An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
The bugs of plague-like quantity left us more or less alone through the night, and we awoke to another beautiful sunrise accompanied by the wake-up symphony. We had a somewhat rushed breakfast, as we were informed that we’d be leaving earlier than we’d planned since the plane would be a bit early.
We, along with Peter and Joan were driven to the airstrip where we waited. And waited. We heard the plane approaching, but then it mysteriously left, so we waited some more. We had an enjoyable time chatting with the other couple about the travel biz and pets and so on, then we all took a quick drive to chase away a herd of zebras that had begun grazing on the landing strip. We then heard on the radio that the plane had had to turn around because the pilot had forgotten something, but would be back soon. Our old friend Gwyne the pilot did indeed show, and we all then squeezed into the tiny 5-seater, with Wendy being a great sport and volunteering for the way back seat. The flight to the rim of the crater was not so bad, though it was a bit hazy so the visibility was somewhat limited. We were met and driven on more rutted-out roads to this oasis.
What a preposterous place!! Here we are in the wilds of East Africa, and this is one of the most opulent, ecclectic lodges on the planet. There are 16 rooms available at present, and they’re building 14 more nearby. There are 85 staff (labor’s probably a bit more affordable here), so we’ve got our own driver - Titus - and personal attendant/butler - Peter. The main building is decorated with a mix of all sorts of great stuff found at antique shops from seemingly around the world; our room is just amazing: two huge circular rooms, a large bedroom with a fireplace and sitting area, a larger-than-king-size bed with a burgundy velvet bedspread, and wood paneling all around with a huge conical wicker-like ceiling and a view into, and across, the crater. The bathroom is the size of a large studio apartment and is shaped so interestingly and bizarrely, with moorish touches, a huge, open, tiled shower and a free-standing bathtub in the center. There is a crystal chandelier in each room, as well as many crafted sconces and shelves holding different types of small beaded lamps. The large windows are draped with luxurious silk shantung pleated curtains. We’re on this safari to stay!
We went to lunch, where we were the only ones in the large dining room. We sat near some large glass doors through which we watched an approaching storm across the crater. Lunch was superb — zucchini soup, then a platter of pork kebabs, cous-cous, grilled shrimp and trout, eggplant, mango chutney and satay sauce. While we were eating, a torrential rainstorm erupted, and we were able to open the glass doors and breathe in the fresh rainy air.
As we finished so did the rain, so we boarded Titus’ land rover and headed off to Olduvai Gorge. The drive was the bumpiest, most rattling one this side of Puerto Natales, but after a short while we began seeing many zebras and wildebeast (along with the omnipresent Masi and their herds). As we descended from the 8,000 ft. elevation of the crater rim, we came into the rich African plain we’d seen before only on an Imax screen. There it was, green with patches of yellow and purple wildflowers, stretching out in all directions as far as we could see, ending with very tall mountains in the distance, and covered with thousands of grazing gazelles, wildebeast, and zebras, as this is their migration from Kenya to the crater.
We finally got to the famed Gorge and had a brief talk from the local guide, then went into the 2-room museum that contained many fossils (some dating back over 2 million years) found here and nearby at Laetoli, along with preserved footprints from the same time period. Fascinating. We then drove back toward the magical lodge.
En route, we saw a few vehicles out in the midst of the plains, so we headed off the road and in that direction. By the time we got there they had gone, but we found a large male lion sleeping peacefully out in the open. We stopped about 10 feet away and took pictures (from inside the car!), then circled around him getting more pictures as he looked up and gave us the same “why-are-you-bothering-me-can’t-you-see-I’m-napping?” look we get so frequently from Max. Nearby were about 30 large vultures milling about, who had landed appearantly thinking (erroneously) that the lion’s presence meant there was a kill to scavange. We left the fearless king of the jungle sleeping and drove on. Along the way back through the animal studded plain we saw another group of about 20 giraffes walking and loping gracefully along as we stopped to watch.
We then arrived at a Masi village, one that is open to tourists to pay a fee and come in and speak with them and photograph them (something they usually don’t allow). We were welcomed by a group of women (all of whom had ear lobes which had been pierced and stretched enough to hold a golf ball) and girls singing and dancing some songs to pray for rain and for health. The village is actually a fenced-in circle of about 25 large, igloo-shaped huts made of sticks and thick cow dung, surrounding a large pen where they keep the animals at night. We spoke with the one Masi whose english was pretty good, and he told us a fair amount about the whole culture. There are about one million Masi living in Tanzania and Kenya, and they are all basically the same tribe. We went inside one of the huts, where two adults and two children sleep, cook and eat (along with a few goats) in a small, dark unventilated space. To use the word “primitive” would not begin to describe it all. As Titus said (more than once) when we were bombarding him with questions as we drove back, the Masi are strange people. The Masi gentleman asked us about dowries where we come from and when we explained that the women work and sometime earn more than men, he said, “So if I go to America and have 6 wives I could be very rich!” When we explained that it was illegal to have more than one wife, he seemed perplexed and disappointed. There was much more we learned (including about the night Titus spent in a Masi village) but it’s a lot of information, for a later discussion.
We got back to our moorish/mediterrean/deco palace to find that they’d already done our laundry and cleaned our sneakers. (It also was quite cool here at this elevation and, consequently, bug free!) We went down to dinner (again escorted by the security guard on account of the water buffaloes and lions they sometimes have in camp) which was fabulous chicken, lamb, soup and salad that we just picked at, as we were so full from lunch. We did, however, save room for the heavenly truffles at the end. It was then back home to crawl under our electric blanket, never to emerge.