My morning started with Maria from the hotel asking me if I would forgive the staff. For what?
Your laundry.
Time to look at the laundry. I don't know what it is with international trips and my underwear. Sure enough all of my underwear was destroyed. They must of cheese grater washed everything. I told Maria I would forgive them if they would take it off my bill.
She didn't like this at all but eventually did it.
Shortly after that our safari truck arrived. They had gotten lost because our hotel was down an unmarked "road" (random dirt path).
We headed to pick up our other two companions. After "picking" them we went to a store to buy water and snacks. I bought sesame cookies, cashews, dried mangoes and pineapples and pineapple Fanta (which is absurdly good).
We were off headed to the Serengeti.
The first thing we saw baboons (apparently the male baboons will try to mate human women if they are in heat.).
The second thing was humongous Termite mounds (the Disney animal kingdom in me was ecstatic. I will try to make this the only time I say this: wow wow wow Disney did an amazing job with the Kilimanjaro Safari.).
Next up we crossed into the ngorongoro conservation area and almost immediately had a leopard cross in front of our truck.
ASL and Chewy (our guide) were the only ones who saw it. We climbed to the rim and made a stop at the entrance where we bought ciders, Kilimanjaro beer, playing cards. I bought and mailed a post card for flat Stanley to send to his owner. We toasted to the safari and new friends.
Back in the car we got out to look into the crater from above. We wondered if all the black dots were animals (it would turn out they were).
We stopped for lunch and sat on the hugest tree trunk.
Chewy told us to keep our chicken covered or the hawk circling would take it from us.
After lunch we descended from the crater rim and were asked if we would like to stop in a Masai village. We all wanted to.
We pulled up to the village and one man greeted us.
He explained that they would sing and dance for us and then invite us into the village.
We would then be able to see village life and the school. We would also be able to buy goods that would go to the village's water fund.
The tour was interesting. The Masai people only eat meat, blood, and milk.
The men have two jobs: herding the cattle and protecting the village which equals creating a barrier around the outside of the village. The women have 5 jobs: building the houses (which is why the houses are so short), cooking, cleaning, raising the children, and I can't remember the last thing. Masai are allowed to have as many wives as they want. The only stipulation is the must spend a night with each wife until they run out of wives and then repeat the cycle.
The houses are quite small. All of them have two beds. Each bed is covered with a cowhide.
After the house tour we were taken to the shop which was a circular rack made from tree branches in the center of the village. After shopping we were brought back into the house to barter.
At this point there was an amazing storm. We paid for our goods (me probably too much. I may be too nice on the bartering front and A, well he ranks up there with best barterers in the world.). We made a break for it through the ridiculous rain and hopped in our safari truck. Then we looked around. Definitely not our truck. The driver pointed to the exit of the village.
We didn't see our truck but started running while laughing anyway. Maybe we would become longer term residents of this village than we expected?
We found our truck, still laughing and now somewhat wet (which after Kilimanjaro was turning into the new normal).
Off towards the Serengeti we went.
Almost immediately we saw a cheetah just hanging out beside the road. We stopped and watched him until he got up stretched and went on his was.
This would be the beginning of so many animals to the point where zebras were not unlike deer.
We found our camp and set up our tents while William our cook would start doing unheard of culinary things with a propane stove.
He is amazing. Everything he cooked was over there top with a twist. He could cook in the finest restaurant and be a hero.
His food was nothing short of magical. While dinner was being consumed Chewy built a bonfire and then explained the rules of camp. He asked us to leave all food and toiletries and pretty much everything in the truck.
He also didn't want us to go to the bathroom at night period (not even with a buddy).
This would be a rule that we would all have to break because when you have to go... (The next day at lunch it would be Cipro all around). At dinner a truck pulled up and offered us all kinds of drinks: wine, beer, soda, and liquor. This was totally unexpected.
As we walked out to the campfire the moon was full and the stars were unbelievable. Then we heard them. Using my tactical flashlight (thanks Dad), we lit the edges of the camp and there were at least 7 hyenas. This was apparently a good thing. It meant that there were likely no predators near by. We went to bed after spending a few minutes at the campfire. The next day wake up would at 530 departing promptly at 6.
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