Awake at 6 am for breakfast at 6:30 and 7 am departure. But we have a stop to make first at a local Masi village on the shores of Lake Manyara before heading out toward the Serengetti.
Driving in the countryside toward the Masi Village near Lake Manyara 
A lone, huge, baobab tree ! Nice reminders of "Le Petit Prince" 
Masi villagers waiting to greet us
Ladies forming a dance line to greet the ladies in our group
We are allowed into the compound, which is surrounded by deep brush to keep wild animals out and their herds in.
You can see from this picture how deep the brush is that surrounds their village 
Getting ready for another dance demonstration
Masi men singing for us
Little boy girl, strutting her stuff
Mamas from the village 
Deo showing off his jumping skills
Very elaborate beaded head-dress on this lady
Mamas with a small baby. Notice that the baby is also wearing beads.
Fire starting: Rather than just one person spinning the stick between their palms, all three took turns and they got a bit of a spark in no time. They placed the spark in a small dung ball and blew on it until it caught fire; then they added the flaming dung ball to the sticks and VOILA ! Fire ! 
After the demonstration of fire starting, the men showed off their amazing high jumping skills. This is something traditional in the Masi culture and the one who can jump the highest is very skilled. In turn, the men in our group were invited to try jumping as well. Then the women Masi got the women in our group to imitate their dance: they make their beaded collars bounce simply by shrugging their shoulders. Unfortunately my beaded collar was weighed down by a hanging pendant which dangled all the way down to my knees so I was unable to make my collar bounce. The Masi women thought this was very funny and we all laughed. Only a few of the young Masi men could speak English and acted as interpreters. We were then honoured by being allowed to enter one of the Masi huts, which are traditionally built by the women of the tribe. It looks very crude however when you start looking at how the branches are arranged and tied together, especially the roof structure, it is a true work of engineering!
From inside one of their homes, you can see the roof structure and how the mud covers the walls creating a very smooth, hard finish. Actually very clean inside. 
Small alcoves for the beds, built in shelves for storage
Me with my beaded collars and pendants with Mama who's house we visited. We are holding hands ! So cute. She was very proud of the fact that I was greatly impressed by her building and engineering skills.The Masi are a polygamist society so the men can have more than one wife. The interesting part is that wife number 1 gets to choose wife number 2; someone who is a hard worker and with whom she will get along well since they will be working together as a team to build the house, milk the cows and goats, fetch the water, cook the meals, etc. Wives #1 & 2 get to choose wife #3. The number of wives depends on how many cows and goats the man owns and whether he is able to take care of another family. Each wife has her own house however. The kids tend the herds while they graze. The men don’t seem to do much. They no longer hunt or eat wild life and their diet is restricted to the milk, blood and meat from their herds. They do eat some fruit, but no vegetables. The women and children also make beaded jewellery which they sell for additional income. Very poorly made but I bought some anyway to support their community.
Check out the elaborate bracelet on the baby ! The jewelry they were selling was displayed on the blanket.
She can't walk yet, but it won't be long.
Outside the compound a donkey patiently waits for its next task
Little boy returning to the compound
Two masi men heading out of the village
Me beside a massive termite mound
Saying our final goodbyes
Had some spectacular scenery along the way
Nice paved roads
Lots of cattle and goats
More vistas, as far as the eye can see
Just before lunch, we entered the Ngorongoro Crater National Park and got our first view of it from the rim. We will be going down into the crater on our last safari day.
The gate to Ngorongoro National Park
Maquette of the park
Maquette of the crater
One of the displays in their "museum"
World Heritage Site
Up on the rim of the crater. Luscious forest
Looking down into the crater / caldera
Can you see the black specks in the middle of the picture? Those are herds of either zebra or wildebeest.
There is water and vegetation down there as well.
Look at the baby in the middle, and the big Mama on the right ! There is another baby behind her.The Masi are allowed to live within the park since they do not hunt the animals. They have their small village compounds and herds of cattle and goats.
