Tanznia
Afore
the sunrays soaked this part of the planet we were up and set to go. Groping
our bags we hurried down to be treated with Ox Liver fried as an item in the
breakfast menu and thus decided to stick with the good old, bread - omlette.
We
marched out to be greeted by our driver cum tour guide, Mr. Mohammad. We
stepped in the SUV and strapped ourselves to the seat. And before I brew your
anxiety any further let me acquaint you that we have embarked a journey to the UNESCO
World Heritage Site, national conservation area of Tanzania, the Ngorongoro.
Before
I left for the African Sub continent I was very assuredly informed by my
friend, “you do not want to miss Ngorongoro- the cradle of mankind.”
(i)Well
known is the theory that human life originated in the African sub continent and
from there on spread to other parts of the world; (ii) Ngorongoro is referred
as the cradle of mankind. Aha! Now I discovered the thread connecting the two,
so indeed I was nearing the place where it all began, ground zero of the human
race.
I was
well acquainted that Ngorongoro is a caldera created in the volcanic mountain
when the land slid down filling the space above the magma. I pondered that I
have well heard about the beauty of the African rain forest, serpentine Nile
that crosses it or the grandeur of the Sahara dessert but never heard of a
crater as such. Before I could near a conclusion the punctured tire of the
vehicle brought everything to a halt! And we stepped out of the SUV onto the Masaai
land.
Masaai’s
are ancient nomadic pastrolist tribes of Africa, with some very unique laws
governing the tribe. The primeval tradition has it that in order for a Masaai
man to get married he has to kill a lion. If he manages to kill the lion single
handedly, peel its skin off and adorn it, he is called the most powerful one,
the ‘Simba’. Even today when the cattle is taken out for grazing the king of
the Jungle, the Lion, vamooses at the very sight of a Masaai. Their attire is
very simple of two robes across their body, color red is for the men and in an
irony to the USA blue is the color branded by women. Food is majorly red meat
and milk from the cattle they rear, out of which they make butter, cheese. In
case a Massai falls ill they are served hot soup with few drops of cattle blood,
which is considered nutritious apart from this ground buffalo horns powder is a
chief medication. I wonder do they even know a world of asprin or tylenol? Their
dwellings are very small huts built by the Masaai women with dry grass, cow
dung and sticks, called ‘Boma’. A Boma is a self-sufficient 3-4 meter wide home
with necessary weapons, cooking pots and small (dry) cow dung cots to sleep. It
makes me think that we proudly call ourselves civilized beings, a superior human
race but less we realize in our lust to develop more we are getting engulfed in
the greed to acquire more.
Before
I could delve more into this anthropology, Vola! Our punctured tire was fixed
and we were back on track heading to our destination. Mohammad enlightened us
that it was through a plane crash that Prof. Bernard Grzimek happened to discover
this place. The legend deems that the
place got its name after a herd of cattle crossing the crater were recognized by
the sound of the bell hung round their necks. Hence the name Ngorongoro is the
Swahili name for cowbell. As Ngorongoro, is a crater of (an extinct) volcano we
wriggled our way through a blanket of clouds up the mountain but as the clouds
were too dense we were not able to capture the whole view of the crater from up
above. We veered our way downhill into
the crater only to be welcomed by a herd of Zebras. Those black striped
creatures I had seen in pictures were just a hand away. They are the size of a
pony and though from a distance they all look just the same but each Zebra has
stripes similar to none. So you see, there isn’t any room for identity crisis! Merrily
grazing, they gave us the right of way to enter the crater.
Before
any further ado, the ceiling of the SUV went pop up! As we just witnessed small
and brightly colored Weaver birds. Not bigger than the palm of my hand, but the
nests their architectured made me think how big is their brain? The nest
resembled an overturned bowl and is carefully located inside the thorny bushes
such that it is not an easy access to the predator, Eagles hovering above. We
marveled at this creation of god as the SUV prodded ahead.
