On our final day in the Serengeti, I woke up before the sun and went outside to watch it come up. I love the peaceful sound of morning -listening in the dark then watching as the sun rises and reveals the scenery around you. I recorded what it sounded like, in case you are interested: Recording 1 & Recording 2.
We have a good breakfast and then pack our lunches and meet up with Kessy for day 2 of adventure. We decided we'd like to do the Massai walk in the afternoon (I really wanted to and the others seemed into it) so we knew we'd be back around 4. As we headed out to where the animals were gathered, Kessy suggested we stop at a Massai village. I'd done it before, in Kenya, and found it fascinating, so I said I'd be up for it. Heidi, Sally and Sam said they'd like to give it a go, so for $50 (for the 4 of us) we went to the village, asked as many questions as we wanted, got to wear Massai necklaces, "dance" with the ladies (which was really just jumping -and it confirmed I'm not a good jumper), watch a welcome dance, have the men jump for us, see a house, visit the school and take unlimited pictures. Of course, they also asked for more donations and asked us to buy their wares, but we weren't having any of it. Heidi gave the kids at the school some notebooks and Sally gave them some markers. I have a ton of pictures and a video of the welcome dance (Click here for video). The kids were excited to have their picture taken and then to see their picture on the camera. Overall, I enjoyed it - however, they were certainly pushy about trying to get more money out of us which felt uncomfortable/ungrateful since we'd just given $50... but at the same time, we are very wealthy in comparison - so I can't blame them.
Next we headed out and saw a bunch of giraffe, a couple dikdik, wildebeest, zebra, pink flamingos, eagles and a couple grant gazelle. There was a giraffe pair that were trying to mate (which, of course, we waited for) but they took forever... I think the male was nervous. So, we left. On our way home we came across a recent kill - Kessy said that since there were no lions and the zebra (meal) was so complete (meaning it'd happened very recently) the zebra was probably sick or hurt and killed by hyenas... because if a lion had chased it down, the lion would still be there. We sat and watched the hyenas and vultures enjoy their feast for quite a while. Warning - the pictures and video are national geographic graphic.... the hyena climbs inside the zebra belly - so if you get squeemish, don't watch. (here's one video if you'd like to check it out).
When we got back to the hotel, Heidi and Sam said they'd rather rest up and pack so only Sally and I went for the walk with the Massai guide. It was interesting to learn more about the area. Sally took advantage of an aloe plant which we passed and rubbed it on her sunburn - it turned her yellow, but the next day the burn had gone down, so it was worth it! A lot of the Massai recycled tires to create shoes so I was able to get a close up picture from our guide. We walked along the Olvadai gorge, where some of the earliest human remains have been found (though miles from where we were). I loved the fact that we were just walking along the plain, the chance of an animal coming up at any time was there (of course we only saw some zebra and gazelle, so I'm not sure how much possible danger we could have been in -but we WERE in the wild!) with only our Massai man and his spear to protect us. Thinking about how the Massai tribe just walk around free like that every day - I'm happy we got to do it. We ended the walk with sunset from up on one of the high rocks in the camp. It wasn't the best sunset because of the clouds, but it was still amazing to sit up top and look out to forever... knowing all that we'd seen that day was out there... the hyenas, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and so much more. A great way to bring the trip to an end.
Click here for pictures
We have a good breakfast and then pack our lunches and meet up with Kessy for day 2 of adventure. We decided we'd like to do the Massai walk in the afternoon (I really wanted to and the others seemed into it) so we knew we'd be back around 4. As we headed out to where the animals were gathered, Kessy suggested we stop at a Massai village. I'd done it before, in Kenya, and found it fascinating, so I said I'd be up for it. Heidi, Sally and Sam said they'd like to give it a go, so for $50 (for the 4 of us) we went to the village, asked as many questions as we wanted, got to wear Massai necklaces, "dance" with the ladies (which was really just jumping -and it confirmed I'm not a good jumper), watch a welcome dance, have the men jump for us, see a house, visit the school and take unlimited pictures. Of course, they also asked for more donations and asked us to buy their wares, but we weren't having any of it. Heidi gave the kids at the school some notebooks and Sally gave them some markers. I have a ton of pictures and a video of the welcome dance (Click here for video). The kids were excited to have their picture taken and then to see their picture on the camera. Overall, I enjoyed it - however, they were certainly pushy about trying to get more money out of us which felt uncomfortable/ungrateful since we'd just given $50... but at the same time, we are very wealthy in comparison - so I can't blame them.
Next we headed out and saw a bunch of giraffe, a couple dikdik, wildebeest, zebra, pink flamingos, eagles and a couple grant gazelle. There was a giraffe pair that were trying to mate (which, of course, we waited for) but they took forever... I think the male was nervous. So, we left. On our way home we came across a recent kill - Kessy said that since there were no lions and the zebra (meal) was so complete (meaning it'd happened very recently) the zebra was probably sick or hurt and killed by hyenas... because if a lion had chased it down, the lion would still be there. We sat and watched the hyenas and vultures enjoy their feast for quite a while. Warning - the pictures and video are national geographic graphic.... the hyena climbs inside the zebra belly - so if you get squeemish, don't watch. (here's one video if you'd like to check it out).
When we got back to the hotel, Heidi and Sam said they'd rather rest up and pack so only Sally and I went for the walk with the Massai guide. It was interesting to learn more about the area. Sally took advantage of an aloe plant which we passed and rubbed it on her sunburn - it turned her yellow, but the next day the burn had gone down, so it was worth it! A lot of the Massai recycled tires to create shoes so I was able to get a close up picture from our guide. We walked along the Olvadai gorge, where some of the earliest human remains have been found (though miles from where we were). I loved the fact that we were just walking along the plain, the chance of an animal coming up at any time was there (of course we only saw some zebra and gazelle, so I'm not sure how much possible danger we could have been in -but we WERE in the wild!) with only our Massai man and his spear to protect us. Thinking about how the Massai tribe just walk around free like that every day - I'm happy we got to do it. We ended the walk with sunset from up on one of the high rocks in the camp. It wasn't the best sunset because of the clouds, but it was still amazing to sit up top and look out to forever... knowing all that we'd seen that day was out there... the hyenas, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and so much more. A great way to bring the trip to an end.
Click here for pictures
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