We headed off for the Serengeti National Park via a drive along the Ngorongoro Crater rim.  We will actually descend into the crater as we drive back from Serengeti 5 days hence, so we just check out the visitors center at the entrance for now.  We stop at the Oldupai Gorge along the way for a visit to the small museum and a lecture from park staff.  Apparently the name we all learned in our anthropology courses, “Olduvai”, was the result of a typographical error or misunderstanding by Germans in the first scientific reporting from here.  The correct word, “Oldupai”, is the Maasai word for a plant common in the area, sisal, which can be used to make rope.  We also learned about the progression of excavation in the gorge and its geological backstory.  Many earlier evolutionary dead ends of our ancestry were first found here (homo habilis, homo erectus), culminating in the first homo sapiens, the truly modern man.

Tanzanians are rightly proud of being seen as the birthplace of man, and they take great care in explaining the history, maintaining a very informative museum on site, and protecting the overall area.  After a box lunch during which we were almost overwhelmed by hungry little yellow chickadee-like birds (the lesser masked social weaver), we were taken down into the original excavation area of the gorge to the site where Australopithecus man (Zinjanthropus) was discovered by the Leakeys in 1959 to start things off.  After that, a visit to the little museum ensued and was so fascinating that Phyllis was late, and last, back to the jeeps for departure.

Onward to the Serengeti National Park, a two-hour drive to the entrance and then another couple of hours to our mobile tented campsite (mobile meaning it is moveable, but is fixed in place for our stay).  The drive across the Ngorongoro highlands is again through Maasai country, who thickly populate this “multiuse” area (kind of like National Forest lands in the U.S.) because they were transplanted here from their previously preferred lands in the Serengeti.  When Tanzania decided to make Serengeti into a national park, it had to negotiate with the Maasai to resettle them elsewhere, and just a little further south into the Ngorongoro highlands was chosen.  We learn that their numbers have swollen from 400,000 to 1.2 million, not to mention an even larger number of cattle, and the government is thinking of relocating them again.  (Kind of like the American Indian story.)  It remains to be seen how accommodating the Maasai will be this time.  But, besides the Maasai and their beloved cattle, we see wildebeest, zebras, giraffe, and camels along the way.  Yes, camels, due to a government experiment to see how well they perform for carriage of goods in this environment.

Once we entered the Serengeti gate, we started to see a greater profusion of game animals, even here along the main (albeit dirt) road into and through the park.  Zebras, Grant and Thompson gazelles, hyenas, elephants, cheetahs, jackals, and the Kori bustard (the world’s largest flying bird) all made an appearance, as well as a lone ostrich.  Whetted our appetite for things to come.

Our camp, home for the next 4 nights, is composed of wall tents again, this time just set up on the ground with a 5-gallon bucket for shower water hanging out back, as well as a bucket gravity-feeding a flush toilet in our little “bathroom” area of the tent.  The shower reminds us of our accommodations on Shuyak Island back home.  Each couple has a separate tent, and there is a common mess tent in the middle of our crescent-shaped group, with the support tents (kitchen, storage, staff quarters) arrayed out back.  A path to each tent has been scythed in the otherwise tall savannah grass, and again we are instructed not to venture out of the tents after dark on our own due to the possibility of unfriendly animals in that tall grass.  Hyenas are again a likely suspect, as well as lions and snakes.  Also, apparently elephants… in fact, when we arrived in late afternoon there was a herd of elephants in the vicinity to welcome us to what was appropriated called “Tembo Camp”, tembo being the Swahili word for elephant.  (People who repeatedly watched “The Lion King” movie with their small children have a leg up on all the Swahili words for animals.  Unfortunately Phyllis does not remember this movie very well.)

A staff of seven at Tembo Camp prepared our hot water for showers upon our arrival and we then gathered for wine/beer to be followed by dinner.  Just as we began to eat, another torrential downpour hit, which immediately caused the staff to scatter to be sure all our tent windows were sufficiently zipped up.  After yet another 4-course meal, we all dashed (escorted) to our tents in between showers to get ready for a 6 a.m. game drive departure tomorrow.  Despite the heroic efforts and best intentions the staff did miss a few windows in our tent that we had foolishly left zipped down.  The water that came inside at least missed the beds.