After our usual morning routine, we set off with Tim for Olduvai Gorge, an archaeological site in the eastern Serengeti. We passed numerous Masai walking and some young Masai boys dressed in black, signifying that they were soon to be circumcised. We reached the Olduvai site made famous by the discoveries of Dr. Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey who excavated numerous hominid fossils. At the museum there, we saw a cast of a trail of clear ancient hominid footprints of two adults and a child found by Mary Leakey in 1978 - they are thought to be some 3.5 million years old and were preserved in volcanic ash from a nearby site in Tanzania called Laetoli. We paid a small fee for a lecture but wondered why we'd bothered when it turned out to be only around 5 minutes long! On the up side, we were lucky enough to be provided with a guide to areas not normally open to the public - we saw researchers from a US university working away, as well as the site where Mary Leakey found the first hominid skull in 1959.

We moved on from there to visit the 'Shifting Sands' - we stopped at the larger of the two sand dunes that move by many metres per year yet still remains intact due to the magnetic properties of the sand grains. This volcanic sand originated from an eruption of Ol Doinyo Lengai which we had seen from the air on Day 3. The sands are regarded wtih religious significance by the Masai and used as a place to pray or sacrifice cattle.

We returned to the museum at Olduvai and dropped off the guide that we'd picked up earlier (he'd joined us for the trip to the Shifting Sands). From there we headed for a Masai village - it was different to the one Tim normally visited, and the result of a recommendation at Olduvai.

On arrival, we were first greeted by the chief of the village and the teacher at the school there, not to mention numerous children and baby goats. The village chief had 12 wives, 43 children (and one more on the way) and 24 grandchildren... clearly a busy man! We saw his youngest wife (now 20 years old) who he had married at 14, and who had had her first child at the age of 15.

A number of Masai gathered to do a dance for us and Becky was beckoned to join them. Before she could say 'Ngorongoro' she had a Masai necklace placed around her neck (which we later had little option but to buy!!). We entered one of the Masai huts and, once through the narrow entrance, were immediately hit by the heat (there was a fire lit within the hut), the smell, the flies and the darkness. There was one of the chief's wives in there and a baby, but we're not sure who else. After that experience we headed for the school where the children sang about Ngorongoro and Manyara, and counted up to 30 in English. Afterwards, we were pleased to hear from Tim that we got a much better experience from visiting this village than we'd have got from the one he normally frequents.

We left for the Crater Lodge, giving one of the Masai warriors a lift to a neighbouring village. By road, that was about 10 kilometres but the Masai said he could walk it in just 2 hours, or in 1 hour if he walked quickly. Once back, we were both eager to freshen up after our visit to the village. A bath had been run for us, and had lit candles and rose petals scattered all around. We had lunch, enjoyed the bath, and Paul met up with Tim for a game of football, whilst Becky had a massage. Tim introduced Paul to the other players as David Beckham's brother but, as it happened, the game turned out to be a non-event because the person with the ball was nowhere to be found, and Tim seemed a little concerned that he might have sold it! The massage, on the other hand, was successful!

We showered, went to the shop, had dinner, and prepared ourselves for the next day... and ulimate relaxation! :-)