Sunrise on the Serengeti was gorgeous. We began running into animals immediately. Baboons, lions, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, eland, gazelle.
Some were right beside the car. Others were in the distance.
The endless plain that is the Serengeti is exactly as I had imagined: high reaching grasses blowing in the breeze with a random dotting of trees.
Several hours in to our morning jaunt we stopped at a picnic area and a bathroom. C and I were first to use the ladies and let's just say the teenage Asian girl who entered first her bathroom and then mine screamed both times. We would both take Cipro at lunch and be remarkably better by dinner.
At this pit stop there were tons of birds all sitting just above the ground. The friendly beverage guy from the night before spoke to us as some of us went in for a look, "Don't go close my friend for there is a snake."
This was the second time this day that birds would indicate a snake.
We drove around a little while longer and then went back to camp to break it down and eat brunch which was unreal. It consisted of an avocado and mango salad, butternut squash pizza, pork chops and fries.
While William and Chewy were packing the car (they told us we couldn't help) A taught me to play Spit.
After lunch we wandered through the savanna again seeing gazelle and elephants and then left the Serengeti to head to the ngorongoro crater.
On our way to the crater we made a pit stop and bought another deck of cards, some savannas and ginger cookies.
Our next stop was with some Masai boys who had just been circumcised for no other reason than Chewy knew them. It turns out that he is Masai and William is Chagga.
The Masai are circumcised at age 13 and then for the next 3 months do not live with their family and wear special white paint on their faces.
They are watched over by an older man and at the end of the 3 months return as warriors (as I understand it). We talked to them and A and T bartered for a wooden mallet cattle prod thing. They succeeded in getting it and the smell alone could have probably convinced almost any living thing to do its bidding (Later it was reportedly taken to the shower, scrubbed down with copious amounts of soap and now smells much better). I gave one of the kids chocolate (having finally found the chocolate I brought for the porters).
The next non animal stop would be the camp site at the crater.
We quickly set up our tents and a thunderstorm started almost immediately.
I attempted to capture the lightening on my iPhone but to no avail.
Dinner again was delicious. The beef and vegetable curries were perfect. William continued to out do himself finishing with a honey drizzled banana fritter. Next time I will spend two days with William so he can teach me his secrets.
After dinner I taught everyone to play spades. Then we went back to our tents which were surrounded by buffalo.
It was the coolest thing. In my sleeping bag I could feel them grazing and pulling at the earth. They stayed right outside all of our tents for most of the night.
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