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Arusha National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater & Tarangire National Park

Northern Tanzania

Tony Clemens
2005-08-31 21:43:52

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walking around the grounds of the lodge I spotted a couple of Dik-diks, probably the smallest of the antelopes. Pretty exciting spotting some wild animals while out for a walk. More exciting and I'm sure more dangerous was spotting a wild cat called a civet. Its a nocturnal medium size cat and therefore rarely seen, it stared at me for a few seconds before disappearing into the woods. Now I understood why some quests of the lodge wanted an armed escort back to their hut.

Ngorongoro Crater

After spending two days in the Serengeti we headed back to Ngorongoro with two interesting stops along the way. First we visited Olduvai Gorge where in 1959 the Leakeys found fossils of Homo habilis dated back 1.8 million years and in 1979 discovered footprints dated back 3.5 million years. There is a small museum at the site and certainly interesting to visit the place where we might have all come from. Also along the main Serengeti-Ngorongoro road the Maasi have builted a model village to attract tourists. Many of the Maasi still live a traditional lifestyle and built this village to capitilize on the tourist trade. You can see some of the villages further back from the road. In this model village you can take all the photographs you want, purchase items (remember to barter), watch and hear tradition music and dance, and see the inside of houses. A bit too pandering to the tourists for my taste but I did purchase a Maasi spear, bartered down from $US50 to $US10. My wife purchased a necklace from $US40 to $US25, not as good as me at the bartering but then I really enjoy it.

Ngorongoro Crater has being called a Living Eden by the PBS program Nova. UNESCO declared it a World Hertiage Site. Because of its promixity to Olduvai Gorge some people think it might be the mythical Garden of Eden. Whatever you want to call it, it is truly one of the wonders of the world. A 20 km wide ...