We left Lake Manyara campsite right after breakfast to continue our drive to Serengeti. On the way there we passed by Olduvai Gorge, an archaeological site located in the eastern Serengeti Plains. The gorge is a very steep sided ravine, roughly 48 km long and about 90 meter deep. The main Olduvai Beds are in a lake basin about 25 km in diameter. The rocks under the basin date to 5.3 million years ago. Exposed deposits show rich fossil fauna, many hominid remains and items belonging to one of the oldest stone tool technologies, called Olduwan. The time span of the objects recovered date from 2.1 million to 15,000 years ago. We stopped at a museum where animals skulls, fossils and ancient stone tools are exposed. Not far from here, fossilised footprints of human ancestors were found preserved in lava that date back nearly three million years. These footprints, together with other discoveries in the region, are some of the earliest known physical evidence of early mankind.
After our visit at Olduvai Gorge, we had a lunch break somewhere in the wild. Peter had prepared lunchboxes for us and opposed to what we used to get when we were kids on a class trip, the contents of these boxes was delicious. From the beginning of the tour right to the end, they made sure that I got vegetarian food which was great. Talking about this lunch, a special encounter to mention were two huge worms we discovered when we moved some bigger stones in search of something to sit on. They almost looked like generic millipede that - due to some nuclear radiation - mutated into gigantic unknown creatures. Well, one of them was dead so we could have a closer look but the other one was quite alive and interesting to observe.
When we arrived at Serengeti National Park it was early afternoon. Even before entering the park, we saw a few other jeeps standing in a circle around an area just off the road to our left. Jerry pulled over and when we came closer, we saw what everyone was looking at: there was a lion family lying in the grass. Several females, one male and a bunch of lion cubs. The young ones were so cute and still a little afraid of the jeeps but the adults didn’t even care anymore about us humans watching them. The male one was a little further away from the rest of the group and our jeep stopped right next to him. It was the first time I ever came close to a lion in nature, and in spite of the protection of our vehicle, it made me feel quite vulnerable to be just an arm’s length away from the King of all Animals.
As soon as we entered the park zone of Serengeti, it hit me: Remember all you have ever heard, seen or read about this miraculous piece of Africa: endless plains of dry grasslands, yellowish coloured landscape in the heat of daylight, breathtaking sunsets, and of course wild animals in abundance. Well, guess what: it’s all there. It’s all true. Just like in the Academy Award winning film “Serengeti Shall Not Die” by Bernhard Grzimek. The movie won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1959 and, together with loads of other Grzimek documentaries on German TV, pretty much shaped my picture of Africa when I was a child. Now seeing this, was just like being in one of those films. It was fantastic.
After we had set up our tents on a campsite in the park, we spent the rest of the day game watching. At night, dinner was served in the “dining cage”, a campsite building that seriously looked like a huge cage for humans. It was inside this protected area that tables and chairs could be set up for dining. Outside the cage, food should always be locked away in the vehicles not to whet anyone’s appetite and attract animals that you preferably watch from a distance. At night, the place was lit by everybody’s torches and I must admit that I would have liked the same distance to all the monstrous insects that got attracted by the light!
Hanna, Aaron and I stayed up late this evening – well, if 10 or 11 pm can be considered late. But according to African time, this is almost in the middle of the night. We just had so much fun telling each other about our most embarrassing moments. We came up with the most ridiculous stories and Hanna and I laughed so much that we both ended up crying with laughter. It was hilarious. Just before we went to bed, Jerry reminded us of the ONE GOLDEN RULE we had to obey tonight: Not to get out of our tents as long as it was dark. No matter what, but once you are inside your tent, you must stay there until dawn. Keep in mind that the campsite was in the open of Serengeti and not in a fenced area that could be considered separate and safe from the animals. Well, no problem, I thought, I never have to get up for the toilet at night. Right, NEVER ever – except today!! Yes, I woke up around 4:30 and had to pee. Obviously I knew I couldn’t which made it only worse. I tried to fall asleep again, but soon realised that wouldn’t work. So I spent an entire hour forcing myself not to think of the one thing that was all I could think about right then and there. Only when it got light and I heard some other people moving around on the campsite, I was sure it was safe enough for me to go to the bathroom. I cannot even tell you how much it was time - I swear to God I thought I would burst...