Christmas on the Serengeti

"Lion" on the Serengeti

Ole Dorop comes by camp this morning to say goodbye. He gives me his mailing address: Sanguyan Ole Dorop, Ngorongoro, Arusha, Tanzania. We head toward the Serengeti. About 5 km from the Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakey's made their famous archeological finds, a woman in a white British Petroleum Land Rover passes us. We comment on how fast she is driving, especially since the road is dirt and bows up in the center. She passes Bear and Ben in our other car, but mismanages and turns into them, denting Bear's driver side door and wrecking his side mirror. She overcompensates, turning out into the plains, where her car leaps over the loose, piled-up scree bordering the road. We're amazed her car does not roll.

Her husband is an employee at BP and he does not want the company to know his wife was driving and that she had a wreck! He wants to pay us and leave. But Ben and Bear insist the couple follow us to the Olduvai Gorge museum to phone the police, which they do. The police notify the Serengeti border guards, who are told not to let the BP vehicle through if they try to leave. So after two hours, once we've toured the museum and heard the lecture, we're ready to head to our camp in the Serengeti.

Our tents are under acacia trees on the edge of the Serengeti and Zebra and Wildebeest come very close to our camp. We head out toward the river, looking for animals, and find mostly flies. We do see a lion and lioness, but after our four-hour drive, I have my fill of game viewing in the Serengeti.

Mountain Madness and our cook go out of their way to prepare a traditional Christmas dinner. The turkey is beautifully roasted and the best one I've ever had! We also have roasted potatoes, stuffing, mozzarella salad, rolls, carrots and Pumpkin pie. The cook even prepares mince meat tarts and a Christmas cake. We talk about what our families will be doing right now, eight hours behind us. I say my family is beginning to eat their dinner, will be opening presents very soon and probably have the movie "A Christmas Story" playing on TBS. We pop a bottle of Champagne and toast to good health (Afya!), a Merry Christmas, and no one being hurt in the accident today!!