Today we drove north to the Serengeti. The name means "endless plains" and it sure lived up to its name, we drove all day (with various sightseeing stops) and at the end of the day we are still not at the end of the Serengeti. Now I do not mean to give the impression that the day was just driving. Early in our day we stopped at a Maasai village for a tour. The villagers organize the tour themselves and appear to provide no "kick back" to the tour company. We were met outside the village by one of the chief's sons who collected our entrance fee. Then there was a welcome dance by a large troupe of men and women, the four of us tourists got to participate in the dancing (not a pretty sight) and then we toured the village, a Maasai house and their school. We could never entirely be sure of this but it seemed like the entire village of 138 people were descendants or wives of the chief.

We were told

  • the chief had 17 wives,

  • that young men married women from other tribes,

  • young women went to other tribes in marriage,

  • the men do not have houses but rotate between the houses of their wives,

  • when a husband visits one of his wives for the night, some of the children in that house, may have to move to a neighbors house to make room for the husband,

  • that the tribe had two villages, this one and one in the mountains and moved between them depending on water and grazing.

All in all a very interesting stop.

After the Maasai we continued the drive into the Serengeti Park where there were thousands of zebra scattered across the plain but all going in approximately the same direction. This apparently was part of the great migration of herbivores caused by shifting water supplies and grazing. Apparently it has been raining in the northern Serengeti and animals were moving towards that water and grass.

After a picnic lunch we came across a pride of at least 9 lions sleeping under a tree, while 4 or 5 others stalked a lone buffalo out in the open grass land about 400 meters away. The guide told us the stalkers were all young males and the fact that the lionesses were still sleeping under the tree told him that the hunt would not be successful. Later in the day the ladies would wake up, probably take a zebra, and show the young bucks how it should be done.

Our accommodation for the night was the Four Seasons Serengeti. A simply fabulous place, for those of us that get some enjoyment from luxury hotels. I don't even want to think about how much the night is costing us. But I will try hard to enjoy it.