Olduvai Gorge "The Cradle of Mankind".

What is Olduvai Gorge?

 
The Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches through eastern Africa. It is about 48km long.

Where is it located?

 
It is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and located 45 km from the Laetoli archaeological site. 

Why is it important?

 
The area of Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world for research and understanding of the early human evolution.

Hominid fossils(preserved bones) and stone tools found in the Olduvai Gorge. They have been found to cover an astonishing time span of as early as 2 million years ago up to the relatively recent 15,000 years ago. This is the longest lineage of human evolution found anywhere on earth. Due to this reason sometimes this important prehistorical site is called "The Cradle of Mankind".

Important discoveries in Olduvai Gorge

 
1911 - Professor Wilhelm Kattwinke, a German professor and  naturalist found some fossils while collecting butterflies in Olduvai Gorge.

1931 to 1951 - Found animal fossils and stone tools

1976 - Mary Leakey discovered the Laetoli Footprint

1959 July 17th - Discovered 1.8 million year old skeleton of Australopithecus boisei by Leakey . This robust skull was named as Zinjanthropus boisei, which means Boise's man from East Africa. Zinj is the Arabic name for East Africa and Charles Boise was the man who sponsored the expedition.

How does the name come?
 

The name is a misspelling of Oldupai Gorge.
Oldupai is the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant Sansevieriaehrenbergii, which grows in the gorge.

Wold Heritage
 

Olduvai Gorge has been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1979.

References
 

internet:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/leakey.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/olduvai-gorge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olduvai_Gorge
 

Book :
Tourist Travel & Field Guide to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Endless plane "Serengeti"

Birds seen in Kimbeji Beach



Great Crested Tern

Common Name: Great Crested Tern (Crested Tern or Swift Tern)
Scientific Name : Thalasseus bergii
Identification: Grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow bill, and a shaggy black crest
Habitat: occurs in tropical and warm temperate coastal parts of the Old World
Feeding: Fish
Location: Kimbeji Beach
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Crested_Tern

Birds of Tanzania

More than 800 bird species have been identified in Tanzania. Here is my updated birds collection after my last safari at Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tharengeri.
To see a short description of each bird please click on Birds of Tanzania page.

Big Cats Tanzania

Cheetah, Caracal, Serval, Wild cat, Lion and Lepord are found in Tnzania. We were lucky to see 3 of this big cats during our last Safari. Here below is my Big cats photo stream.

Mikumi National Park

Mikumi is the fourth largest national park in Tanzania and bordered to Africa's biggest game reserve – “the Selous” and highway that runs between Morogoro and Iringa. This is the closest National park to Tanzania capital Dar es Salaam. Park can be accessible year around.

Mikumi Facts:

Size:  Size: 3,230 sq km (1,250 sq miles)

Location: 283 km (175 miles) west of Dar es Salaam

How to get there: 3 to 4 hour drive from Dar es Salaam

Best time to view: Dry season between May and November

Animals: Elephants, Giraffes, Impalas, wildebeest, impala and buffalos can be seen easily. Lions can be seen rarely.

Birds: More than 400 birds have been recorded.

Accomadation: There are several luxury cap sites inside the park and many gust house in Mikumi Town.

Ruaha 2010

Date 10^th September 2010. We all gathered at my place around 4:00 am to start our journey to Ruaha National park. There were 7 of us in our group, me, my wife Kalani, Rohan Uncale & his wife Indira Aunty, Janaka, Lahiru and Somnas. At about 4:30 am we left from Dar es Salaam. Even though it was very early in the morning, there was a huge traffic jam near Weighing Bridge which is located about 50km from Dar es Salaam town. We reached Morogoro around 6:45 am. Morongoro town is located 200km away from Dar es Salaam city. We stopped near Sisal plantation to take some pictures.

After stopped there for about 15 minutes we began our journey again. By 8:00 am we reached Mikumi town. On our way to Mikumi from Morogoro we had chance to view game in route. We stopped at Mikumi for tea and spent about 30 minutes. 

Again we started our journey. After driving for another 4 hours we reached Iringa town around 12:45 in the noon. 

