Sunday June 26, 2011 – Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater

We are Masai!

Nzuri Sana!

Woke up bright and early, had tea and then headed out for a morning game drive. We ended up seeing three leopards, a bunch of elephants, zebras, wart hogs, impala, antelope, male lions and female lions, giraffes, ostrich, hippos, monkeys, and a bunch of neat looking birds! It was raining for a bit and our jeep got stuck in some mud and we couldn’t get out so we all had to get out and push! Our feet got really muddy and we were all soaking wet and so dirty, but it was a blast! Went back to camp around noonish to pick up our stuff and have lunch and then we picked up our fixed popped tire and headed towards the crater. Our guides tied our luggage and tents to the top of the jeep and part of it was in the way of our roof top shutting properly so when it started to rain again we all got absolutely soaking wet inside the jeep and water was literally pouring in! Water was even getting in through our windows on the side of the jeep and they were shut, but the seals on them were old and didn’t work properly. Shortly after our vehicle decides to overheat! We were broken down for over half an hour until another vehicle stopped to see if we were ok. One of the girls from inside the vehicle was from Abbotsford, BC, of all places (small world!). We were shortly on the road again, but just when we thought that we had dealt with all the bad luck coming our way, we got another popped tire! A different group stopped to help us and then their radiator over heated, lol, so our guides helped them! Luckily everyone is so nice! Unfortunatley from all the breakdowns we wouldn’t make it to our camp by dark. We quickly stopped at a Masai village before getting to camp because there was one on the way that lets people tour their village for a small price. We didn’t get to stay long because it was getting dark but I’m glad we went because it was really neat to experience! They took us inside their huts, which by the way the women make out of acacia trees and cow dung! Their huts consist of an entrance room with a small fire in the center, a room just big enough to fit one cow, a room for the kids to sleep and a room for the parents or grandparents to sleep. The fires burn just enough to keep the huts nice and warm and they had tiny little windows that let enough light in without letting the warmth escape or the wind and rain to get in. Masai are nomadic to they travel around the country and make new villages as they go. Then they took us to see their primary school where they teach their children right there in the village and then they tried to sell us necklaces, bracelets and jewellery for ridiculously high prices! We got to camp and it was pitch dark out so we quickly set up tent and had dinner. It was freezing cold because we were camping at the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. I didn’t sleep well because the ground was so hard and my feet refused to get warm, but I didn’t mind because I WAS ON A SAFARI IN AFRICA!!!!!

I slept in the one on the right!

Inside the house of a Masai warrior!

Masai children coming back from school (in the back)