Practically Cheeting

Day 15 - True Date 6/20/13

Since I'm sure you can guess what breakfast is like at this point in the trip I will try to keep this brief. We met to eat at 7:00. We then had a few minutes to finish packing before heading out. We had to pack because we would again be moving campsites by the evening. We were on the road again just as 8 o'clock rolled around. We'd now seen most of the animals on our list of "hope to sees" and were now focusing on finding a male lion, cheetahs and the elusive rhino.

It did not take us long to begin checking "items" off of this list. Perhaps 45 minutes into the day we arrived at a "crowded" section of trail. That is, there was a large

I realize this is a hyena not a lion... I
could not get a picture of the lion and
we saw the hyena this morning though
I did not choose to write about it.

collection of jeeps that had congregated together in this section. While here we were able to see a pair of lions, one of whom was female and the other a male! We were limited in how close we could get due to both the other jeeps as well as this being an area where we were not allowed to drive off of the roads. That said, we were able to get great views of the male and his magnificent mane through a couple sets of binoculars. This was definitely a highlight for Archer who had been excited to see a lion with a mane all trip. Unfortunately, he'd also hoped to get a close-up look at the cat's paws but we were unable to achieve that view.

From here we hit, in my opinion, the most exciting part of the day. Over the next 2 (ish) hours we had I believe 4 cheetah spottings! Three of these were each very different from each other and had amazing views. The first spotting occurred when Ayubu spotted a cat lounging in the shade of a bush, likely 50 feet(?) from the road. We watched the cat for a while with binoculars before realizing that a second cheetah was present in the tall grass not too far off, clearly eating a recent kill. The cheetah who was eating finished its meal and joined its pal in the shade

where we saw them take a minute or so to clean each other's face. At this point the vultures and jackals arrived to take what was left of the kill. This clearly upset the cheetahs who tried to chase off the scavengers. Unfortunately, the racket attracted a pack of hyenas who the cheetahs are unwilling to fight. While it was disappointing to see the cheetahs lose what was left of their kill It was fortunate that they'd already eaten their fill. Over the course of this event the cheetahs came spectacularly close (much like the leopard yesterday) and we saw one give a short chase to one of the jackals.

The next two great sightings were just as good, in some ways better, but definitely had fewer steps to describe. The first was a group of three we found feasting on a

fresh kill of a Thompson's Gazelle. Here, we were able to drive off road and approach the cats very close. When we got near one of the cheetahs left the kill and hid behind the bush they were eating by. The other two continued to eat as we got within a few yards of them and got some great shots. After a while the second left and when we started the jeep to leave the third got startled as well. When we pulled away they'd all left the kill but it was unclear if they would return as soon as we were gone or if they had finished all together.

A good while later we found our third good cheetah photo opt. Here it was a part of the Serengeti that again lived up to the name of "endless plane". In an area that

seemed entirely flat we could see a mound in the distance with a group of figured upon it. When we got closer we found 3 cheetahs, apparently a mother and her two cubs, standing on what had to be the highest point for miles around (yet only a few feet high). We were able to get close and drive the whole circle around the cats (slowly). As we did they sat looking out the plane, smelled the ground around them, and did minor bathings for each other. It was very cute and we hoped (and expected) they would get their days meal soon. Luckily the plane around seemed quite populated with gazelle so I think they'd fair alright.

The last cheetah sighting I mentioned was merely a head in the tall grass where we could not approach. Given our success so far we did not linger long and moved ahead with our day. Throughout our drives we saw more elephants and

giraffes (because that's just what you do on a daily basis). This brought us to our lunch destination which was a "local" ranger station on the edge of Lake Manyara (where we had gone a few days earlier to see the flamingos). With the ranger we walked around and headed down to the beech where we could now walk right up to the water's edge. Unfortunately, none of the flamingos stayed close to where we were so our views were only marginally better than before. During the walk we also saw two dung beetles on the sand. That was new but they were sadly not rolling any dung balls around which is always fun to see.

We finished the day with two non-animal adventures.Our first was a stop to the Oldurai Gorge Historical Site. This is one of the dig sites that is currently being

used to map the progression of human evolution. It has helped by finding skulls of primate evolution at different stages as well as fossilized footprints. We were given a short description of these findings and what occurred in which of the geological layers present. The site also had a 3 room museum. The first room was credited to an explorer who did a trip around the world though I am reluctant to admit I do not have his name recorded nor can I find it online. The other two rooms were for local fossils, including many extinct animals and a progression of footprints. It was a quick museum but pretty cool.

Our last stop of the day was a local Massai Village. We were greeted by a

"welcoming song" and then went through the entrance "gate" and saw a series of dances. The dance involved the men jumping in a competition for height and the women singing and playing music with a set of charms/instruments that they bounced with their shoulders. Archer, Harrison, Liesje and Kelly all participated. We were then broken into pairs with guides from the tribe who spoke English to see the insides of the Massai homes. The houses were small, low (about 5 feet) domes made from sticks, mud and hay. The inside was a single room somewhat divided into 3 parts for cooking, eating and sleeping. We were

then taken back outside where we saw a lot of beaded work that they have for sale. The footprint of the village was a doughnut. The inner ring was for herding animals and had a wall of Acacia branches. There was then a ring for walking about, an outer ring of houses followed by an outermost wall of again, acacia branches. We learned that the Massai diet is 2 meals a day of lamb milk mixed with lamb blood. We then saw their school which was a single room building with young children of varied ages. They were learning the alphabet and numbers. After that we got back in the car and called it a day.

We got to our night's camp at about 5:00. Here we were staying on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater. It was much colder than any of our recent nights. Dinner was served again at 7:00 and was clearly a "celebration" since it would be our last night with the crew who had been serving us for two weeks now. They first brought us a pepper and leak soup which was on par with their usual soups. They then presented us with the main course of rice with vegetable curry and a huge leg of lamb that they had grilled. It was absolutely delicious! After dinner everyone called it a night and headed to the tents to escape the cold.

This picture was entirely spontaneous and an idea by Ayubu.
He was awesome...