More beautiful vistas
Masi herds grazing in a huge valley
Masi houses on the hillside of the valley
Masi compound, mostly used to keep the herds in, and for tourists to visit. The compound we visited earlier today was much more authentic.
Masi herding the cattle
Masi herding some donkeys carrying supplies
A lone ostrich wandering around. Must be a few more nearby since we usually see 3 or 4 of them together.
Beautiful vistas continue in the rolling mountains
Looks like part of the rift valley !We stopped for lunch at the archaeological site of Olduvai Gorge where Mary & Louis Leakey discovered Lucy and where they worked for over 50 years. The gorge is about 30 miles long and the Masi word for it is “Oldupaai”. This is considered to be the “seat of humanity” since it is where the earliest known specimens of human genus “Homo Habilis” were found. I remember reading and hearing about “Lucy” and how, at the time, it stirred up the whole “Human Evolution Theory” again. Field work is still being carried out and archaeological finds continue to be made. This was originally the site of a large lake, but with seismic activity in the Great Rift Valley, the lake drained and the gorge was formed by diverting waters which cut into the sediment levels.
You may not be able to tell from this picture, but it is quite deep.
Again the colour striations display the different levels of sediment.
The museum contained a wealth of information, but we did not have enough time to read all the posters. I took some pictures of the huge posters so that I would be able to read the info later. Unfortunately, when I zoom in to the text it becomes illegible, so you may have to research the information on Mary & Louis Leakey’s work on the internet, just like I will have to do. The museum contained a cast of 3.6 million year old hominid footprints. “More hominid fossils have come from Bed 1 (lowest level of excavation – Dark green in picture below) than from any of the higher beds. The leg and foot bones recovered here show that Homo Habilis walked upright with a free-striding gait like that of modern humans; while the hand bones with opposable thumb and index finger indicate a precision grip.”
Mold of the footprints
One of the footprints
Photo of the archeological picture of the footprints before the mold was made. After the mold was finished, they recovered the site to preserve the footprints.“The footprints clearly show that the big toe is in line with the rest of the foot. In this position it functions to push the foot off in walking. This contrasts with other primates, whose great toe is strongly angled away from the foot to act, much like a thumb, as a powerful grasping organ for climbing trees. The arch in the footprint only occurs in humans and works as a type of natural “shock-absorber” for the forces that result from all the weight being concentrated on a single supporting limb. The stride length can be measured from the distance between the individual prints. It is apparent that the hominids were taking short steps, which indicates slow, deliberate walking. Although it is not possible to determine the biological ages or gender of the makers of the footprints, the size of the prints (19-20 cm) is in agreement with the small stature estimated for the adult female skeleton, Lucy, of just over 1 meter tall. Other fossil evidence indicates that males were taller.” “Hominids left their footprints in the volcanic ash, dampened by rain. The ash preserved the prints well because it contained the mineral sodium carbonate, which cemented the ash on drying”.
Homo Erectus bones were found in Bed 2 (Blue in picture below). Beds 3 & 4 (burgundy) & Bed 5 (beige) are from more recent years.
“The Rift Valley, where the gorge is located, has many fault cuts as you can see from the picture above. The faults started to occur 1.5 million years ago and continue intermittently. The faulting that occurred 30,000 to 100,000 years ago caused subsidence between the first fault and the foot of Ngorongoro Crater to form the Olbalbal Depression. The depression accelerated erosion, allowing steams to cut Olduvai Gorge to its present depths of 45 to 90 meters deep.
Prehistoric Rhino skull
Prehistoric gazelle or bok
Humanid skull and bones
This is where the texts became illegible from the photo.The erosion uncovered some bones and the rest is history ! Bed 1 and Lower Bed 2 (1.7 – 2 million years ago) represent one of the most interesting periods at Olduvai, when there was an abundance of game and aquatic birds and two types of hominid (Australopithecus boisei and Homo habilis). Since 1989, new work on reconstructing ancient landscapes has been done by the Olduvai Landscape Paleoanthropology Project (OLAPP) based at Rutgers University in the USA. Investigations have added greatly to our understanding of the environment and its use by hominids.”