Iringa is the nearest town to Ruaha National Park, which is 120km away. Iringa to Ruaha was the hardest and most time consuming stretch in our journey due to rough roads. Sine we travelled by a van it took more than 4 hours.  At about 4:00pm we reached the gate of Tanzanians second largest national park. After getting park entry ticket we headed to our campsite “Foxes river side camp” en-rooted game drive.

Once we reached Foxes river side camp we were welcomed by the camp warden, an elderly lady. We were served with some snack and tea. We kept our baggage in our bandas near to river bank and walked to river bank to take some pictures of Hippos. After spending around one and half hours in the rive bank we return to our bandas to freshen up.









Evening around 7:30 we went to the main restaurant to have dinner. After having our dinner we returned to our bandas to sleep.

11^th September morning we got up early and got ready to go for a game drive. At about 6:30 am we left from our camp site to start game drive. We saw Giraffes, Lesser kuddu, impalas and some other animals. We stopped at a pick nick site to have our break fast. After that we had about 4 hours game drive and returned to the camp site and had our lunch. During our game drive we saw many lioness and many other animals. Here below is my Ruaha photo stream. Click play button to start.

Around 3:00 pm we have started our journey back to Dar es salaam. One day is not enough at all to discover and view Ruaha national park. I wished I could spend at least 1 more day.

Our initial plan was to drive to Iringa town, stay over night there and drives back to Dar es Salaam the next day. However we reached Iringa town earlier than we expected. Therefore we decided to drive to Mikumi and stay over night. By 9:30pm we were able to reach Mikumi town. Since it was a long weekend all good lodges, hotels and guesthouses were fully booked. Therefore we had to stay at a small guesthouse which was not very nice. 

12^th September we got up early morning, had our breakfast at Jenisis hotel and drove to Morogoro town. We spent some time in Morogoro town, had a snack and started our journey back to Dar es Salaam at about 12:30, by 3:30 pm we reached to Dar.

End of another successful safari.

Trip to West Cost of Tanzania

Date 13^th August 2010, another busy Friday. We were able to get off from work early. After having lunch, we started our journey to Mlingorini village. It is a fishing village located about 50km north of Dar es Salaam and 15km south of the historical town, Bagamoyo. 

By one and half hours drive we reached to our destination “Bomani Beach Bungalows”. After the warm welcome from Bomani staff, we were given a room which was facing the beach. There after we kept our bags and spend lot of time at beach. The beach was completely sandy with clean water. The breeze always made us feel cool and comfortable. 

Enjoying the cool breeze and view of sunset, we returned to our room to get refreshed. 7:00pm, its dinner time. Dinner was served at the Main restaurant.  We had ordered Bomani style Fish fillet, which was very delicious. Here in Bomani, The chef buys the fish from the local fishermen. Due to this the fish is fresh. After the dinner we return to our room to sleep.

On 14^th Morning we woke up and walked to the beach to enjoy the sun rise. We had our morning tea on the beach. After spending about two hour on the beach, we had our breakfast. Next we walked around Bomani garden and captured photographs of beautiful butterflies and few insects roaming around. Please see my photo stream posted at the end of this post. There after we went for a village walk. During this walk we meet a Traditional healer in the village and had time to visit his healing house.

As per our plan, we went to Bagamoyo historical town on the same day after the village walk. We had our lunch at a restaurant at Bagamoyo and returned back to Bomani Beach Bungalows.

In the evening, Rohan uncle, his wife, Indika and his wife also joined us at Bomani. After having tea we spend most of the evening at the garden and the beach enjoying the cool breeze and viewing the sunset.

On that day after the dinner there was a cultural show in which people from the village danced and sang their traditional songs.

There after we return to our bungalow and had a good night sleep.

Next day morning we all got up, had a wash and spend couple hours at the beach before having our breakfast. We also got a change to sail in the lagoon to a near by island.

At about 10am we checked out from Bomani Beach Bungalows and started our journey to Bagamoyo town to see Kaole ruins (to see more details about Kaole Ruins go to Historical & Archeological Sites page) and Crocodile farm. 

Finally after viewing the historical site we went to a restaurant at Bagamoyo to have our lunch and started our journey back to Dar es Salaam. Due to traffic, we spend about 2 hours returning.

End of another good relaxing weekend at west cost of Tanzania.