Northern Tanzania - October 2016

Four days and three nights away from Dar es Salaam for October break.
Photo album and movie at the end of this post... or read about our adventure first!

On Sunday, we flew to Arusha (about 600km from Dar es Salaam) with Precision Air. Arrived safely (precisely) and waited for our luggage. It was brought to us stacked on a metal trolley. You just took your own case off as it came in to view as the ones above it were removed by their owners.

We took a taxi to Arusha town and stayed in the 'Stereo Hotel'. Not sure how many stars it would have... maybe two... but it was clean and all we needed for the night. We had beds and a shower with hot water. It reminded me of some hotels I have been to in China - maybe the materials and decor came from China... We went out for dinner at a local place and had some local food - I had pilau rice with barbequed fish. YUM. My little guy had his Tanzanian favourite - chips myai (my-eye)...chips in fried egg. Interesting combo!

On Monday, we drove about 150km to Tarangire National Park.
 
Completely fascinated by the Maasai people we see along the way.

Herds of cattle (goats, cows, and occassionally donkeys) herded by young Maasai boys. We saw numerous youngsters, some no older than five or six years old, herding the animals. Alone. Not an adult in sight. Walking for miles and miles in the hot African sun. No food and very little water.

One wee lad walking with his herd was wearing a skirt made of empty plastic water bottles. Presumably ones he had found by the roadside (there is a LOT of litter lining this highway - thrown from passing buses and cars). At the end of the day, the boy will be filling these bottles with water to take home to his family.

We saw donkeys being used to carry water buckets to water holes. Collecting muddy water that will serve as the family's primary source of drinking water.

Round mud huts dot the landscape occasionally. Homes of the semi-nomadic Maasai. Makeshift animal pens made of branches to protect their livestock at night.

We heard of a famous Maasai elder who has about 14 wives and more than 300 offspring over two or three generations. He was apparently told by the government to build a school for his ever expanding family. We saw the school on the hillside. He was interviewed by the BBC Swahili and at 93 was the father of a 5-year-old!! He lives a good life - his children and their children are expected to care for and provide for him... it's their duty.

In all Maasai families, the children work. The younger you are, the more work you do. Youngsters tend to the cattle all day long. They don't go to school. Boys tend the cattle. Girls help their mothers in the home, cleaning and preparing food. There is a definite order to it.

Interesting info on Wikipedia (which I know to be true from local Tanzanians!):

Traditional Maasai lifestyle centres around their cattle which constitute their primary source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor. 
All of the Maasai’s needs for food are met by their cattle. They eat the meat, drink the milk and on occasion, drink the blood.

We saw some teenagers walking along the roadside wearing traditional white face paint. This signals that they are transitioning from boyhood to manhood. We were travelling too fast for me to get a good photo, so here is one I found online (attributed below) to give you an idea of what they looked like:

A small group of Masaai men with about 20 camels. Definitely not a sight I would have expected to see!

After a full day game drive in Tarangire National Park, we drove slightly north to Mto wa Mbu (lit. River of Mosquitoes), where we stayed in the Park Ridge Resort. I'd use the term 'resort' very loosely here!!! The place had obviously just opened... we might have been the first guests! However, the people that ran it were lovely and seemed nervous and very anxious to please the whole time we were there. They made every possible effort to make us feel comfortable and well fed!!

On Tuesday, we drove about 10 minutes from the 'resort' to Lake Manyara National Park. I was surprised at how different the landscape was here. I was expecting more of the same, like Tarangire - broad, flat, open savannah. But Lake Manyara National Park is more like a massive forest with gorgeous Acacia trees, big hills, and lovely silver baobab trees dotted here and there. This makes animals all the more difficult to spot!

