On our way into Ngorongoro, Alicia's sister Joce texted on our Tanzanian phone that Obama won! Alicia let out a whoop and we all cheered. It even made Karla feel better (descending was also helping). We happened to pass by some Americans that we had chatted with at breakfast time and shared the good news by shouting it to them as we drove by. They were super excited as well. We told Emanuel to say something over the radio so that everyone else would know. The rest of the day we occasionally heard his name mentioned. Tanzania was very happy.
Today was a great day for seeing a lot of different animals. We were most pleased to see simbas, jackels, hyenas, vultures and hippos up close and personal. Of course there were the usual waterbuffalo, zebras, wildabeasts, ostriches, and antelopes and gazelles around...
The main highlights of the day were:
•Around 9:30, Emanuel stealthily took us to a drying river around which there were herds of animals and safari vehicles gathered. Clearly there was something exciting going on. Just as we were pulling up we saw a lioness in the distance prowling the area. Then, another, and then a young lion! And a grown lion with his alpha female! And another male by the river! It was then that Emanuel pointed out the water buffalo carcass in the distance. Apparently the pride had recently killed it but had lost control of it when the waterbuffalo herd had chased them away. Every time they approached, the herd went after them. Eventually they walked back to the river to wait. It was extra cool because they had to cross the road where the cars were to get there. Some of them would stop and check out the cars while others would lay in their shade. Clearly they were used to seeing cars. The unfortunate (fortunate for us and for our observing purposes) thing was that while the herd chased the lions away, the jackels, hyenas, and vultures moved in on the kill.
•During these two hours we also got to see a giant group of hippos lounging about. It was especially fun to see the baby hippos and the adults when they yawned. They are so big (and cute)!
•Having to stop the car to pee etc. and hope that there weren't any predators around.
•Looking for leopards and rhinos and not seeing any (not a good highlight but important because we spent a good two hours looking).
We were sad it was over when we headed back to the camp on the rim for lunch. It was a delicious lunch, and were pleased.
The next step was to drive to camp Keratu to set up our tents. We got there rather early and so went to the bar that caters to tourists and watched the news on TV, hoping to get more details on the election. We saw Obama's victory speech(amazing), part of McCain's not victory speech (the funniest), and Bush's congratulations speech (also funny).
Dinner was great and relaxing as usual. We were told after dinner that there was "traditional" african dancing and music in a nearby courtyard. The dancing was quite impressive and covered a variety of African styles, but their outfits were a little, shall we say, stereotypical. They looked like the flintones. It must have been for the tourists because we've never seen Africans dress in that traditional style before...
Back to the tents we went. It was a good sleep except that in the middle of the night Alicia was convinced that there was a lion in the bathroom and so refused to go. Hahaha...
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