Blogs from Olduvai Gorge, North, Tanzania, Africa

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Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge October 19th 2010

Seventh Day--Olduvai Gorge and Ngorongoro Rim We drove back through the Serengeti and saw many animals along the way. The best sighting was a cheetah at the bottom of a kopje on the south end of the park. During a stop at the Visitor Center we saw lots of hydraxes. They look kind of like guinea pigs on steroids, and they aren’t at all afraid of people. The next couple of hours were spent on that awful gravel washboard road that bounced us around 2 days ago. We continued to see ostriches, antelope, and gazelle. When we left the park we started seeing Maasai herds again. They’re not allowed to graze in the park, but outside of the park is open country for them. Olduvai Gorge was our next stop, and at one point Francis left ... read more
Rock hyraxes
Cheetah
Jackal

Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge July 12th 2008

July 11, 2008 Serengeti Plains / Olduvai Gorge With another early morning start we headed out into the Serengeti plains on our way to Ngorongoro Park in the mountains. On the way we saw lots of the usual big animals and a very large herd of about 50 Elephants. Today we had a few problems with the fuel lines in our Land Cruiser and got stalled, after an hour or so, on the road from the camp. We’re not surprised with the beating the vehicles take with these roads. We eventually got a lift with an American couple and their guide in another vehicle and continued on with them while they fixed ours. We enjoyed the morning with them and finally got a look at a Leopard. A long ways off in a tree, but we ... read more
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Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge December 31st 2007

One of our longest treks !! Seven hours under the sun and in beautiful mountains, crossing Massai villages, and going up quite high (up to 1500 metres). We had a picnic in a very beautiful place where we could see the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai. Quite amazing and lots of fun too. My nicest trek in my life... Then we had Champagne for New Years Eve under the thousands and thousands stars and a nice camp fire. We had lots of laugh and a very good dinner prepared by our cooks. Even a cake cooked under the earth. Gorgeous dinner. I had taken care of our cooks and guides and massages their necks and hands with my massage oil. They adored it. I was glad to do that. We spent the night saying so many jokes ... read more
walking, walking,walking...
a zebra on the way
xing this river

Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge December 30th 2007

There we did real cross country in the Olduvai plains and then went up to the Gol Moutains. We finally visited a Massai village and entered their house. The more houses in a village, the more wives the massai chief has !!! (8 in this one) They sleep with their goats in their house...you can smell the massais from far away.... The men and women are so long and so thin. Some of the girls and teenagers are really beautiful. They create some jewels and when we arrived everything was set up on the bushes as a shop for selling. Believe me bargaining with the women is really tough and if they disagree with your proposed price they don't even wish to sell them to you (whereas in China they will). The men and women put ... read more
always croos country
Arrival in the Gol Mountains
The houses of the Massai village

Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge July 1st 2007

We left the hotel to head back to TCDC, but we first went out of our way to go to Olduvai Gorge, often referred to as "the cradle of mankind", where they have found many prehistoric remains. It is the home of primitive hominid forms before modern humans, and also the first discovered species of homo habilis. While we were there, there was some excavating going on, a professor from Spain and one from the states, so maybe something else will turn up! Near the gorge are the "shifting sands", basically a large sand dune which has been said to completely move over time. They have markers of where the sand was at five years ago, ten years ago, etc. So then we all just stood on top of it! We're going to Dar es ... read more
RECOVERED
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RECOVERED

Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge March 11th 2007

(This entry was posted on 27 March 2007 - we are still experiencing Blog-lag.) No, not Olduvai, as you may have come to know it, but Oldupai. Oldupai is a Maasai word for a local cactus that grows in the area. Early Europeans mispronounced - or misspelled, rather - the name and now the world knows Oldupai as Olduvai. I have wanted to visit Oldupai for a long time for many of the same reasons I wanted to visit Lascaux (see previous blog entry: Time Machine....). The exhibit at Oldupai is very basic and not what I would have expected for such an important site. It was still interesting. The features of the exhibit include casts of the earliest known hominid footprints (3.2 Million Years!!!) and a variety of fossils, bones, stone tools and placards ... read more
Giant Extinct Antelope
Extinct Elephant Species
Homo sapiens (Modern Human)




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