1964

Today is the day we drove to the Seronera Lodge in the luxury of our own Land Rover at 2 1/2 shillings a mile - which comes to 35 cents. We drove just a little over 100 miles. Actually, the road wasn't too bad most of the way, and we might have made it with our Volkswagen. But we did see some lions which we might not have seen without the driver-guide.

First we drove to Olduvai Gorge where some paleontological diggings are going on under the direction of Dr.and Mrs. Leakey, who have been in East Africa for many years. But apparently the major discovery of very early man was not made until 1959.

A guide took us around the diggings and he was quite good. He was what I think he said was a Wachagga tribesman from north of Nairobi. He spoke quite good English, but when questioned he said he had finished only junior secondary school. He said he wanted to study in the U.S., but when we questioned him further, he seemed to realize that he couldn't do college work without further studies here. He said he was doing correspondence work. Mrs.Leakey was surprised and rather incredulous that he should even think of going to the states, although she said he was intelligent and a hard worker.

He showed us where the first prehistoric bones had been found, and then we went to a shelter where bone fragments were displayed on the spots where they were found. From the printed description on the walls, many of the bones had been crushed by crocodiles which no longer exist here. The guide also told us that the prehistoric men had been in the habit of cracking or splitting animal bones to get at the marrow.

The Ngorongoro Lodge had prepared our lunches, so we ate it under the shelter in the Leakey's kitchen. Mrs. Leakey gave us cokes from her kerosene refrigerator. This room was sheltered only from three sides. They had a dining room table with an oilcloth cover, several shelves of books, a transistor radio, a wooden box with shelves and a door for dishes and supplies, and the refrigerator. They apparently had another shelter for sleeping.

They have a crew of 35-38 Africans to do the digging, but many of them are hired hands who can't read or write. Our guide was probably one of the more intelligent and better educated ones.

Mrs. Leakey had four baby wildebeests, one of which was sick and was isolated. She fed them from a coke bottle with a big nipple, and she said she used powdered milk since it was safer. She said there were hundreds of orphaned wildebeests because the mothers are often killed by lions or hyenas while in delivery, and the young are very hard to rear in captivity. She said that Mr. Hunt at Seronera Lodge is trying to develop a domesticated herd, and had us take a note to him.

As we did the other day, we came down the mountain from Ngorongoro Lodge, and hit the plains. From then we were on a vast plain. We crossed the river, we couldn't cross the other day, and it had gone down considerably. We drove along a gorge before we came to the excavation camp. There were trees along the banks, but after that few trees, mostly the acacia, flat topped ones. But for miles and miles one could look across the plains and see gazelles, mostly Thompsons, but also many Grant's on both sides of the road - thousands and thousands of them.

But before we got to the Gorge diggings, we saw a herd of giraffes, in which we counted at least 25 of all ages. I think it's the most giraffes we have ever seen at one time. We also saw one cheetah, and our driver followed him all the way to the very edge of the canyon. He was a beautiful animal. Below the camp we also saw a pair of dik-diks, our first and only ones. Mrs. Leakey said there were many in the canyon where the diggings were.

We left the Leakey camp at 1:00 and got to Seronera Lodge about 4:00. During the afternoon then, besides thousands and thousands of gazelles, we saw two female lions with two young with a partially eaten zebra. Our driver-guide saw them from a far way off, and how he spotted them is beyond us. Later on some cars were stopped at a rock outcropping, and we saw a beautiful male lion, and nearby a pair in the grass.

At another place we saw a concentration of game that was simply unbelievable. There were gazelles, wildebeests, zebras, and hartebeasts by the thousands right up to the side of the road, and as far as you could see. With the binoculars, one could see animals right up to the horizon. To see this sight was worth the cost.

Other animals we saw included several jackals, several bat-eared foxes, about six topis, 2 wart hogs. Burt saw a shrew on the grounds at the Lodge and I saw several rabbits.

We also saw some new birds, and here at the lodge, there are many other birds. We were walking out of the grounds when it started to rain, and were coming back anyway, but the manager called us, and said we were in mortal danger. "There are lions about." he warned us.

We were told we might hear lions at night, and Burt and I each thought we heard some, but neither one of us heard what the other heard, so we don't know. The lodge here was much better than we expected. We had our own toilet and wash basin, but would have had to go out for a shower. I don't suppose they would want someone to go wandering around at night, so the toilet is inside.

A houseboy brought us some hot water last night for "tea", which in our case was some good hot instant coffee with Coffeemate. Then he warmed up our can of wieners and beans. Some groceries were available at the camp, but we had enough to eat. This morning all we had was some more coffee and some oranges.

We left the camp at about 7:45 and were back at Ngorongoro Lodge by 12:35. The entire round trip was just 197 miles. We drove slowly in the park to see the animals, and after we left the park boundary we had to drive slowly because the road was so bad. However the driver said in a few months anybody can drive an American car over this road. The real problem is the fords in rainy weather. It is really amazing where the Land Rover can go, over gorges practically, and over all kinds of ditches, and heavy slopes. Although the driver usually kept to the road, when he saw something interesting, like a lion, he would leave the road and drive over the ground.

Today we saw a bunch of mongeese on a pile of dirt, and three wild dogs to add to our list for this location. We also saw a group of seven lions, five females and two young ones. A while later we saw a female - I think pregnant -lying less than a quarter mile from where some men were working on the road. Soon after that we saw two more females, making a total of ten lions today.

We saw again, and it seemed like more than yesterday, the herds and herds of gnus, zebras, and gazelles. The number of gnus is just fantastic. They were pretty much crowded into one fairly small area where there were thousands, but beyond this one could see scattered groups out over the plains for miles and miles. Only a few zebras were mixed with the gnus, but farther out we saw more zebras, in smaller groups, but also spread out for many miles. With these, and then continuing beyond the park boundaries were the gazelles, mostly the Thompson's; these, too, were vaguely visible out over the plains for miles. Saw only one giraffe and no elephants, but were told people coming in to Ngorongoro Lodge had seen some on the road coming in. We did see one dik-dik, some topis, and some hartebeests.

Soon after lunch we were on our way to Arusha.