After driving 7 hours back from the beach, the next morning we headed off in the other direction into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) near the southern tip of the Serengeti in search of the endangered African Wild Dogs. The trip took much longer than anticipated because the NCA has moved completely away from cash/credit at the gate and now uses a smart card (think credit card that is preloaded). We did not have said smart card, so had to go back into Karatu to get one at the bank where the computers were down. AWA (Africa Wins Again).
We took it as a good sign when we saw a black backed jackal as we got closer to camp.
We finally made it to the very nice Serian camp in time for some relaxation and sundowners. The next morning we went out in search of the wild dogs. We were sent with a local Maasai guide who took us straight to the den where a pack of over 20 were just hanging out under trees. A much easier find than we had anticipated. It was fun to watch them interact with each other and to watch a few of them dart in and out of the den where there were some new pups. We even found them ourselves again the next morning on our drive out as we headed back home. Another thing to check off my bucket list.
And for the grandparents:
We did see some of the usual animals, too: zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impala, gazelle, and a huge herd of eland (the largest antelope)
In the afternoon we went for a walk around camp with our maasai guide as well as a dorobo (a hunter-gatherer) name Nyuki or Mr. Bee (nyuki is bee in Kiswahili). The kids are getting braver and all tried the wild potato that they dug up. Tierney’s friend Udine, who joined us on this adventure weekend, was the only one who admitted to liking it.
On the way home we spotted two different leopard tortoises (Matt saw one and Ash spotted the other which is quite impressive when we’re speeding down the road)
And it wouldn’t be a true African road trip without at least one thing going wrong with the car. Fortunately, this one was fairly easily to fix.
The first half of the kids’ spring break was great, and I highly doubt that we’ll be able to top it in the second half.
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