On the way to the Ngorongoro crater

From Serengeti NP, we headed back out on our way to the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. We spent a whole day in the crater so I will talk about that in my next post. This one is about the journey there.

We started off the next morning retracing our way past the flowering acacia trees with their baboons and the hippos in the river.

 Then we spent some time watching a couple of male lions walking around to find some shade to rest in.

 This guy's mouth was a little wonky but he looks pretty impressive none-the-less.

 We said good morning to some elephants who were feeding near the road. They were part of a much bigger group that was wandering around.

 I took this to show you how close we were to the elephants.  That black line at the bottom is part of the vehicle.

 I have a love of reflections and take pictures of them whenever I can. We drove by a lake and stopped for a few photos and I couldn't resist sharing this one even though there is no wildlife in it.

 We were in a hurry to get to the entrance gate because we had a 24 hour ticket in the national park. If we got to the gate too late, we'd have to pay for an extra day for everyone in all our 6 vehicles. But we were not in such a hurry that we couldn't stop for a herd of Cape Buffalo.

 Here you can see them crossing the road between our vehicles.

 We saw a hyena burrow. They have multiple entrances and exits.

 This is called a kopjes. They are there in a section of the Serengeti and apparently a favorite place for lions to hang out. I didn't take photos of the ones the day before as the light was wrong.

If you remember, we were prevented from climbing one of these the day before to get a view because a 'big lion' had taken up residence there.

Therefore at the entrance gate, having made it there on time, we climbed a hill called Nabi hill to get a view of the surrounding plain.

 That road you see, the straight line in the middle of the picture? That is the road we came by to get to the gate.

 A store at the gate had some maps and bird/animal posters displayed so I took a photo of them. You can see Tanzania here.

From the park, we headed to Oldupai Gorge. You might know it as Olduvai Gorge which was where the oldest hominid fossils have been found. The gorge itself is beautiful but we were on a lookout overlooking it. The archeological sites are in the gorge. We visited a museum on the rim and had a talk by an anthropologist who explained the area and the geology and what fossils had been found in the different areas. We also had lunch here overlooking the gorge.

 This is a panoramic photo of the gorge.

 At the museum, there were a lot of fossils and artifacts from the gorge but what caught my eye was this bicycle. Dr. Sekino retraced the path of humankind in reverse from the southern tip of South America to Tanzania on it. This 2004 Japan Times article talks about that trip as part of a story on another trip he was planning to take.

 There was also a copy of the Laetoli footprints which are the oldest hominid footprints.

 After we left Oldupai Gorge, we visited a Masai village. After we introduced ourselves, the Masai welcomed us with a jumping contest. The idea is to see how high one can jump vertically. Here's one of them demonstrating. The men and the women did it separately.

 We went into a Masai hut and its owner explained how they lived. The huts are very tiny and dark so no photos but he claimed that up to 6 people live in the hut. Four of us sat on the sleeping surface and took up all the space along the length. There was a cooking fire with a pot on it and a small window to let the smoke out. The huts are made of mud.

 You can see some of the members of our party with the Masai women. There was quite a bit of selling to us - beaded jewelry, carvings, etc. The women do most of the work around the village and make things to sell as well as to wear. The men take care of the cattle and goats and sheep.

 We rushed on to our destination after the Masai village stop in order to catch the sunset from the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. We stayed at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, which has the most beautiful location that I have seen in a long time. It is right on the eastern rim of the crater.

 We had a little time to explore before the sun set. There was a post with distances to various places.

 And then the sun started setting.

 I did turn at one point at take a photo of the lodge and its reflection in the swimming pool. I did say that I like reflections, right?

The pool was off-limits as it had been contaminated by wildlife. We had to be very careful walking to our rooms at night in all these lodges. There were security guards who escorted us because there are animals around here and they can get aggressive.

 And a photo of the crowd photographing the sunset.

 I was able to get some early morning shots before we headed down to the crater after breakfast.

 Another reflection. With the chairs lined up for people to sit and sip their drinks and watch the sunset. This is for those who weren't on the terrace by the pool.

