The oldest footprints

a giraffe pattern
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Our next day was a long drive through Ngorongoro conservation area to end up at the Serengeti National Park.   We stopped at the Olduvai gorge -misspelled by a German explorer it is from the Masaai word for sisal - Oldupai.  The site is only viewable from a distance as we didn't have arrangements to have a guide to the floor.  Still it is a very informative small museum that gives much detail on the finds and preservation of the remains of our oldest known ancestors.  Both Louis and Mary Leakey worked in the area from the 20's until Mary's death in 1995.  The excavations continue with a number of participating groups.  There is a copy of the 3.6 million year old footprints of our hominid past on display.  The originals have been carefully reburied to preserve them.   There is an interesting write up describing how Mary Leaky and her team discovered the oldest known skull while having a elephant turd throwing fight.

Zebra looking at me looking at Zebra
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We ate our boxed lunches and had several variety of birds skirting our feet for crumbs.  The journey took us through rainstorms and socked in conditions.  The rim of Ngorongoro was pretty much a pea-souper.  Then as we came down the view opened up to a vast expanse of land.  We drove on for quite a while before actually entering the park.   Zebra, giraffes and gazelle were grazing alonside the cattle of the Masaai.  The landscape was remotely reminiscent of New Mexico with many more trees and in this season much greener.  And then of course there are the mud and stick compounds of the Masaai dotting the landscape with their herds.

oldupai gorge
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As we enter the park we start today's list of sightings.  My first view of a cheetah was pretty much a back end moving through the tall grass.  There were Hartebeest, Jackal, Giraffe, Secretary bird,  Thompson's Gazelle.

The apex of the day was driving into the middle of a small section of the migration of wildebeest and zebra.

We came upon a couple of jackals who ran ahead of us for quite some time until they ran right into a grouping of Guinea fowl.  One of the jackals came right toward us as if to say, "Back off I have work to do here."  Then he proceeded to chase down and eat a young guinea fowl.  I felt like we had contributed to this death.

A yellow weaver
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We had our first night of camping.  First you don't have to lift a finger as the guide and the cook set everything up and fix your meal.  The campsite had to truck and camper combos from South Africa, two small tents housing 3 English speaking Canadians and Two large upscale tents housing 3 French speaking Canadians and a Swiss guy.  The English speaking Canadians set about getting quite sloshed on 3 bottles of Konyagi or the local gin.

We all set about for a few hours talking travel.  The two Canadian groups had scaled Mt Kilimanjaro and were comparing torture stories on the climb.  The Swiss guy  turned out to be quite a character.  He moved to Australia just to be in the home of the most venomous snakes in the world.

So take about two hundred of these photos and line them up to get an idea of the line of wildebeest
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I retired early when the Swiss guy and the really drunk Canadian started comparing military experiences.