Olduvai Gorge Museum and Serengeti National Park

Today was quite the adventure. Remember back when I first arrived in Arusha on my first day on Tanzania and I mentioned the bumpy road for 1km? Well today we drove for about 8-10 hours on even bumpier roads, at faster speeds and way more dust!! And I loved every minute of it!! Our first stop was the Olduvai Gorge Museum, which outlined all of the work done by Mary and Louis Leakey on finding evidence of human evolution. This is where they found “Lucy” and even their camp is used by universities for continued studies of ongoing excavations today. There is an amazing museum and beautiful outlook into the gorge.






We had a picnic lunch there, prepared by the Rift Valley Lodge, and had some mongoose come visit us to see if we had any to spare. 









And after lunch it happened! We went to the Serengeti National Park!




Words cannot describe how surreal this was…and honestly I’m pretty drained after this amazing day! Animals were everywhere - today we were specifically looking big cats and we found them! First we watched a cheetah chase, catch, kill and start to eat a Thompson’s gazelle. I learned so many things. Thompson’s gazelles are so much smaller than I thought they were. They are under a meter tall. And cheetahs suffocate their catches - I’m all for the circle of life, however it took a few minutes of the cheetah crushing the gazelle’s windpipe with its jaws before it killed it. At one point the gazelle let out a cry and a kick, but the cheetah was successful. 







Wow! What a start! Next we saw a beautiful male lion. 



Then we came across a breeding pair who mate every 15 mins for up to a week!



They were pretty tired…

We spent about 4 hours just driving around and looking at what we could find - so many different animals! 







So this just skims the day - so many amazing pictures on my camera which I can’t share until I get home. Tonight we arrived at our next accommodation - so amazing it will get its own post!


Comments

  1. CreatingwithCarol.com31 July 2023 at 13:38

    So beautiful! No wonder Lions always looks so lazy (except when they are eating)! I'm glad the roads didn't make you car sick! The mongoose are pretty cute, is their hair curly on their back, or do they have ridges? Were they annoying, or just close? If these aren't your best photos I can't wait to see them!!! Looking forward to seeing your accommodations...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brian Matthews - Retired Adventurer31 July 2023 at 15:10

    Looks wonderful Dear. So much wildlife in one day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jackie1 August 2023 at 10:57

    Big cats would be my favourite thing to see! Can't wait to see your other photos.

    ReplyDelete

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