Manyara, Mto wa Mbu, and Maasai – Enroute to the Serengeti

Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania – Day 3 and 4 of our safari took us across the East Africa Rift Valley and into the highlands around Nogorongoro Crater on our way to the Serengeti. Along the way we would make a stop in Lake Manyara National Park but mostly these two days would involve traveling and taking in some of the African culture. Here we would visit the rural community of Mto wa Mbu (River of Mosquitoes), tour a Maasai village, and see Olduvai Gorge where some of the earliest human fossils have been discovered.

Aaron's artwork

Our visit to Mto wa Mbu was our look into a rural Tanzanian community. It was led by a guide working for the local development organization. He took us through a maze of paths and small dirt streets and in many places I felt like we were intruding into someones backyard or barging into their kitchen as people would be cooking outside over a small fire. Along the way our guide showed us, banana plantations, rice paddys, community irrigation systems, a school, a banana beer operation, and open air art studios. It was here that Aaron was given a first hand introduction to one of the local styles of Tanzanian painting but he needs a little more practice before he can begin an apprenticeship.

Streets of Mto wa Mbu

After our tour, I understood that industry in these towns is of the small cottage type; craftspeople making souvenirs for tourists and small scale farmers providing food for the local market. Here it seemed your livelihood was based on small businesses and the individuals entrepreneurial skills. There was no big employer and the only signs of multinational companies are the selling of cell phones and of course Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As our guide presented it to us, this is a place where people worked hard and were trying to help themselves and their community to a better life.

Niall and Aaron at the orphanage

I found this most evident at our last stop, the local orphanage. Here upto 24 children would be cared for and educated as best the community could provide. For the most part the children seemed happy and well cared for but at 2 children to a bed and seeing the store room with more donated pencils than food it made me wonder how difficult a task it is. As we headed off to Lake Manyara National Park, I felt a little guilty knowing how fortunate Aaron and Niall were compared to these children and I think the boys had some of the same feelings.



Dry lake bed of Lake Manyara



Lake Manyara National Park is located at the base of the escarpment of the East Africa Rift. Here streams flowing down off the highlands provides the area with a consistent supply of water throughout the year. As a result a lot of the park is heavily forested providing good habitat for baboons, monkeys, and birds. But its real claim to fame is a large shallow salt lake that attracts millions of flamingos. Unfortunately, in January the lake has receded several kilometres and from that distance all we could see of the flamingos was a line of pink near the horizon. The dry lake bed in front of us had become a grassy plain and here we saw our first herds of zebras, buffaloes, and wildebeests and of course we saw our now familiar giraffes and elephants. Our guide, Emmilian assured us that this was only a small taste of the large herds of animals we would see on the plains of the Serengeti To finish off our visit to Lake Manyara we saw our first hippos and took some more time to watch the antics of the parks many baboons.



Maasai Village



The next morning we left the Lake Manyara area and the rift valley behind and headed for the Serengeti . We drove up and over the 600 metre escarpment of the valley and headed across a plateau before climbing another 1200 metres in elevation to the lip of Ngorongoro Crater. From there it was a long steady 1000 metre descent over rough dirt roads to the plains of the Serengeti. Along the way we passed through the lands of the Maasai tribe. Here it was a common site to see small Maasai boys dressed in their bright blue or red cloaks herding herds of animals. The Maasai people continue to follow their traditional lifestyle of herding and living in small family villages of mud and stick houses. It was one of these villages where we had another one of our cultural tours.



Maasai welcome dance

Judging by the number of safari vehicles parked outside these villages, it seems to be a rite of passage for safari travelers to visit a Maasai village and we were no different. After making a “donation” we were greeted with their traditional welcome dance and led into the village. Our guide was David, the chief's son but given that the chief has many wives he was probably one of many sons. He showed us around the village and brought us into his home, a small house about 3 metres in diameter and at less than 1.5 metres high we all had to stoop down inside. Within this house a whole family would sleep and cook. By our standards the Maasai were poor and living a spartan existence but they are proud of their culture and seem to enjoy their lifestyle. Not a lifestyle for me but who am I to judge their way of life, especially since there culture has been around much longer than ours back home in Canada.




Olduvai Gorge - Where we all began!

 The last stop of our African cultural journey was Olduvai Gorge, perhaps the site where human culture began. This is where the Leakey's, a renowned family of archaeologists found some of the oldest remains of humans. Here they discovered evidence of our early ancestors walking upright and using tools to hunt on the African plains. Perhaps hunting and following the same animals we are hoping to see a few kilometres away in the Serengeti.

For more of our pictures of from this part of our journey, check out our latest web album.

First Days on Safari

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania - After an overnight in Arusha, our guide Emmilian returned the following morning to pick us up from our hotel. This time the Toyota Landcruiser was packed with all the gear for our safari which also included our cook Octavian. After a quick stop to pick up a weeks supply of drinks (28 litres of water, some juice, and a 6 pack of beer for Dad) it was off to see the wildlife of Tanzania. Along the way we got to know our guide a little better as he answered some of our questions about what we had been seeing as we drove along the highways of Kenya and Tanzania.

Our first stop on our safari was Tarangire National Park. Although, not one of the more famous of Tanzania's national parks it was only a few hours away from Arusha and with 10,000 elephants it was an ideal place to begin. After dropping off our cook at the campsite to set up camp and prepare supper, we headed into the park for our first game drive and lunch over looking the Tarangire River. By the time we had stopped for lunch we had seen our first elephants, giraffes, and even a couple of lions. And at the picnic area there was a troop of monkeys who gladly shared your lunch if you were not careful.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon driving along the river observing elephants, lots and lots of elephants. We saw family groups with baby elephants and some very large solitary bull elephants. As we learned from our guide, the elephants will make a daily trip down to the river to drink and cool themselves off. The rest of their time seem to be devoted to eating, this probably has something to do to the fact that they eat 100kg of grass and leaves every day.

