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.