[Previous entry: "August 7 - Serengeti, Tanzania"] [Next entry: "August 9 - Ngorongoro, Tanzania"]

We left Serengeti to go to Ngorongoro Crater.

Matley, our great waiter at the Sopa was sad to see us leave, I think. The ride was long, dusty, and desolate. Every once in awhile, we saw some cool animals, but most of the way it was pretty bare. At one point we saw a huge flock of Ostrich -- there were at least 35 in the group. Prior to this, the most we'd ever seen together was two.

On the way to Ngorongoro, we stopped at Olduvai Gorge. This is a 10 mile long canyon, where very old earth strata are exposed, and many famous archeologists (i.e. Mary Leakey) have made some significant discoveries. Several pre-human skeletons and skulls have been found there, as well as a set of footprints belonging to these ancient beings. In addition to that there have been VERY old homo sapien bones, tools, extinct animals, and other fossils that have been recovered. While there, we listened to a lecture which was quite interesting.

When we left Olduvai, a funny thing happened. Our Land Cruiser would not start. Within 30 seconds, there were 10 guides surrounding our car, diagnosing the problem. Within a minute they had figured out what was wrong, and in another minute they'd fixed it. In the U.S., this would have required a $200 diagnostic, a $200 fix, and of course, not having the use of the car for a day! Mike and I were joking about how, when we break down, we open the hood and look around (without knowing what we are looking at), then after seeing nothing interesting, we get on the cell phone to call AAA!

Animals we saw today:
Vervet Monkey
DikDik
Thomson Gazelle
Elephant
Giraffe
Impala
Golden Jackel
Baboon
Hartebeest

Birds:
-Ostrich (35!!)
-Guinea Fowl
-Superb Starling