The
next in line were the Wilder Beasts. They belong to the quadruped family and as
I see it, the long hair dangling from their chin and streaks of coarse hair
down their ears, made them look nothing less than the rockstar version of the
austere domestic cow, probably a body piercing is all that was missing. As I
smirked at this jester, we bumped into a bunch of Gazelles. Small little creatures
from the deer family with their tiny little tail wagging all along. There were
many of them flocking around, but in one corner was an interesting event as two
Gazelles locked horns and were ready for a fight. Though it lasted for just a
few seconds until they realized, ‘Oh! We are family!’ Among these herds and
birds was spotted a lone, Pumba! Remember the Wild Pig from the famous
animation ‘The Lion King’, with its snout giving way for a miniature tusk, it
was happily trotting about. Amidst all this commotion we saw a big giant
sleeping and least perturbed by the happenings of its environment. Occasionally
it did pop its head up, just to note everything around him functioned well. A
rare sight to see, we witnessed the one horned black Rhinoceros in its deep
slumber.
As
we moved ahead we also saw a male and a female Ostrich enjoying their afternoon
walk, with Pelicans perched upon the tree, Flamingoes and Indian Bustards
enjoying their sunbath. It was a pleasant sight to see these animals living in
such perfect harmony, with Zebras intermingling alongside the Gazelles, Wilder
Beasts being part of the troop and a little Wild Pig trotting between them all.
By now, we all were getting curious to see the ‘harmony destroyer’. How can an
African wildlife Safari be complete without getting a glimpse of the king of
the jungle? My husband dear decided to take stride, he popped his head out of
the shutter of the SUV, with binoculars dangling down his neck, his eyes scanned
through the crater and definitely so, he did find one lazing in the bushes. I
believe it was the time for its afternoon nap and it cared less of our
eagerness to have a rendezvous with him.
We awaited its hospitality, after all we are visitors to his home and at
the least we expected a ‘Hujumbo’! We leapt ahead and my lion watcher husband
was still at his prowl, but this time he veered us to the sight of a group of
tuskers, the famous African Elephants. Though we watched it from a distant
stretch but its grandeur had me gawked. The tusker had its ivory incisors a
little more than 1.5 meters and huge flappy ears that do not allow him to
estimate the gigantic structure it possesses. There were nearly 15 of them very
calmly strolling, which made me wonder, in case one of them gets irked, even
before we think of our escapade we are sure to be trampled under its titanic
feet.
I
was shook out of this wonder by my husband who pointed towards a Lioness hiding
in the bushes. She lay in congruence with the languid afternoon, brushing flies
off her body with her slender tail. Just as we thought that was all to the
picture, our tour guide, Mahmood brought our notice to a herd of approaching Zebras
who halted all of a sudden and looked in one direction. (Zebras apart from many
other herbivores have a strong sense of smell and can sense a carnivore in the
vicinity.) The direction led us to the Lioness hiding in the bushes. It is at
dawn or dusk the predators charge their kill and while we thought the Lioness
was merely enjoying her lazy afternoon, we were certainly wrong cause we
noticed the Lioness had its ear up and every now and then would peep through
the bushes to see how far its prey has wandered into. It was a spectacular
sight, nothing less than watching National Geographic channel live in front of
our eyes.
Trrriinnggg!
Mohammad pointed towards the time that was running out. He accelerated the SUV
and brought us to a lake right in the middle of the crater for our Lunch picnic
and forewarned us to have lunch inside the vehicle. As we wondered why? The
answer unfolded in front of us. Mohammad was having lunch outside with friends
when from nowhere a huge eagle whiffed past and clawed him on his hand, later
we realized as he was munching on a piece of chicken, it had the hungry bird’s
tummy grumbling for food. We gobbled our lunch before we had that eagle inside
the vehicle wishing, ‘Bon appetite’ to us.
We
then stepped out of the vehicle to freshen up and I soaked myself in the divine
ambience of the Ngorongoro. For here I stand in the cradle of Mankind,
blanketed under the huge open sky with guinea fouls tottering at my feet and an
eagle hovering above us all. Amid Hippos taking a dip in the lake beside and
zebras grazing at a distance, I breathe the same air together with the big
tuskers (elephant) and share the open wide space with Lions, Wilder beasts,
Gazelles and a Rhinoceros all within a radius of 2-3 miles. No camera in the
world could have clicked this beauty as I perceived, so I captured this picture
with the lens of my eyes and allowed this picture to be saved in my memory’s
folder.
The
sun sets, the SUV gears up and we bid adieu to Ngorngoro- The Cradle of
Mankind.
