Sunday, April 21, 2013

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Olduvai Gorge            Author's tip. This is part two of the Ngorongoro trip.  Check out Ngorongoro, which I think was more interesting than this.  

Olduvai Gorge This is part of the sign in the small museum.




This sign uses a common spelling for this gorge. But Our guide Sultan informed us it is spelled Oldupei, from the Massai word for the wild sisal plant growing around it. The Massai use this plant as an antiseptic bandage, or simply as an antiseptic, and for rope, baskets, clothing and in making roofs for bomas. (Bomas are a word meaning home, referring to both the individual huts and to the little compound containing the huts.) Misspellings are common, but Oldupei was made the official name in 2005. Our travel company also used the Oldupei spelling, so I did also. It is pronounced Ol-doo-pae.

We stopped by this world famous site on our way from Ngorongora to our lodging.

We arrived at the little administration compound located above the Gorge, containing an small open air auditorium, a small museum, offices and lodging for the several scientists in residence. The 3:00 o’clock heat was oppressive.

We were greeted by one of the anthropologists working at the site as we climbed from our vehicle. The scientist, a wiry man of thirty five or so, dressed in khaki shorts and shirt, appeared cool and collected standing in the heat in the partial shade of a scruffy tree.. He led us to the shade of the roofed auditorium, and offered cokes or tea from bottles from a electric refrigerator!  My tea was tangy and ice cold, and tingled and chilled down my throat like a blessing from God.

Are there any questions about the Gorge?” He began.

“Is this where Lucy was found?” By asking this question I was showing I was no student of human evolution.

The fossilized skeleton of Lucy was actually found in Ethiopia, so no cigar on that one.

But at least I’d heard of Lucy, the 3.2 million year old Australopithecus afarensis who is believed to be a very early human ancestor, and this knowledge earned me an approving smile and a detailed lecture from the scientist. Oldupai does boast a skull of an Australopithecus boisei, which at 1.8 million years old is still pretty ancient.

Note: Do not ask an enthusiastic man a dumb question concerning his chosen field unless you really are interested. He told me a great deal, and eventually lost me somewhere among the numerous hominids (early human like species) who had left a few of their bones in the rocks of the Gorge. 

It was clear from his presentation that Oldupai Gorge is a wonderful natural museum in which layer on layer of volcanic deposits have been laid down in orderly tiers over a period of at least two million years. Geologists studying volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, biologists studying fossils, and chemists studying changes in soil chemistry and water compositions all use these layers as a time line. 


We drove to the bottom of the Gorge itself, and the scientist pointed out layers and fossils. Even I could see different colored and textured layers with fossil remains stuck throughout, and we examined the little collection of fossils the scientist showed us with interest.

In my case my interest waned. I've never found scientist's speculations concerning two teeth and a toe bone deeply convincing, and so my fascination with past eons has always been tepid. The air was very hot, and I wandered into the shade of the gorge wall.

Sharing my shade I discovered a band of Massai boys waiting to ask for bottles of water. They took a 12 ounce bottle each, and went away apparently pleased. How do they exist out here alone in this arid, hot landscape? What do they eat? Drink?

I found these boys, living now in the 21st century, familiar with motorcycles, cellphones, and TV, while still able to survive much as their human ancestors and pre-human ancestors did alone here in this harsh environment, more than my mind wanted to grapple with. Will this way of life continue? For these boys, for their children? For the still abundant but substantially diminished remnant of the animals that once roamed these planes in unimaginable teeming numbers? Or was I witnessing the end of something harsh, brutal, and wonderful?

It was hot. I was tired. I was glad when we climbed into the vehicles and drove on to our lodge with its electric fan cooled bug-less screened rooms and abundant free running water.






























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