Serengeti to Home (Part 3)

Waking up on Day 4 to the sunrise of the Serengeti, we all washed, dressed and ate, and we were soon on our way back through the Serengeti again. On our last game drive we saw more and more animals, including a very well camouflaged leopard! We drove through a huge herd of zebras and wildebeest and made our way back to the Serengeti gate. We quickly stopped for lunch before returning home to Mwanza, full of happy memories … and looking forward to seeing our families again!

We had a lot of fun during the trip! It was funny when someone’s hat blew off his head, out the open-top roof and landed on the road behind us. The car behind picked it up for us! We had a lot of chatter and giggling on the long car journeys. But after many hours on the road with one girl in particular, one boy said that she needed to “talk MODERATELY!” It was fun sleeping in tents but the food wasn’t as good as home food. I enjoyed a chance to be with different friends. I loved seeing all the animals and the new beautiful landscapes. I can’t wait to take my family there!

Tenting Fun

So, as you can see it was a good, educational and very fun trip! I hope you have learnt something too about Ngorongoro Crater and Oldupai Gorge and can picture the wonderful time we had there.

Glossary

Fossil: a bone that has been preserved for a long period of time.

Ngorongoro: the sound of the cow and donkey bells as they walk down into the crater.

Serengeti: this word comes from the Masai word “Serengiti” which means “endless plains”.

Oldupai: a word from the Masai language for a certain plant called Sisal which grows plentifully in and around Oldupai Gorge. It is used by the Masai to make ropes, baskets and mats. Cows chew it when there is little water around as the plant absorbs water. It is also used in medicine as it is a painkiller.

Sisal

Total List of Animals Seen

Elephant

Giraffe

Impala

Thompson’s gazelle

Topi

Black rhino

Cheetah

Lion

Leopard

Warthog

Hyenas

Wildebeest

Buffalo

Ostrich

Dik dik

Zebra

Vultures

Guinea fowl

Baboon

Monkey

Jackal

 

Ngorongoro Crater (Part 1)

Over the next couple of blog posts I (Amisadai) will tell you about my Year 7 school trip. With photos I will tell you about the adventures we had on our four day trip to Ngorongoro Crater and Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater
In March, I went with my class to Ngorongoro. We left early and travelled from the noise and buildings of Mwanza to the endless plains of the Serengeti and passed many animals along the way.  After driving on the tarmac road through the buildings and business of Mwanza, we then continued on a dirt road past the herds of thousands of wildebeest on the Serengeti plains and finally came to the lush green grass in the Ngorongoro conservational park. Masai were shepherding their cattle, camels and goats kept safe in very small fenced areas. We reached Nyani Campsite at 5pm, and later watched as a beautiful red sunset settled down over the crater.
 

On the Road

Masai on the road

Our Campsite

The next morning it was so cold! After breakfast we set off to drive down into the Crater. It is 610m in depth and 250 square kilometres inside. Ngorongoro Crater is now the only place left in Tanzania to see the big five (lion, buffalo, rhino, leopard and elephant) and also the only place left to see rhinos in Tanzania.

 

In the Crater, it was fairly green. It was not flat on the bottom, as many of us had expected, but had a hill on the western side. There was a lake in the middle too. Ngorongoro Crater is considered paradise for creatures, and is known as the eighth wonder of the world.

Here are my photos of some animals we saw! Which is your favourite?