Patience and Jordan Lister’s African Safari Trip Report

September 26 to October 14, 2007

Arrival: Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania
Arriving in Nairobi airport was not as chaotic as I imagined. A representative from Riverside Shuttle (which we pre-booked) greeted us upon exiting and showed us to our 20 person shuttle bus. The bus ride from Nairobi to Arusha was extremely bumpy and dusty, but allowed us to see some of the unique vegetation, poor villages and people dressed in traditional clothing. This was a perfect introduction to the region.

Arusha
The combination of jet lag and the 6 hour bus ride made our arrival in Arusha disorienting. Arusha appeared quite rural and dusty at first, with mismatched one story buildings and numerous men hanging around on the streets. After checking into Le Jacaranda hotel and walking around the town we confirmed that our first impression was accurate, although the town was also full of very friendly and entrepreneurial young men, an interesting market, and beautiful Jacaranda trees with their purple blossoms. We arranged for a local named Mathew to take us to a Maasai cattle auction, which takes place every Sunday at the Ngaramtoni market. This was well worth doing; we were the only tourists and got to wander through crowds of large cows, goats, and Maasai who were either selling or buying the animals.

Safari
Our customized 14 day safari itinerary was planned and booked by Mama Tembo. Our driver was an easy going man with a great wealth of knowledge on the local plants and animals, as well as great driving skills (which we later discovered to be an uncommon trait for safari drivers to have). Our only complaint was his continual use of the truck radio and his cell phone to talk to his friends while driving. Our cook was a really fun guy in his early 20’s who worked very hard at setting up camp, preparing delicious meals and cleaning up. I am glad to report that neither of us developed a food borne illness during the trip, despite our eating un-refrigerated meat for the entire 14 days.

Tarangire National Park
This was one of our favorite places on the safari as it offered both quantity and quality. We were in awe of the dramatic landscape and herds of elephants that we saw immediately upon passing through the park gates. The vegetation included baobab, acacia, candelabra, and sausage trees. Animals we saw included prides of lions, multiple families of elephants, zebras, dik-diks, impalas, waterbuck, ostriches, wildebeest, giraffes, warthogs, baboons, and vervet monkeys. We spent 2 nights in a tented camp at The Tarangire Safari Lodge, which overlooked a gorge where we could watch elephants, zebras and wildebeest drink from the river.

Lake Eyasi
The drive to Lake Eyasi was long, dusty and so bumpy that I may have hit the truck roof a few times. We stayed at Mamoya’s bush camp which is a quaint public campsite that backs onto the Chem-Chem river and the irrigated onion fields which are vital to Tanzania’s economy. While in this area we visited people from the Datoga tribe and the Hadzabe tribe. Visiting the Hadzabe people was an authentic experience that got us off “the beaten track”. We followed two of the men on a morning hunt, which involved running through the bush for a couple hours while they shot arrows at game fowl and periodically stopped to smoke marijuana. On an evening walk we went down to the highly mineralized lake Eyasi, which has a scenic backdrop of palm trees and the rift valley escarpment. Along the way we met many friendly locals and were joined by numerous curious children who tested out their English and tried to hold our hands.

Ngorongoro
Standing on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater provided an amazing view and a new perspective of how vast and dramatic the rift valley landscape really is. We were a little disappointed with our game drive through the crater because at this time of year there were not enough animals visible to compensate for all of the other vehicles driving around. We did, however, see hippos and get a very close look at a male lion lazing in the grass.

Nainokanoka, Empakaai and Olmoti
The “special campsite” at Nainokanoka was a chilly grassy area next to the local veterinarian housing and local water supply. Our arrival attracted the attention of many local Maasai from nearby bomas who came over to see who we were. Because the rangers, whom we had pre-paid to accompany us on hikes into Empakaai and up Mt. Makarot, had decided not to show up, our routes were changed and we were guided by local Maasai. The hike into Empakaai crater was a quick 15 minute scramble down a steep forest pathway. Once in the crater we saw thousands of pink flamingos congregated along the swampy shore of the soda lake. On the way out we saw some Buffalo, who luckily ran away from us. From Empakaai, we were dropped off at Olmoti where we hiked up to a lookout to see a waterfall and the Ngorongoro crater rim in the distance. The following day we camped at a very remote spot in the bushes at the base of Mt. Makarot. A very enthusiastic young Maasai, named Daniel, guided us around the hills facing Mt. Makarot (which we could not hike without an armed ranger for fear of the buffalo). He showed us many great view points, pointed out all the local bomas, and taught us a huge amount about the lifestyle and traditions of young people living in this region.

Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park lived up to its reputation of being a vast treeless plain with great opportunities for viewing wildlife. The only sacrifice we had to make for this experience was putting up with the touristy facilities and the quantity of other visitors that we would run into while on game drives. While in the more central area of the Serengeti we got very close to cheetahs on a few occasions, as well as a lion with a fresh warthog kill. Driving through the northern Serengeti, toward the Kenyan border, provided views of newly green vegetation and the beginning of the wildebeest migration; this area took us away from the crowds and made us feel like we were in a National Geographic wildlife show.

Lake Natron
The drive from Serengeti to Lake Natron was a long, hot and bumpy 6 hours. Due to the recent increase in volcanic activity (and eruption) of Oldonyo Lengai the air was very silty with low visibility; we did not get a good view of the volcano or the lake until we were about 25 km away. Once close enough to see, we were completely blown away by the dramatic appearance of Lengai with huge plumes of smoke bellowing from the top. Our original plan had been to climb to the volcano rim, however, the recent eruption and the unhealthy quantities of smoke being emitted had made every “reputable” guide in the area laugh at our inquiries about climbing. Instead, we trekked to the shore of Lake Natron which allowed us to get close to thousands of the pink flamingos which inhabit the area. While walking through the small nearby village we met some of the locals and got a closer look at some of the women who were decked out in traditional styles of jewelry.

Conclusion
It is virtually impossible for us to capture how great our safari was in one short trip report, as there is not enough room to describe all of the small details and encounters that made the experience so complete. Despite the small geographical region that we covered on this trip, we were surprised by how diverse the landscapes, climates, and people were within each of the areas visited. It is difficult to choose our favorite place or our best experience, however; the top 4 highlights of this trip were being able to observe so many amazing animals from such short distances, hunting with the Hadzabe people, seeing Oldonyo Lengai spew smoke from just a few km away, and gaining a more realistic insight into the culture and priorities of Tanzanians.

Click here to see all our photos.

And here's our Mama Tembo Tours album.

11-12-2007