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The Masai seen below are from the area near Lake Natron in northern Tanzania. We found the Masai up here to be less "touristified" then in other areas of Tanzania, most likely because they are more isolated. And for an understandable reason; the track to get up to lake Natron really suck! Thus, not many tour operators go up that way.
The good thing up there is that navigation is quite simple. The mountains, and dormant volcanos are seperated by vast plains, and thus you easily find your way by driving over the plains and taking a right or left turn at this and that particular mountain. Regardless of tracks. We did this on our way back from the lake since the track we were on disapeared, and therefore came upon several villages that we hadn't been aware of by mistake. It's an area well worth visiting.

The main reason to go to Lake Natron is not really to see the lake, which by the way is filled with pink flamingos, but to climb up Ol Doinyo Lengai, a live volcano that is veiwed as a god by the Masai. It might not look steep from this angle, but believe me, it is on the far right side where you climb/crawl up! The volcano is made of Carbonate, Which is why they can produce natron from Lake Natron, below the volcano. The downside of this substance is that the ash layer covering the sides is crystalized in some places, and thus very sharp, ripping the soles of your boots up, not to mention your hands when crawling on all 4... Where it wasn't sharp, it was so loose that you'd slide 2 steps back for every step up! Because of the high temperature in this area, and the higher temp in the crater itself during the day, you have to start climbing at midnight. This should get you to the top by sunrise, at least if you're in reasonably good shape.
The amazing thing up in the crater is that there's lots of "mini craters" bubbling up lava. It's glowing red in the dark and you have to be a bit carefull so you don't get hit by any of the globs that get spit out. Once daylight came, we saw that we had mistakenly walked right in an area where lots of football sized globs landed... When dawn broke, the red glowing lava turned black, and at this hour it was actually quite cold. The only heat available was to sit next to the black lava to warm up! The lava we are next to in the pictures was about 8-9 hours old, with a continous flow out in the middle.

The lion and leopard pictures below are from the western corridor of the Serengetti. An area we enjoyed a lot. We didn't see more than a couple of other cars while there unlike the eastern side, which is closer to Ngorogoro. We have never been in an area with such a dense lion population as the western corridor. The Leopard was resting in a tree we drove by, and after a while he decided to get down and stalk a herd of gazelle. Unfortunatly for him (and us) they caught on to what was going on, and he didn't get anything.

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This elephant has probably been seen by some of you in the Ngorogoro crater. It's an interesting place, but I personally feel that they let in too many vehicle per day, and it can be a bit crowded. We saw a couple of elephant there of this size, and one came up to the crater rim that night to visit us! Here's a bit I snipped from our website that my wife wrote:

"Camping that night was at the public campsite on the crater rim. We parked our car close to the edge of the forest and went to bed early. A few hours later I woke from a loud strange noice, like VERY loud burping and farting. I soon realised that a HUGE elephant was eating next to our tent. A wave of elephant fart drifted into the tent, nearly choking us, as it was fired directly through the window from only 2-3 meters away! Although Erik accused me of being the origin of the foul noise and smell... Unfortunatly, an overlander truck was parked not far from us and they were holding a flashlight on him for a long time. This made the elefant a bit uncomfortable (me even more) and you could see he didn't like it. After a while he kept on eating and hung around our tent for hours until a new elefant turned up. His trunk was all over the tent sniffing and he continued farting all the time! Elephant fart this close up for an extended lenth of time is not very pleasant... Then the next came and did the same. I was just terrified even though I knew they were used to people there. I didn't sleep much that night, Erik, on the other hand, went back to sleep after a short while and was soon snoring and having sweet dreams!"

One must realize that our roof-top tent was perfect hight for the elephant to look in, which he did for quite some time. To be honost, I couldn't see an ounce of anythiing kind or gentle in this elephants orange red eyes... This, combined with him brushing his trunk all over the tent to sniff was not something my wife enjoyed much as you read above!

It later struck me that we had been eating a mango while up on the roofrack that evening, and this might have been what got him interested.

Erik D.