Velia finally got to see her Maasai village

The "envelope ceremony" this morning was no less awkward than the other day in Tarangire. Just wanted to get that out there.

We rode in Kumbi's rover with Velia and Naomi. Angela and Michele have been chatting them up at dinner the last couple nights and I think they'd been looking forward to riding with them.

John didn't lie, the drive was awful. The roads, such as they are, were horrible: ruts, washboards, dust, etc. We made a short stop for fuel and headed down from the crater on the west side. From the get go, Velia was trying to angle for a visit into one of the Maasai bomas that we saw as we descended into the high plains of the Serengeti; asking Kumbi what it would take and whether it was possible and how it would work.

Our visit to Oldupai Gorge was one of the highlights of the whole trip so far, honestly. Apparently, "Olduvai" is a typo that goes back to the original German colony of Tanganyika and the first researchers there, and the gorge is actually named for the Oldupai cactus that grows there. It's amazing to me that almost every major step in human evolution can be traced back to that place. It's very humbling.

I guess Velia wore Kumbi down, because after we left the museum, he drove us to a village where he knew the chief's eldest son. He said that if he were there, then Velia should be able to get her village visit. Lucky for her he was there, and after some negotiations between him and Kumbi, she was declared our jeep's delegate and was given the royal treatment. Kumbi parked the rover in the shade of a tree and we were able to sort of watch out of the back. They sang for her, did a dance, then led her into the enclosed part of the boma where she met with the villagers and saw their huts and whatnot. After 30 or so minutes, she came out very excited that everyone was now allowed to go in and see the workshop where the women make their beaded crafts. Naomi, Michele, and Angela could not pass up an opportunity to buy more stuff. It was just me in the jeep at that point for 15 or 20 minutes, watching the Maasai men talk about me, while all the women got their shop on.

By this point, we were at least an hour behind the other rovers and Kumbi raced down the road to catch up since our boxed lunches were distributed among all the jeeps and our lunches might not have been in Kumbi's jeep. We caught up to the rest of the group at the Naabi gate at the south end of the Serengeti National Park, but everyone had already eaten and we had to wolf down our lunches. I guess the detour was worth it since Velia got to experience something that she really wanted to and we didn't really miss anything.

Reunited, we entered the Serengeti National Park, which is larger than the state of Connecticut. This part of the park truly lives up to the meaning (the land that flows on forever); short grass plains as far as the eye can see in every direction. We were slightly held up by one of the classic Serengeti scenes: the long single file line of Wildebeest going across our path. They appeared to be treating the road as a river and leaping from the edge of the road into to the river and being somewhat surprised that there wasn't any water. Kumbi laughed a little. I think he doesn't "respect" the "Beesties" very much because they're so stupid. Oddly enough, we had a fairly close lion encounter as we rolled up on 3 lions chilling out under the only tree we could see, which happened to be right next to the road; almost as though it were planted there for our benefit.

We drove north past the Seronera river and into the "central Serengeti, where the wildlife got a little denser. This landscape was more wooded and criscrossed with watering holes and shallow stream valleys. It was obvious how much greener this area was than the extreme southern part. We didn't do too much hardcore viewing since our camp was still an hour away (did I mention that the Serengeti is huge?), but we did see some elephants. Our "Central Serengeti" camp isn't actually in the park; but rather in a game reserve called "Ikorongo." We exited the park at the "Ikoma Gate" and about 30 minutes later we were in the camp. Japhet, our very friendly camp manager, introduced the camp crew and we went through the now familiar welcome ceremony with our wet towels and cold juice and tent assignments. For the third camp in a row, our tent was at the end of the line. Our guards at this camp are from a local village and instead of assault rifles or spears use bows and arrows.

This camp is clearly way more permanent than the other 2 we've stayed at, as the dining, bar, and lounge areas are under a permanent thatched roof with a flagstone floor. I suspect that's because we're not in a national park or conservancy but rather in a private concession so Thomson doesn't have to worry about renewing their campsite on a year to year basis. The tents are still temporary though, and are broken down during the rainy season and taken back to Arusha for maintenance.

I'll tell you; I've been really disappointed with the stars. I came here really excited about getting some pictures of the Milky Way and maybe some star trail photos. There is zero external light pollution here, and we're at over 5000ft ASL, and the air is supposed to be very clear, so perfect conditions. However, the moon has been so bright, and there have been high clouds almost every night blurring the view to boot, that I'm afraid my dreams of that are going to go unfulfilled. Too bad, too, because I am lugging my full size carbon fiber tripod all over Africa for that chance.