After this very informative stop, and our box lunch (which contained, among many other things, cooked chicken which had not been refrigerated since at least 6 am that morning ! No I did not eat it.) we got back in our vehicle and kept driving. By the way, we left the paved road at the park gates and are now on dirt roads.
Masi group under the shade of a tree
Donkeys wondering around on their own beside the road
We've left the mountains and valleys behind and are now on the plains of the Serengetti.
Galloping hyena beside the road.
Huge flock of migrating storks
Here are these strange birds again. Need to figure out what they are.
Arriving at the Serengeti National Park Gates. Check out the fees and the rules !
From the Serengeti National Park gates, where we stopped to get our entry permit, we were able to climb up a hill and get a view of the surrounding flat areas for the Serengeti.
There is a lookout hill at the gates; the only hill for miles and miles in any direction.
Views from the hill
Road we will be taking to continue into the park, and below, the road we took to drive in.
Our safari vehicle from G-Adventures. Room for the driver and guide in the front, and seven passengers in the back. It's crowded !Serengeti National Park is a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a 7th worldwide wonder of the world. It measures 14,763 sq km (5,700 sq miles). I was there during the breeding and birthing season, so there were lots of babies of all types running around. The migration had also begun towards the north to Kenya. The rains will arrive in March, so I made it just in time.
Our driver, Elias, is the tall, strong, silent type. He doesn’t say much, but every once in a while he will joke with us, with a very serious face. He is a very good driver and I feel very safe with him at the wheel. He was also good at spotting game out in the distance. Deo & Elias would see things out there that we would have completely missed; example: what looked like a twig on a distant tree was an antelope leg that a leopard had carried up to eat in peace.
Within a short time from entering the park, we started seeing lots of animals. Hartebeests, zebras, Masi giraffes (different pattern), elephants and….. the piece de résistance….. a leopard ! 
Hartebeasts. Have you noticed that whenever the animal has a longish, squarish face it is a beast ! and if it has a deer shaped face it is a bok or antelope !
Zebras taking a rest. Notice that they are resting their heads on each other's backs ! That's so then can keep an eye in every direction for safety. Isn't that smart?Also, check out their tails, it actually looks like they are braided because of the stripes.
Mama and baby keeping close.
Although we are on the plains, these great big bolders just appear out of nowhere, as well as huge rock outcrops. 
Masi giraffe with its flower type pattern, instead of the block pattern of the African giraffe.
Lots of elephants as well. Notice the burn marks in the field behind him. This is a controlled burn that the rangers carry out on a regular basis so that when the rains come it will enrich the soil.
Check out the lowest branch on the right side of this tree. 
It's a leapord !
And he/she was kind enough to get up and move around for another photo op !After spending a lot of time watching the leopard we needed to hurry to get to the campsite before the sun went down, one of the rules of the Serengeti. We had a glimpse of hippos sitting deep in a pond beside the road before reaching our campsite.
Driving through the Serengetti ! Another dream come true.
Lots of hippos in this pond, but they weren't very active.
Moon light on the Serengeti.Just as the sun was setting, we saw an elephant wandering by maybe 200 meters right in front of our tents.
The two nights we spent at this campsite coincided with the full moon.I tried to take a picture but it did not come out very well. My first night in the wilds of Africa, among all the animals wandering around the Serengeti. I made sure my port-a-potty was ready for action… just in case. I was still not pooping from my experience with the latte, which had completely emptied my bowels. It was getting VERY uncomfortable so it was a good thing I was alone in my tent since the gas production was non-stop when I was horizontal.
The camp helpers, at Deo’s instructions, had set up my tent so that it would be in the middle of the row and somewhat protected (psychologically, it did help) and I actually slept fairly well.
Lloyd said that when he got up to go to the bathroom at around 2 am, he met a giraffe chomping on a nearby tree. Stine said she thought she saw a hyena or a jackal at around 5 am when she walked to the washroom. There was NO WAY I WAS COMING OUT OF MY TENT AT NIGHT ! Even with my headlight.
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