To break up the trip, we stopped at a Maasai village for a tour. In recent years, the Maasai tribes have gotten into the tourist trade. The money they make from tour fees and jewelry sales supports the building of schools and helps the people purchase water and medical supplies.
I was first greeted by a tribal elder who was my "tour guide" through the village. He organized a welcome dance by both the women and men of the tribe. I felt a little awkward as I was the only person being welcomed and I typically don't like that much attention. The elder encouraged me to take pictures so I got a few of the people dancing.
After I was properly welcomed, I was taken into one of the mud huts and given an inside view of how the Maasai live. The hut was very warm and cozy with two or three areas for family members to sleep. The center of the hut was for cooking and eating. There was a pot of corn pudding cooking as the elder told me about the lives of the Maasai.
There are 4 groups of people in the tribes. The elders, who handle tribal problems and teach the young the traditions of the people; the women, who seem to do most of the work as their role involves child care, wood gathering, hut building, food preparation and jewelry making to sell to the tourists; The third group is children under 14 or so. And finally, the young men from 14 to 20 or so, who are charged with herding the livestock.
The Maasai are polygomous and the men typically have 5 or 6 wives. Each wife builds her own hut for her children. The husbands cycle through the village from wife to wife trying to have as many boys as possible. A Maasai man's wealth is measured in male offspring and number of livestock. Women don't seem to have any power in the tribe, but do seem to carry the burden of labor to keep the people warm, fed, cared for and to birth the next generation. I'm glad I'm a western woman!!!
After visiting the village, we continued our journey to the Crater. When we got there, we drove down a steep road where we met several herds of cattle and goats coming back from grazing and carrying water for the local Maasai tribes.
When we reached the bottom, I could see thousands of Wildebeests, Zebras, Water Buffalos and Thompson Gazelles. We also spotted a pack of Hyenas and Jackels by the water. I couldn't believe how large the Crater floor was. On one side, there was a huge lakebed that was mostly dried up. From the road, I could see a pink line on the water, which turned out to be thousands of Flamingos! We headed off to the Hippo pool where we saw Cranes and Herrons, and of course, more lazy Hippos. I watched one roll in the mud to cool off. Very funny!
As we drove around, Raymond's eagle eye spotted a black mass in the grasses a couple of football fields away. It was a black Rhino sleeping! Since he was napping, he wasn't entirely visible and I could only see him with the binoculars. Even then, he could have been a Water Buffalo and I wouldn't have known the difference. We kept on driving until we saw a Rhino standing. He was still quite far away, but with the binoculars, I had no question what he was.
Finally, on our way out, we saw a male lion that had just killed a Zebra on the plain. He was surrounded by Vultures, but didn't seem to be afraid that they would take his dinner. He was also quite far away, but I could see the entire post-kill scene through the binoculars. Way cool!
After the long day's drive on the bumpy, dusty African road, it was time to hit the showers and get cleaned up before dinner. As I was having my evening cocktail (Coke light), I heard some southern accents next to me. Turned out the group was from Virginia. They were on a 20 day game drive and all were in their 60 and 70s. The leader of the group, Ginger had traveled to 80 countries and this was her 3rd African safari.
The group invited me join them for dinner and breakfast the next day. At dinner, I sat with Mark, who was a retired physician and had spent some time doing mission work in Costa Rica during his career. While in Costa Rica, he and another doc built a hut that became their clinic and once they got going, they were seeing around 600 patients per week! WOW! That's a lot of work.
It sure was nice running into some folks from back home along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations and plan to keep in touch with Ginger and Barbara, another lady traveling on her own.
Tomorrow, we head back to Moshi for my last night in Tanzania. On the 18th, I leave for Istanbul as I have decided to skip Egypt...mostly because I don't have the patience to deal with all the unwanted attention I'll get traveling alone. I've been warned about Egyptian men and don't want to spend my vacation "on guard"...not my idea of relaxing.
