This is an account of a three week trip to Tanzania that included a jeep safari of the northern game reserves of Tarangire, Manayara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro, a visit to a remote Lake Natron, and a few days on Zanzibar.
Why Tanzania? Above all, this trip was a pilgrimage to see pink flamingos. We had seen them on the soda lakes high up in the altiplano of Bolivia in 2002. Ever since then a photograph of one of them had looked down on me from my office wall. One evening, after one glass of wine too many, I typed "pink flamingo" into the search engine on Amazon. Unbelievably, there at the top of the list was a book called "Pink Flamingos" by a photographer called Carlo Mari. Too drunk to notice the $55 price tag, I clicked the order button right away. When it arrived a couple of days later it turned out to be the ultimate flamingo book. It is filled with breathtaking photographs of African Flamingos on the rift valley lakes. Some of the most beautiful pictures are of Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania. We just had to go there and so this trip was born.
We flew in to Dar Es Salaam early in the morning. The city felt reasonably safe and friendly, but not as engaging and characterful as other capitals. So we didn't linger and the next morning found us in the humid, cavernous waiting room of the Scandinavian bus terminal. Scandinavian's literature promised a reliable, air conditioned service to Arusha. Ours was neither. A couple hours into the eight hour journey, there was a loud bang and cloud of steam erupted from the radiator. In a scene that must be repeated countless times every day throughout Africa, we hung about restlessly in the shade of a tree while the drivers stripped off and set to work on the engine. The problem looked terminal and I didn't hold out much hope of getting to Arusha that day. But I should have known better - we were with Africans, masters of improvisation. After an a hour or so it was fixed and we resumed our climb into the hills. After catching a glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro in the last rays of the setting sun, we arrived in Arusha, well after dark. The taxi we picked had no petrol and the driver dinn't know his way around town, but eventually we found our way to the sanctuary of The Outpost hotel.
A little way up Serenegti Road road from the The Outpost, the offices of Roy Safaris are cool and airy, and the staff genuinely friendly and efficient. This made signing $1,800 worth of travellers cheques only slightly less nervewracking. But we got over it and after meeting our guide and driver, Milinga, and our cook, Walter, we were soon on our way. Leaving the chaotic traffic of Arusha behind, we drove onto a wide dry plain under a huge African sky.
Wild Palm Campsite Tarangire
We arrived at Wild Palm camp a few kilometres outside Tarangire Park around mid-day. It was a little oasis of green amongst the dusty plain. Here we learned just what "Budget" camping was to be like. While a couple of young men from the campsite unpacked the landrover and pitched our tent, Walter laid a camp table, lit a charcoal fire and cooked us lunch. Slightly embarassed, we hung around like spare parts and yearned to do something useful.
Our first elephants in Tarangire
What we learned in Tarangire is that Elephants make you smile. We saw our first ones a few minutes after entering the Park. We stopped and there they were behind a group of trees. We watched with huge grins on our faces as they lumbered past the jeep and down the track with all the beauty of a line of traction engines.
Water hole in Tarangire
That night it rained with tropical ferocity. For hours it drummed on the roof of the tent, but remarkably we stayed dry. In the morning we packed up and drove to Mto Wa Mbu along an immaculate new road built by the Japanese.
After pitching the tents we drove round Manayara National Park. In contrast to the open expanses of Tarangire, the tracks in Manayara cut through thick jungle. After seing elephant, giraffe and Dik-dik, we ate lunch looking over the lake and watching termites on the move.
Giraffe at Manayara
Lunch stop Manayara
En route to Lake Natron
Next morning, after driving a little way up the Japanese road we turned off onto the track to Lake Natron. The track headed up a wide flat plain between two steep lines of mountains. The plain was dry and dusty, studed with little thorn bushes. Every now then we would pass small Masai boys looking after herds of cattle. Around mid-morning we reached Engaruka a dusty Masai village. As a sort of toll, the local head man insisted we pay for a guided tour of some 500 year old remains of a settlement. A little resentful, we followed Milinga and the guide up the hot, dry hillside. The remains, a few stone circles, were not much to look at, but we were introduced to the "Not so fast" tree, so called because of the way its thorns hook your clothes. We followed a stream back to the village and watched kingfishers darting amonsgt the rocks.
Masai boys at Lake Natron
After lunch we drove on up the valley on a wide grassy plain under the blazing sun. It started to feel very empty and remote. Every so often the plain was cut across by the course of a dried up river and Malinga would have to nurse the Landrover gingerly down one side and up the other. Late in the afternoon, we caught our first sight of Lake Natron shimmering in the distance. A couple of miles before reaching the lake we turned up into the hills and dusty campsite near a stream.
It was a good campsite, patrolled by a vicious cockerell. As we drank our afternoon tea sitting under a tree, weaver birds noisely fashioned nests in the branches above our heads.