It was a great first day on safari. We were able to get very close to some large family groups of elephants. Along the way we also saw zebras, ostriches, more giraffes, a couple of lions, impalas, lots of birds, and a cheetah. We had also discovered that our guide was very knowledgeable about the animals and their behaviour as well as their habitats. Finally, Niall had someone else to ask questions and started to give Dad a break. It was a great first day.

After a good supper we prepared for our first night camping in Africa. Just before we turned in, we met the campground's night watchmen. He was armed with a bow an arrow which he proudly showed us and assured us there was no poison on the points. We went to sleep in our tents as he paced back and forth across the campground making his rounds. I didn't ask him if the bow and arrow was use to fight off robbers or wildlife, I am not sure which would have been the better answer. It didn't seem to matter as I slept well anyway.

The next morning we headed out early and traveled more slowly and through a less traveled part of the park. This morning we were to discover how much and how diverse the wildlife existed in Tarangire National Park. Our first sighting was a leopard tortoise, one of the small five. Shortly after that it was a large herd of giraffes gracefully striding among the Acacia trees. Then it was a colony of baboons coming down from the trees where they spent the night hiding from predators. They were comical to watch as some wrestled each other and others dropped baobab fruit onto the ones on the ground. Ostriches were next, feeding and taking dust baths in the middle of the road. It was after this that I realized since our sighting of the tortoise we had only traveled a few hundred metres. And amongst these animals were families of warthogs, wandering elephants, impalas, birds, and the list goes on. I was just in awe seeing so much and so many kinds of wildlife in one place. It was incredible.

The rest of the day was spent along the river again, looking for more wildlife and seeing more elephants. As these elephants walk just metres away from you, it is truly amazing to see just how big and powerful these animals are as they pull up grass and tear off tree branches with their trunks and push themselves through the bush. Then you see their gentle side as they communicate with each other with these gentle grunts from their stomachs or watch them gently caress and care for the baby elephants. There is a lot to be said for understanding an animal by observing it in its home. So far the safari had been giving us that opportunity.

Our time in Tarangire was coming to and end but our guide had planned one more stop. He had some contacts at a near by safari lodge and it had a pool and a great view. As a treat for the boys we would head there to cool off while Susan and I could enjoy the view. There was just something wonderful about sitting on a patio of a safari lodge looking across the African landscape and watching 50 elephants go about their lives. I couldn't decide if I was part of this place or just a lucky observer. I did know it had been a great two days of safari and we had 5 more to go. I really began to think how lucky we are to see this and what we owed the Tanzanian people who had found a way to preserve this wildlife. This was going to be a special experience for Aaron and Niall, two boys from Newfoundland who had never been to a zoo were for their first time seeing elephants and other African animals living and thriving in the wild. Yes, we had made the right decision to go to Africa.

See more of our pictures of Tarangire National Park on our web album.

Africa - Impressions Through a Bus Window

En route to Africa

Nairobi, January 20 - After almost two days of being in airports and planes we landed in Nairobi, Kenya. This would be our first stop of our African trip that would take us to Tanzania for a 7 day safari. As neophyte international travelers, our trip to Africa was the one we faced with the most trepidation. In terms of culture, climate, and infrastructure, we really had no idea what to expect. In spite of this, Africa also was also our most eagerly awaited part of our journey as we were scheduled to visit some of Tanzania's most famous wildlife parks including the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater!
After clearing immigration and collecting our luggage we were transferred to our hotel where we arrived in late afternoon. This would be a short visit to Nairobi as we would leave by 7:30 the next morning to take a bus to Arusha, Tanzania where our safari would begin. This left us only time to rest the kids and grab a meal at the hotel. Our experiences of Nairobi and Kenya would be captured through the bus window as we headed south to Tanzania.

Bus to Arusha

The next morning, with our luggage securely strapped to the top of the bus we began what would be an 8 hour journey to Arusha. From our vantage point, Nairobi at first seemed to be a city of western style buildings, stores with familiar brands, and streets lined with billboards. On the other hand the streets were clogged with numerous small buses crowded with colourfully clad passengers and judging by the goods crammed in and ontop of the busses, they were all heading to the city's markets. Many of the busses were overloaded with bags of rice, great bunches of bananas skicking out of windows, and my favourite the 50 or so dead chickens tied to the roofrack and draped over the side of the bus. Yes, Africa was different.




Village through the bus window

 As we proceeded outside the city we encountered Africa's roads which seemed to be more about detours and dust. Along the way we passed through villages and towns alive with markets and trades people doing their work of repairing vehicles and making furniture in open air shops. Further along the landscape became less populated. Towns gave way to the occassional group of thatched huts within a dry and sparsely treed landscape. Here we hoped we might get our first glimpse of African wildlife but instead we were only rewarded with termite mounds and herds of cattle and goats watched over by young boys in traditional dress. Our encounters with African wildlife would have to wait until the next day when our safari would begin.

Open air market

Arriving at the Tanzanian border we encountered numerous safaris vehicles. We began to understand how big the safari business was in Kenya and Tanzania. For us, our safari vehicle awaited us 2 hours away in Arusha. After purchasing our visas, we continued with the last leg of our bus ride. This took us by a dormant volcano and close enough to Mount Kilmanjaro to see its snowfields. An amazing site when you think that we were almost at the equator. Overall, it was an interesting ride and gave us a small taste of Africa, but perhaps our best site of the day was arriving in Arusha and seeing Emmilian, our safari guide. After quick introductions it was off to our hotel to remove a thick coat of African dust. Tomorrow our safari would begin.