I awoke at 6:30am and notice is was wetter than yesterday with some black clouds looming. Not a bad thing as the Crater is quite dry Nd it is the end of the long dry season. The rain last night gave the air a nice crisp, fresh feeling.
I went up for breakfast and barely ate anything, just too much food over the last few days (I never thought I would say that!). The view this morning was incredible and we spent the little time we had left just staring out the window into the Crater. Jim checked out the telescopes and he said the crater floor was teeming with animals.
Around 8:30am were were ready to roll and we started our journey further along the Crater rim until we reached a point that the Serengeti came into view. The plains spread out before us for miles and miles.
Near the entrance to the Crater we visited one of the Maasai Bomas (homes). They do a good business charging tourists to enter, learn about the Maasai culture and way of life and then use the money to send their children to school. First we were welcomed (Karibu) with a tribal dance and song and then allowed to. Take as many photos with them as we liked. Our ‘guide’ was Oli who is apparently the chief of this family. There are 35 brothers and with wives, parents and children the village consists of close to 120 family members.
Oli took us into his Boma and gave us the Reader’s Digest version of village life. The bombs or huts are made from the Acacia tree, grass and cow dung. They don’t build permanent homes as there are nomadic and follow water and food sources for their cattle and goats. They eat only the milk, blood and meat from their animals – no fruit, vegetables or grains for this group. We asked the life expectancy and they live to 85 or 90 so who can say which is a healthier lifestyle!
Following our introduction to Maasai life, we were taken to the Kindergarten. All of the young children are taught basic ABC’s and math by one of the family’s young mothers. As the children get older they are sent to primary, secondary and sometimes university, however they are obligated to return to the village to carry on their community life.
Now is time for shopping. The ladies of the village craft beautiful necklaces, bracelets and other jewellery out of cow bone, porcupine quills among other items. I purchased several bracelets and held my ground for a good bargain. Later I find that the price they had been asking was 2-3 times what the hotel gift shop was charging. Good thing I stuck to my guns. I love Africa however everyone is out to make a dollar at our expense!
Shopping, photos and culture accomplished, Ricky masterfully maneuvers the Land Rover down into the Crater dodging cows, goats, Maasai herders and other 4x4s. Once on the Crater floor we start our quest to find the Black Rhino, one of the Big Five! We decided it should be Ricky the Rhino Hunter and he got a big kick out of that and we were rewarded with a giggle.
We saw plenty of wildebeest, zebra, hyenas, crowned cranes (the official bird of Uganda), Egyptian ducks, wart hogs, ostriches, several male and female lions and a great close up of Hippos! Everyone that heads into the crater takes a picnic lunch and their is a designated picnic area complete with washrooms right in front of the Hippo pool. Two hippos were swimming about 10 feet from shore and although they didn’t come out of the water we got some pretty good photos.
Although try as he might, Ricky the Rhino Hunter just couldn’t managed to hunt one down. We were close but it had popped into the forest and that was that. Shortly after we decided it was time tohead back to Arusha.
Sian and John were constantly playing tricks on each other and giving one another a hard time. We see, yet again, several wart hogs and Sian innocently says to John, ‘what do wart hogs taste like?’ Without a blink of an eye or a seconds delay, John quipped back ‘like chicken’. The look on Sian’s face was priceless and all of us immediately broke out into laughter. John’s great giggle was the loudest and Sian just conceded – touché! It was the final prank of the trip and a good one.
Fun and games became sleepy, rolling heads as we bumped along the African roads. It was a long 4 hours back to Arusha and when we arrived we stopped near Shoprite to purchase some good Kilimanjaro grown coffee. Several of us chose lattes to go just to wake us up.
Before long we arrived back at the hotel, checked in and relaxed. I went into the lounge and caught up on my computer work and before long John and Sian joined me. They left about 11pm and I stayed on emailing my family (no Wi-Fi access in the room)
naturaltrekking 