After two days, simba (lions) remained elusive! Apart from one lioness way, way, WAY in the distance, we didn't get up close with any big cats this trip. At one point our driver heard a message on the radio that a leopard has been spotted so we raced to get to the place it had been sighted. Unfortunately, it was gone by the time we got there. We weren't too disappointed... we had already seen some lions in Mikumi back in August, and we know this won't be our last safari! We've only just begun...
The little guy loved the thrill of the chase, though! 

Highlights of the two game drives:

• A humungous 'dazzle' of zebras! We certainly were dazzled... I'm estimating there were about 200 zebras in the dazzle we saw - walking mostly in single file, taking rolls in the dust, then moving on! More on group names later (I Googled "what is a group of zebras called?").
• Extreme close-up with the biggest elephant I have ever seen. He was massive. Definitely over two metres tall. Most probably over two metres wide... and goodness knows how much he weighed. Very intimidating and VERY close to our vehicle. It was the only time I have ever been slightly worried on safari... I felt like he was looking RIGHT at me... one little nudge and our jeep would have been flattened. Wowzers. Incredible animals.
• Seeing an ostrich in the wild for the first time. Very, very cool.
• Hundreds and hundreds of pelicans, storks, and mixed breeds (pelicorks or stelicans?!) on Lake Manyara (and flying above it). Would love to visit when all the flamingo flock there.
• Several 'towers' of giraffes. These 'twiga' are slowly becoming one of my favourites. They walk so elegantly. I learnt there is more than one variety of giraffe - some were typical giraffe colour, but the ones in Lake Manyara National Park are more black than brown. I wonder if this is to blend in with the very dark trunks of the millions of acacia trees that adorn the park.

List of animals we saw (in multiples):

• Tarangire National Park - vervet monkey, wildebeest, impala, gazelle, warthog, waterbuck, vulture, giraffe, zebra, ostrich, lion, elephant (even saw two fighting!), Kirk's dik-dik, squirrel
• Lake Manyara National Park - Olive baboon, hippo, warthog, impala, gazelle, stork, pelican, zebra, buffalo, waterbuck, blue monkey, giraffe, elephant, monitor lizard, eagle, vulture, flamingo, wildebeest, Egyptian geese, Bohor reedbuck

I might not have all those names right!! I bought a book today called "Animals of the Serengeti" - need to brush up on my deer-like creatures (and others)... 

There were also thousands of tsetse flies - OUCH - they hurt! We became experts at tsetse swatting!!

On Wednesday, we left Mto wa Mbu and drove back to Arusha, straight to the airport. One brief stop on the way so I could buy a souvenir of our trip - got 4 Maasai shuka (blankets/cloths). Gorgeous patterns and colours.

We flew back to Dar via Zanzibar! As we left Arusha we spotted Mount Kilimanjaro peeking above the clouds!

It was incredible seeing Africa from above. So vast and flat and open. And dry. Lots of half empty lakes and dried up rivers in desperate need of some rain. In places the ground looked red:

Landed in Zanzibar for about 15 minutes for some passengers to get off, and a couple to get on. Then a very, very short (and quite bumpy) flight across the water to Dar. Flying over the ocean just past Zanzibar I saw lots of dolphins leaping out of the water! Zanzibar is definitely high on our list of places we want to visit in Tanzania.

An amazing trip. 

I have no idea how long we will live in Africa for. But one thing I already know for sure... this continent is quickly creeping under my skin and is stealing a piece of my heart. I feel very grateful that I am having all these mind-blowing experiences. I will never forget them, I know that. I really hope that my little guy remembers them too.

Without further ado - check out my photos here (I wish I could shoot like a pro!)... I chose my best 66 shots out of over 600! Thank goodness for digital!



And... here's a video I made completely with footage taken on my iPhone! Most of the footage you see uses NO ZOOM! So, so close to the wildlife. Unreal. Made the video completely on the phone using iMovie. Watch full screen if you can.

Looking forward to our next safari!

Group names for animals here!

Maasai face paint image found here: http://www.terrydivyak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Web_TD3_5711.jpg