Tanzania
November 17-19, 2019
Again if you want to crawl through the full set of images.
This was one of our longer flight segments (nearly 8 hours). We had lectures plus by this point everyone knew everyone so the plane was quite social. We landed at Kilimanjaro Airport in Arusha about 2PM. After going through immigration and a rather elaborate screening process the group split again with our group boarding a plane to Lake Manyara airport . From here we took a van for about 90 minutes up to Ngorongoro Crater and the &Beyond Lodge.
We arrived at the hotel after dark. As happened before in Africa we were required to have escorts whenever we left our rooms. One time the guide was obviously nervous and brought a fairly large spear with him. The escort was truly required. Leaving my room once there was a zebra right by the door and others nearby. More significantly there were a number of water buffalos of which one was known to be rather moody.
More hotel
There are some photos of the inside of the rooms and grounds here. Here are some other photos of the lodge.
It was really rather homey with roaring fireplaces. Unfortunately after burning yak butter and burning whatever in India my system could not handle the fireplace smoke. I brought some Prednisone which the doctor prescribed the next day and had a very pleasant dinner on the 18th.
Our special guest was Dr. Louise Leakey a National Geographic Explorer in residence. She is the granddaughter of Louis Leakey who opened the entire field of African human ancestry by his discovery of the Zinj fossil at Olduvai Gorge. Dr. Louise Leakey would be leading our visit to Olduvai the next morning.
Olduvai Gorge
The next morning Carrie and I set off for the gorge with just one other trip couple, Carroll, and Louise Leakey. For about an hour we descended from the rim of the crater down into the plains where the gorge is located. On the way we encountered some giraffes, a species not in the crater when we visited.
Wikipedia provides some background on the Gorge and repeats what we heard.
Nothing about this valley screams that it is one of the most significant places for science in the world on par with Madem Curie's laboratory (and without the radioactive waste). What Leakey discovered here changed the entire way we looked at our evolution. It said clearly that Africa was the place where our species diverged from the other primates. It was an honor to be introduced to this by one of the Leakeys.
The valley itself is about 48 km (30 mi) long (wikipedia). The museum is in about the center.
Olduvai Gorge from Museum Location
After our photo op on the rim and touring the museum we descended down to the Zinj site
Ngorongoro Crater
I was surprised so few people joined us on the trip to Olduvai. Maybe it was the early morning departure or perhaps they felt they were losing time on the crater floor looking at wildlife. In reality, we got to do both
We also saw some black rinos in the distance. There were likely even too far away for Jason's lens.
Panorama of lunch area at Ngorongoro Crater Location
We watched this guy for a while. There are many more pictures of him in the uncurated pages
This family of baboons appeared as we were stopped. They quickly filled the entire field next to us.
In the afternoon we also saw two more black rinos at great distance. There was also an elephant that dodged in and out of the trees again too far away to be more than a dot.
Flight to Jordan
Another early morning departure. Another 90 minutes back to Lake Manyara airport, then a shuttle plane to Kilimanjaro Airport. There we went through the hoops of Tanzanian security (one less security check this time) and then were escorted out to the plane. Then the 5 hour flight to Jordan. Some of the pictures of this flight are on the plane page.
On to Petra, Jordan