Oldupai Gorge - “The Cradle of Mankind."

One of the highlights of this Africa trip was a trip to Oldupai Gorge “The Cradle of Mankind." Oldupai is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world and has added to the understanding of human evolution. Excavation work there was pioneered by Louis and Mary Leakey in the 1950s and continues today by various universities.

Oldupai gorge is in the Great Rift Valley on the eastern Serengeti Plains and it is about 30 miles long. The gorge is named after the Maasi word Oldupai a wild sisal plant. The more common spelling "Olduvai" is the result of a miss-hearing of the word by early map makers. The Gorge was re-named in 2005 to correct this mistake. It was amazing and very moving to stand on a spot that connected me back to the beginning of human history

The first artifacts in Olduvai (pebble tools and choppers) date to circa 2 million years ago but fossil remains of human ancestors have been found from as long as 2.5 million years ago. Oldupai has yielded a lot of fossil remains from Pliocene to Pleistocene times (from about five million to 10.000 years ago), including the skull of the primitive hominid Australopithecus boisei or nutcracker man, million year old that proved that our prehuman a species that became extinct about one million years ago. In 1975 at nearby Laetoli ,Dr. Mary Leakey found fossilized footprints that were 3.75 ancestors walked in an upright position. WOW!

Not only did we get an introductory lecture in the visitor's center and visit the museum,Wilfred arranged for us to go down into the gorge with a guide and see the actual site where there is a small monument placed on the site where the fossils were found. I thought I would cry! Joseph the Oldupai guide

Wilfred
I will now explain how Wilfred was reborn as Lewis Hamilton. The trip from the lodge to Oldupai was not an easy one. The roads were very very very rocky. It was hard going for a few hours. It gave new meaning to the words African massage. Wilfred demonstrated that he had the driving skills of a world class driver - hence the new moniker!

...Lions oh my!

My experience of the crater was not postitive. As you can see from the pictures, it was a crowded place. Much more touristy than our other stops. Every animal had 10 jeeps around it.
The road side viewing
The Baboons
We stopped for awhile to watch this troop of baboons. They did their utmost to entertain us!
Elephant with amazing tusks!
We first saw this lone elephant loping across the bottom of the crater. At one point it crossed right in front of the jeep unconcerned about the traffic and went off to join the hippos at the watering hole.





Maasi herdsman wearing traditional red blankets






FlamingoesHippos cooling off


Can you spot the hippo with his legs in the air?


Can you see the baby?

Three babies

Napping Lion
Pumba!

I dont think we are in Kansas anymore or even on safari

a very nice crater view

The Main Lodge
A short walk to our room
Every evening a very nice Maasi warrior would escort us to our room from these steps. He was protecting us from the animals I think.

The Bar
The inside dining room
Jeff having breakfast outside
It finally warmed up enough to sit outside and have breakfast. You don't get this view with your cereal everyday!


Stork sitting on the chimneys
It was cold at NCL. What an odd sight to see storks sitting on chimneys. At one point I think I saw one on every chimney.
Jeff working
Jeff had a conference call while we were at NCL. Here he is working sitting on the balcony.
Bob the buffalo pouting
There were animals hanging out on the lawns of the lodge. One night we came down the stairs from dinner to find a couple of zebras waiting for us at the bottom! Bob the buffalo was fighting with two other buffaloes and they had to be separated.


A view of the lower NCL camp
The front view of our room at NCL
As I said before this Lodge was something else! I just have to show you some pictures of the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge today. There were three camps in the lodge and we stayed at the highest (North) with the best views.

Jeff on the stairs to our room
The bed
It came with a dual control electric blanket.
The lighting in our room

The chandeliers were strung together by camp workers with Murano glass.

The sitting area Fireplace

Our first night at NCL was freezing! We had a fire going and I think I wore every article of clothing I brought with me to bed.
The view from the toilet
We decided that this would go down as the best ever view from toilet. How often do you get a view as nice as this from a toilet? I dont know if you can see the crater in the picture but it is there!
Jeff in the bathtub
OK, so it is not a shower picture but every afternoon there would be a very hot bath waiting for us when we returned from a game drive. The bathtub faced windows overlooking the crater also. Possibly the best bathtub view ever. There would be rose petals everywhere! Sorry Jeff, I just had to do it!

The Ngorongoro Crater

The Lake Manayara Airport Terminal


Our next port of call (so to speak) after Grumeti was the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. We were picked up at the airport by Wilfred our ranger for the next few days (he would later earn the nickname Lewis Hamilton) . We would spend some time driving to the Crater Lodge and it grew colder as we climbed higher to the edge of the crater where the lodge was located.


Entrance sign to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Men checking papers at the entrance to Ngorongoro

Ngorongoro Conservation Area it is 8,288 km - about the size of Crete and is 180 km west of Arusha. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The reason for our visit was the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world's largest volcanic caldera. The Crater, which formed as the giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself around 2 million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260 square km. The sides of the crater mean that it has become a natural cage for animals and there are an estimated 25,000 of them within the crater. However, the highlight of my stay was a visit to the Oldupai Gorge (more about the name later). Oldupai was wonderful and moving experience , another chance to check off something on my travel list.

I have to say that I really didn’t enjoy the game drives here although I think Jeff might disagree. I felt like I was in a game park. Game viewing is so completely different here from the Serengeti. I understand that it was the height of the tourist season but the place was packed with tourists. I think the park really needs to start restricting the number of cars it allows in everyday. Around every animal there would be about 20 jeeps. There were traffic jams. Though, we did get to see some elephants, hilarious hippos, lions, flamingos, baboons, rhinos.

The Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was outstanding though. This is the view of the crater from our room when the clouds had lifted. It has to be one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in my life (and there have been quite a few!). The staff was outstanding. Our butlers name was Safari (yes, he was born while his mother was on Safari!). Here we met staff members Mike and Sarah, who we would see again on Mnemba Island and met a lovely English couple. From the Grumeti camp we would see the Canadians, Brad and Christine again.