 The pool in the am with the other side of the crater as background.

 Flowers around the lodge grounds.

And a final shot of the crater as I end this installment.

On to fiber: I was knitting but my hand and elbow protested my knitting a few days in a row. So I took a couple of days off and then started spinning.

 I finished spinning the fiber that I dyed in the class in Rhinebeck. The collage above represents the story of this fiber. It is Corriedale roving that I bought in New Zealand when I was there. Starting from the bottom right and moving clockwise:

• an inspiration photo from Rhinebeck
• my dyed fiber drying on a rack with the rest of the class. My fiber is the one on the right of the photo in the front. 
• spinning the first singles with the fiber in the back. 
• bobbins with both singles on them
• the finished fiber in the center right

Progress on the sweater. I am further along on it. I am almost ready to separate the sleeves from the body.

I started spinning an Into the Whirled club braid that I got as a gift. I am doing a fractal spin. I divided it in half lengthwise along the braid and then split one half lengthwise into three. One ply will be the half that is intact and the other ply will be the 3 skinny strips one after the other with the colors in the same order.

 The fiber divided into the component parts and the beginning of the first half on the bobbin.

 As I was spinning the second layer on the bobbin, I realized why these colors looked so familiar. They were exactly the colors of the superb starlings we saw in Tanzania.

See you in the Ngorongoro crater next time!

Serengeti National Park

As I mentioned in my last post, Serengeti is a Masai word that means unending plain. So while we were in Ndutu, we were still in the Serengeti. But there is also a Serengeti NP and that is where this post is going to focus. We'll pick up at the end of our Ndutu stay in the Ngorongoro conservation area and continue to Serengeti NP.

On our last morning, we went on a very early morning game drive before we left for Serengeti NP.

 Our first sight was that of a hyena, our first. Hyenas have a sort of hang-dog look and they look dejected most of the time. But I think that is because our domestic dogs have that same posture when they are guilty of something.

This is a Marabou stork. It also hangs around kills and its walk is very much like that of a funeral director. It is considered one of the ugliest animals on the planet but it is very cool. You can't see it here, but it has a large sac under its bill. Marabou storks inflate this sac before flying very high and are able to get oxygen from the air in it and so can stay up and fly higher than they could otherwise.

If you don't want to see a kill, don't click play on the video above. There is a story attached to it. When we came upon this kill, there were vultures and a jackal at the kill. Not the jackal in this video but another one. Then along came 2 other jackals to partake of the feast. The jackal at the feast chased off the other two and it was comical to see him/her chasing the other two around and around the bushes and trees. I didn't get a video of that. They all ran away - chasing and being chased. Then this jackal showed up. He/she circled the kill. The vultures had taken advantage of the jackals chasing each other and had completely taken over the kill. This jackal took his/her measure of the situation and then went in and aggressively chased the vultures away so he/she could get at the kill. In this video, you will see how aggressive the jackal is to the vultures and how the vultures take it.

We also saw a baby zebra that had received some horrendous injury to its back leg. The baby was down and couldn't get up. The mother was hovering near the baby and calling for help or calling to the baby to get up. It eventually did, but could barely walk. I don't think you want to see that. It was very moving and unbearably sad.

 The next morning as we left Ndutu for the NP, we ran into this family of giraffes slaking their thirst. It is a lot easier for a baby giraffe to get down to the water than its parent!

 You can see that never-ending plain here in Serengeti NP. In the conservation area, there are some trees but the Serengeti is flat and treeless.

 Ostriches kicking up dust. This was our first view of the big birds.

 This is a secretary bird. He looks as if he has a quill or pencil stuck behind his ear like an earnest old-timey secretary.

 A few elephants appeared as we started climbing the hills to our lodge. Trees also appear here and the area is forested.

And some Cape Buffalo. They are big!

 We came across a hippo that wandered out of a pool and started eating grass. Apparently hippos eat grass at night and hang out in pools in the daytime to keep cool and rest after their night-time eating. This guy needed a mid-sleep snack.

