Waaahoooonderful!

Squeezing between Mt. Kitumbeine and old volcano Gelai I slowly descend into the East African Rift Valley where the Ngorongoro caldera builds up in front of me with the face of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the holy Maasai mountain! This active volcano is the world’s only producing natrocarbonatite lava. Don’t know what this means (Wikipedia knows) but it sounds pretty scientific and in some way I am part of it! :-P Grey soil is dominating the landscape due to the unique volcanic mineral structure. A small Maasai village pops up, surrounded by thorny branches as protection against lions and white invaders. The bushy vegetation vanishes and gives space to more of this thick, juicy grass and lower shrubs. Hazy hills – all having been small volcanos once – appear behind the next elevation and this is how I ride into the dusk. No human beings around for hours.

I turned south by now, paralleling the caldera and the further I progress the more mysterious the scenery gets! Black dots appear in far distance on the endless grassscape. I come closer. Wildebeests! Zebras! Giraffes! Thomson’s gazelles! All around the place! Whaaaat the heck? Whoever told you that you have to enter Serengeti National Park to see some of the famous wildlife migration didn’t tell you that, obviously, some of these beasts will probably migrate out of the national park at one point. Here we are. I find a hideout for the night under an acacia tree between the gravel road and a dry river bed, just under Mt. Kerimasi. My inner self is pretty satisfied, let’s call it “the turn of the tide”.Read more