Olduvai Gorge, in all its splendor.
The start of our second week in Africa brought a new focus to our curriculum. We began the transition from current ecology to paleoecology and archaeology, led by Dr. Dominguez-Rodrigo. Our day began with breakfast at camp followed by a trip up the road to the Olduvai Museum. We spent a moment at the viewpoint, staring into the gorge below. The iconic rock formation dubbed “The Castle” rose from sloping cliffs of multicolored stone and sand. Looking out, you could even see our camp in the distance!
Once we’d had our fill of serene gazing, the group took to the museum proper for a quick history lesson about Olduvai Gorge and human evolution. One interesting anecdote shared was about the discovery of early hominid footprints at the gorge. Legend goes that the researchers were on break and decided to play soccer with a piece of elephant dung. One person took a tumble and landed smack in the middle of some fossilized footprints made by bipedal creatures; the rest, as they say, was history. We couldn’t see the actual footprints, but we did see a cast, which had roughly the same effect.
The spot where Mary Leakey found the Zinj skull!
After the museum, we got the chance to view some of the active archaeological sites in the gorge. It was quite interesting to see where all the action happens! Taking care to avoid knocking over something expensive or stepping on any priceless artifacts, we trailed through rocky paths between walls of sand. One brief history of the work at the gorge later, we had a good idea of what kind of activities we would be in for.
Our camp cat, Rabies, watches the sunset.
The rest of the day, as previously mentioned, was dedicated to rest. Professor Manuel took us to the Olduvai Camp lodge, where we were able to enjoy a quite chill evening. They had an overlook point that we hiked up to, which gave us yet another stunning vista to contemplate. Copious pictures and one dead bat later (no one touched it, calm down) we were sprawled across fancy lounge couches, nursing cold drinks and making use of the Wi-Fi. It was a much-needed chance to unwind that we all gladly took. Hopefully, this moment of peace would shore us up for another full week of exciting African adventures.