 Our lodge was up in the hills and had great views. You can see the balcony of the next door unit here in the early am light.

 We started to see flowering acacia trees and the baboons who like to feed on them. Baboons travel in large troops.

 If you look carefully, you can see a tiny baby next to its mother in the middle. The baby whipped back into the mother's shadow just as I clicked.

At one point, we had to stop for a wildebeest crossing. Here is a photo of them all massed by the side of the road. In the video below you can see them moving. They generally play 'follow the leader'.

We crossed a river that had more hippos in it. There is a baby in there but all you see is its back.

 I've talked about wildebeest and zebras but I've mostly shown you pictures of wildebeest. To even out the equation, here are some zebras with their wildebeest brethren.

 All these animals were spotted as we worked our way down from the lodge to the plain. That is why there are more trees here.

 A close-up of two Cape Buffalo hanging out.

 A baby elephant.

 A giraffe having breakfast.

 One baboon grooming another. Baboons groom members of the troop with higher status as a mark of deference.

 Back on the plain, we went hunting for leopard and this is the best I can do with my iPhone camera. Some of our van-mates got better pictures. I could see better with our binoculars but they can't take photos.

 This is called a sausage tree. Can you guess why?

 This is another pride of lions relaxing after a meal. Down the slope to the right, there is a zebra kill. One of the cubs was not sure if he/she was full or not so went back to get some more to eat.

This is the cub with the kill.

In this next video he is walking back to the group.

 In case you didn't have your fill of zebras, here are some more...

 Lots of them.

 We had a boxed lunch at the visitor's center in the park. People had apparently been feeding these mongooses because they came up to us and had no fear. It was almost as if they were expecting a handout.

 That is a hyrax or a klipschliefer as one very nice German man told us.  We actually were calling it klipschliefer till our guide told us the English name. They look like rodents but are related to elephants. Go figure.

 We were supposed to take a short walk to the top of the rock below to get a view across the plain. But guess what? We found the way barred with this hand-written note. In Africa, you believe such notes and stay away from rocks with lions.

 So we ate our lunch and left, without our little walk.

A

 A beautiful blue heron. So graceful.

 More Marabou storks hanging out.

We also had more zebra and wildebeest running across the road.

We came across another leopard snoozing in a tree. Fortunately, he was sleeping with the light on hims so I got a better photo. None of them were on trees close to the road. Unlike in Nbutu, we have to stick to the roads in Serengeti National Park.

 This is a topi. One of the many antelope we saw on the trip. What makes the topi unusual is the splash of indigo on its thigh. Our guide called it 'blue jeans' because it does look like the color of blue jeans.

 Do you know what those are up in the tree?

 Yup. Two lionesses. Who said lions can't climb trees?

 If you are chased by a lion, don't think climbing a tree will save you. They look quite comfortable there.

 More elephants as we head back into the hills for the evening.

 Sunrise the next morning..

 casting a glow over the view.

The pool in our hotel that we never even found till it was time to check out. We were so busy with game.

And now on to the usual things happening here.

 

 I was going to knit Cross Pockets in Rowan Calmer in the Garnet color. But I'm not getting row gauge with either a US size 7 or 8. So I decided to do a basic raglan but make it a zippered hoodie with pockets a la Cross Pockets. The pattern name is Giorgia and the color this time is Carnation. It reminds me that spring is around the corner.

 I started and finished spinning some Corriedale that I dyed at Rhinebeck in my dyeing class.  You can see the fiber in the back in this photo. And here are the two bobbins with the singles on them. I still need to ply it.

I think the green has too much blue in it for the other colors but I'm pretty happy with the way it spun up. If I had been more careful about applying the colors, I think I could have madd self-striping yarn.

I blocked Shleeves and tried it on. It looks quite nice. It will be a nice shawl to wear on top of a sari in the cooler weather. 

And lastly, I started weaving the scarf that I warped over New Year's. The selvedges aren't very nice as I am learning how to manage carrying the second color up the side. They should get better as I progress and I've learned that the finishing fixes many problems. 

The next post will get us to Ngorongoro again but a different part of the huge area.