 |
Gibb's Farm
Tu Gibb's Farm started as a plantation during the British occupation but is now a beautiful lodge with lovely flower gardens, but it still grows its own fruit and vegetables. |
|
Gibb's Farm
Tu Gibb's Farm started as a plantation during the British occupation but is now a beautiful lodge with lovely flower gardens, but it still grows its own fruit and vegetables. |
| Our last night at Tree Tops Lodge was thankfully uneventful. While we
enjoyed a nice breakfast (the usual - eggs, bacon, cereal, toast, and
fresh fruit), the porters gathered our bags from our rooms and loaded
the vehicles. We set out on a long and very dusty drive to our lunch
stop at Gibb's Farm. This was probably the dustiest part of our journey
since the dirt roads were reasonably well traveled - every time a car or
truck would come from the other direction, we'd scramble to roll the
windows up.
We drove through a number of villages on the way. I regret not stopping to see if I could take some photos since many of the scenes were quite interesting and pretty. |
| We took a restroom break at another souvenir shop and had fun
bargaining with the proprietor for another wood carving (an elephant
carved from teak), a beautiful hand-carved chess set, and a few
batiks.
As we headed to higher altitudes, we drove by a lot of interesting vegetation and pretty scenery, and also saw a number of giraffes grazing in the trees. We even saw some camels that someone had given the Masai. |
 |
 |
We were so happy to have arrived at Gibb's Farm. No dust, a cool
breeze, and something cold to drink. We sat for a while in the
garden in front of the main lodge building enjoying the shade and
beautiful view of the valley.
After a nice buffet lunch that had been prepared by an excellent chef, I took a walk around the lodge to photograph the beautiful flower gardens. |
| At 2:00, a few of us took a guided tour of the vegetable garden (we had already walked around the herb garden ourselves). Gibb's Farm grows almost all their own vegetables and has quite an impressive range of produce. The tour took about a half hour and was a very pleasant walk. |  |
 |
Another hour of driving and we reached the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.
What a spectacular view! We spent about twenty minutes just looking down
at the crater floor through binoculars. We could see herds of zebra,
wildebeests, and cape buffalo.
A half hour later and we arrived at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge where we'd spend the next three nights. This is truly a spectacular place. The rooms are large and luxurious, the service wonderful and the views are amazing. We even had zebra grazing just outside the room. |