I think one of the best parts of Tanzanian food (besides soup) is tea. Every morning I wake up excited for tea. I love it.
Bright and early we woke up, breakfasted, and loaded up into the vehicles to drive from the Ecoscience Lodge to our next place to stay, the Ngorongoro Forest Lodge. The drive was around two hours, so not too bad! Along the drive, I saw:
- Many boma/houses and villages of the Maasai, as well as many herders with flocks of livestock.
- A lovebird pair by their nest on the roof of a house (they are lovely colorful birds)
- Two Marabou storks flying overhead (fun fact: the wingspan of the Marabou stork is approximately 10 feet, meaning that it is on par with the Andean condor for possessing the longest wingspan among birds)
After stopping at a small store for snacks, we drove through the village of Mto Wa Mbo (which translates to “River of Mosquitoes” on our way to a scenic overlook on the Eastern Escarpment of the Eastern Rift Valley. The viewpoint overlooked Lake Manyara National Park and was absolutely stunning! Every chance we get to look over the savanna and the mountains and vegetation and sky is just so awe-inspiring, and reminds me how fortunate I am to get to be in Africa seeing these incredible landscapes and learning about these amazing ecosystems.
Upon arriving at the Forest Lodge, I noticed that the area we are in (in the rainy side of the Ngorongoro Crater) is much more vegetated and green than the savanna, with a high tree density and a lot more crop-based agriculture (likely related to the red and fertile volcanic soil). There seemed to be a lot more people as well; and we drove through many small towns with brightly colored small homes and stores.
Our ecological adventure of the day was a hike in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area! It was our first hike here in Africa, and I was very excited to get out and see the nature firsthand. Our guide, a park ranger, was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of insights into the wildlife – plant and animal – of the park, as well as the history of the region. I learned a lot about the African bush elephant, getting to see their dung (and interesting look into their inefficient digestive system and their role as seed disbersers), the trees they toppled (as an insight into their role as ecosystem maintainers and disturbers), footprints, and their salt lick! It was a huge part of the hillside where the elephants had dug out indentations into the earth in pursuit of minerals in the soil. We saw 4 elephants there – one on its “knees” digging in an indentation, and a mother and her two calves who also partook in the salt lick. It was so incredible getting to see them interact, especially the mother and her calves! The mothers show so much empathy and parental care, letting her younger calf eat in the cave before her, and the little ones are absolutely precious. It is so amazing to see these animals in the wild! They are absolutely huge, and just so intelligent and capable of such gentleness for their size.
Our next stop on the hike was the Ngorongoro Waterfall, a 40 foot drop of the Ngorongoro River. It was amazing! The hike to see it led us along cliff faces with incredible views of the agricultural area and the village, and the surrounding dense forest, and the waterfall was just gorgeous. We ended our 2.5 hour hike with a debriefing from our ranger guide, who shared with us the history of the national park and conservation system in Tanzania, which was really fascinating. I had no idea that 32.5% of Tanzania’s land was set aside in some form or another for wildlife management and protection! There are also complications, of course, as we learned in Dr. Prendergast’s lecture, regarding the colonial history of African conservation and the conflict that can arise between the interests of people and the needs of ecosystems. All of this is very important for us students to study and keep in mind so that in our professional careers we can be mindful of that balance between human and ecosystem needs and work to dismantle conservation’s colonial shadow.
We wrapped up the day with an amazing dinner and three taxon presentations: Reduncini, Kudu, and Eland by Carina, Proboscidea by Anna, and Primates by Kamden. All three were excellent and I learned so much!
All in all, 10/10 day would do again.
