Ngorongoro Crater.
Dang. Wide angle all the way open gets vignetting. Pooh. Oh well, still pretty awesome. ;) |
Our driver and guide, Fabian. :) He is an incredibly skilled driver, navigating around potholes, through mud, avoiding goats and cattle, bump starting the stopped safari vehicles of other groups, speeding along crater rims... and got us out of the national parks by closing time!
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Dario, our resident videographer, looks at a group of Maasai along the road. There were many groups of them, primarily women and children I believe, who would smile and wave and try to get us to stop. According to Fabian it's to provide photo opportunities... for a generous tip, of course!
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Stealth photo of Sean with camera. Holding his camera, that is. Obviously it was taken with my camera!
Sigh... you people! |
Zebra outside of the crater, along the rim. I love the clouds behind them, so beautiful.
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Dario, wildlife documentarian.
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Clever bird at the Oldupai visitor area.
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Oldupai Gorge. That's right, not Olduvai. The German explorer who published the name wrote it down incorrectly. Now the whole world is confused!
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Inside the museum at the gorge. Lots and LOTS o' layers of pre-history here!
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More clever birds who know exactly where the tourist eat their lunch!
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Obligatory We Were There picture. ;)
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Our trusty safari vehicle. After leaving Oldupai, we headed to a Maasai village...
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...where they were VERY happy to see us and put on a bit of a show, sell us jewelry, and give us a very well-polished sales pitch to garner donations to send the kids to school. It's amazing how much love and adoration an entry fee will get you!
This is the men's circle, btw, as everyone performs a "welcome to the village" dance. |
To the right was the women's circle.
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Award-winning, National Geographic-type picture. ;)
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Sean learns the secrets of the Maasai Levitation Technique. It's all in the wrist, Sean, all in the wrist... Oh, and something I forgot! A little bit of pixie dust!
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Maasai house. As our host informed us, this is a VERY good house. Keeps the sun out during the day and the water out during the rainy season. This house has been around for something like 12 years. A good house!
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Our host. I cannot remember his name (d'oh! I'll look through my notes), but he was 17 years old and quite adept at making his presentation. The inside of the house, btw, smelled really, really nice. Something about the fragrant wood that is used for cooking, I think.
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A mini-Maasai decides that Dario needs to come to school.
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Just as we were leaving the school (a small hut out in back of the village), where the star student was put on display, reciting the alphabet in English and counting to 100 in tens, a very large dust devil appeared.
[Hint: mouseover.] |
I wasn't really concerned until I saw mothers picking up small children and moving quickly away (no, really!).
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Whew, passed by! It had appeared to loop around for a minute before heading on its way. I thought maybe it smelled tourists and had come to purify the village or something.
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Ok, back on the road! As we neared the Serengeti, we saw groups of Thompson's and Grant's Gazelle. These are Thompson's. Sorry for the blur -- this was a drive-by shooting.
I tell ya what -- all that time at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park really paid off! Sometimes the names of the critters dropped out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. How the hell would I know how to recognize a Thompson's Gazelle? But I called it! |
Ostrich!
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WARTHOG! Woohoo! (Note the bebes on the right.)
[Hint: mouseover.] |
Off they go!
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Kori Bustard, a very large bird! Not quite as large as an ostrich, but still quite substantial.
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OMG! It's a--- [you'll have to look at the next page to find out!]
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Did Dario learn much at school with his mini Masai (that description cracked me up, and the picture is priceless.) I'm glad the big dust devil didn't decide to purify the village of tourists, and it's good to hear all those days at the zoo and wild animal park came in handy lo all these years hence!
Bemused Boomer · 2009-02-06: 03:40
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