This morning, we pack up and head for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Having grown attached to the camp, the staff, and the surroundings, we find it hard to leave, but the activity-packed drive leaves little time for feeling wistful. Before leaving the Serengeti National Park, we do a short hike up Naabi Hill. From the top, you can see an unchanging landscape go on for an impossible distance. It’s quite something, having a view unfettered by buildings or hills or even that many trees and marked only by a few dirt roads converging into the horizon.

Lunch is a picnic stop at the Oldupai (or Olduvai) Gorge and museum. It’s a ravine so astonishingly abundant in human and animal fossils, footprints, and tools—all dating from 15,000 to 2.1 millions ago—that it has become a site of historical importance. The view is not unusually stunning, but standing at the edge of the Cradle of Mankind is just kind of neat and humbling, especially since it’s a reminder of how much of a pinpoint we are in the long lineage of human evolution.

Arriving at the Ngorongoro Crater, we stop at the outer rim, looking down at the floor of this unbroken caldera. Stepping out of our vehicles, we see a view so breathtaking that we all let out a collective gasp. The crater is a ring of blue hills and ridges, and its center is a roughly 100 square-mile depression, filled with broad sweeps of color. A large lake shines from inside the crater.

Our last stop before arriving at our camp is a Maasai village. Along the way, we see these semi-nomadic herders trekking throughout the countryside, wrapped in their red and blue patterned blankets that stand out against the green countryside. When we arrive, we enter a boma (a group of mud homes) and watch the Maasai tribe perform their rhythmic warrior “jumping song.” They jump, march, and vocalize a long, hypnotic chant—the men throat-singing in a low, buzzing rhythm while the women harmonize with their high-pitched wailings. It’s a rich, wonderful song, and it settles within you even after your visit.

We are guided into a mud hut, an abode so small and intimate that it’s hard to imagine how they keep cooking fires inside. The space feels even more constricted by the heavy blanket of darkness, save for the tiny portholes of light from the outside. Of course, the Maasai themselves spend their time outside, always dressed vividly in dark reds and royal blues, and the women have their necks and ears adorned with layers of beadwork. Randy generously negotiates a good length of time for us to take portraits of a few warriors. By the end, we share photos on our digital cameras with them; judging by their chatter and smiles, they are delighted. One warrior elder quietly lurks around, hoping to seeing himself in the shots too. But our time is up, and when we are called to go back the vehicles, he looks a bit crestfallen. Catching this, I hang back and shuffle through my photos until we find his portrait. And he laughs heartily, completely amused by the image of himself.

-k

Photo stills of the Maasai and some audio capture of their singing:

 

A well-fed hyena with a swollen belly on the side of the road:

view from Naabi Hill:

Oldupai Gorge: Ngorongoro Crater:   The jumping requires an upright, narrow pose and heels never touching the ground. Also, the higher, better:

Inside a mud hut:

Handmade beadwork, carvings, and wildebeest hair (I think!):