Day 26

Day 26

Today, we went to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is one of the few areas of its kind. It allows for livestock grazing and also preserves the animals. Remember driving through Mesa Verde on the winding roads? Now imagine that the roads were unpaved and bumpy, as well as at steep angles, and then you can imagine our ascent and descent into the crater. Before we started, we had to wait at the gate for an hour. There was a problem with one of our cars. As we were waiting, other groups of tourists would talk to us. We also counted how many we saw in safari ourfits. Who knew you needed that many pockets for standing in a car all day? We also had to listen to a lecture by some guy who works there. He told us all about how the area is run. He said that there was no human-wildlife conflict (what we are studying in class), and when we told our professors he said that, they just laughed. But that was the only school work we had to do today, so the rest of the day we got to be tourists.

We got to see zebra, wildebeest, elephants, Thompson’s gazelles, Grant’s gazelles, hippos, hyenas and a rhino, all before lunch. Where we ate, we had to keep the food in the cars, because if the birds saw you with food, they would dive at you and take the food. People have gotten hurt during this. But, we could watch hippos.

After lunch is when the lion-searching began. We found a lioness with a young cub. They were walking along the side of the road and the baby was calling to its mother. It was so cute. We also saw two male lions, and then another lioness. To see the last lioness, our driver pulled a 180 over a rutted track. We were not expecting this as we stood in the back, so now we have nice new bruises to add to our collection. There were also many hyenas, one was sitting in the middle of the road, and was young and very cute. On the way out and over the hill, the land curser had to go in first gear, because we had too much weight to make it up the side. We even went backwards for a bit.

After that, we all slept coming down the other side. Who knew that bumpy trucks could lull you to sleep so easily? We got to an overlook, and our driver woke us all up. He was amazed that we were able to sleep through the ride. This ride was extra fun because I rode with one of my teachers. This teacher is from Germany, so he is an ‘umzungu’ (foreigner) too. And seeing a foreigner driving a vehicle in the parks is rare, so we got a lot of stares. He also did a good job of pointing out animals. Normally the driver is concentrating on driving, but he would just drive along saying ostrich on the right. Warthogs on the left. Three buzzards over there near that tree. And way over there behind the hill and on the other side of that elephant is a hartebeest. It was very amazing. He even knew what birds we were passing. We saw the largest bird able to fly, the Kori bustard.

Unfortunately, my camera lost power at the beginning, so as soon as I acquire photos from other people, I will be able to get them up.

And here is one right now. What do you call Tanzanian traffic?

Zebras and wildebeest who do not want to get off the road.

Kylie