Turns out pitching a tent near the edge of a cliff has pros and cons.
Pros: incredible view of the gorge and mountains, perfect for sunsets.
Cons: way too much wind, resulting in a thick layer of dusty silt blanketing everything.
The camp is covered in loose ashy sand that easily blows around in the wind, and got in everyone‘s tents. It felt like Dust Bowl conditions with everyone coughing up dirt in the morning. Breakfast included soup, a vegetable mix on bread, crepe-like pancakes, and fruit. The typical Tanzanian fruit salad has watermelon, mango, pineapple, and banana!
We started the day by visiting Olbalbal Lake at the end of the gorge and setting up game cameras to study animals who may be nocturnal and closer to this water source. We met up with the local leader of the Maasai, who allowed us to do this research near their village.
We also found a lot of interesting artifacts on the surface of the soil while setting up the game cameras. Shards of clay pottery, broken pieces of sharp obsidian tools, and bones of domesticated animals. Kacey and I found part of a clavicle that most likely belonged to a cow or donkey. There were rings of stones remnant of a former Maasai settlement, called a boma, near the lake.
I really enjoyed driving through the Maasai village. Young children start herding cattle, goats, and donkeys very early, and would wave to us as we passed through. Instead of branding cattle, they use different patterns of scarification to signify which herder they belong to. It’s said that Ngorongoro is partly named after the sound of the cowbells of the Maasai‘s cattle.
On a detour back to camp (roads had been washed out due to the heavy rainy season) we saw an enormous herd of giraffe. The count was somewhere from 54 to 62 giraffes, which is extremely unusual as they normally roam in “towers“ of 10-20 individuals. Apparently today is World Giraffe Day, so maybe they congregated to celebrate the holiday!!
We saw three eland, which is a member of my taxonomic group! They’re the largest antelope, and look like large cows with spiral horns on both the males and females. Due to the scarcity of electricity, my phone has been dormant today, so I didn’t take many photos. Here‘s some of the chaos of the one power strip at camp!
Rapidly relocating my tent,
Carina