At the edge of lake Natron
In the morning we were up early and set off for the lake before dawn. With a young Masai guide sitting in the front next to Milinga, we drove down the hill from the campsite and out into the dry, flat scrub that surrounds the lake. As we got closer, the scrub gave way to pools of black water and tufts of grass. When we could go no further we parked the landrover and set out on foot. It was eerily quiet and the air was filled with a rank chemical smell. Following the Masai, we threaded our between caustic black pools of water, walking on a thin layer of dark grey mud. We were still about quarter of a mile from the lake, and at first there was nothing to see except the flat mirror grey of the lake in the distance. The first we saw of the flamingos was a thin smudge of pink on the shore.
As we approached the lake, the first rays of sun lit up the cone of Oldoinyo Lengai behind us. In front of us the pink line resolved into a mass of invidual flamingos. There were hundreds of them, parading a little way our from the shore. Every so often, with great flapping of wings a few of them would take-off and climb into the sky, necks stretched out, only to glide back to to earth in a different part of the lake.
I could have happily sat watching the flamingos all day, using up my entire stock of film, but as the sun rose high in the sky and the heat built up, Rowena and Milinga started to wilt in the heat. Slowly, and for me, terribly reluctantly, we picked our way back through the black caustic puddles to the jeep.
A few hundred yards from our campsite a silt laden stream tumbled out of a deep gorge in the steep valley wall. Our Masai guide explained there was a waterfall a little way up stream and after lunch we set off to take a look. It was good scramble, sometimes climbing the rocky sides of the gorge, sometimes wading thigh deep in the stream. After about half an hour we reached a hollow where high above our heads the stream spilled out of the vertical cliff and tumbled down into a pool in a thick of spray. In the heat of the afternoon, standing under this huge shower was paradise.
Milinga in paradise
Masai girls at Lake Natron
On the track to the Serengeti
Next day we set out for the Serengeti. The track ran alongside the lake for a few kilometers then turned west and started to climb a high escarpment. It was a very steep, very rough track and we were a long way from anywhere, so I was pleased we were in the company of another Roy Safaris jeep. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the top of the escarpment, where we stopped to stretch our legs. We stared out of over the flat hazy expanse of Lake Natron into the hills of Kenya. As we were admiring the view, a Masai warrior appeared from the bush complete with large spear and a bow and poison arrows. With Milinga acting as translator, he explained that a neighbouring vilage had stolen some cattle and he was going to exact his revenge. We listened very politely.
From the top of the esarpment it was a long drive across a dry dusty plateau, until a couple of hours later we started the descent Klien's gate and the entrance to the Serengeti. In the middle of the afternoon we entered the park and camped at the Lobo campsite, a quiet spot beneath a koje, overlooking the plain.
Lions in the northern Serengeti
Early in the evening, with sun low in the sky we drove out to look for game. It was very quite and very tranquil, with no other jeeps about. High on a hillside we spotted a leopard, draped overa tree branch. Then suprisingly another one at the foot of the tree. A little later we spotted yet another one and Milinga was immensely pleased with himself to have found three leopards in one day. As dusk was falling, we turned a corner and there was a pride of lions, just to one side of the track. They were just finished eating a kill and were very relaxed and content. Too dark for photography it was good just to watch them in the quiet of the evening. We held our breaths as two honey coloured cubs padded over to the jeep and sat staring up at us.
Hippo pool
The next morning we went for another drive and were lucky to see a Cheetah and her two cubs at a kill. After lunch we set off on the long drive south to the centre of the Serengeti. Stopping en route at a Hippo pool.
The Central Serengeti was not as special as the north. The campsite was crowded with large parties and there were many more jeeps on the tracks. It was not uncommon to see a single leopard in a tree surrounded by a dozen or more jeeps. However, the secretary birds were outstanding.
The Ngorongoro Crater
After two nights in the Serengeti we drove to Ngorongoro and camped on the lip of the crater. Early in the morning we drove slowly down the precipitous track into the crater. The the density of tourists at Ngorongoro was even worse than in the Serengeti, but was still a very special place. In the space of a couple of hours we saw hippo, elephant (a splended old tusker), rhino, lion, cheetah and a very sluggish python.
Storm brewing over Ngorongoro
We returned to the campsite for after lunch. It was our last day and after lunch we packed up the gear and climbed into the jeep for the journey back to Arusha. Milinga put the jeep in the gear, released the clutch and the jeep jerked forward a couple of yards with a solid graunching sound. It sounded and felt very ill. A number of other drivers came over to diagnose the problem and the collective opinion was that it was something to do with a prop shaft. It all sounded fairly terminal and we started to resign ourselves to another night under canvas at Ngrongoro. But of course this was Africa and three hours later, after Milinga had nursed it to a garage a few kilometers down the road, the jeep was fixed, albeit with a new clunky rattle. Late that evening, after a long drive back to Arusha, we finally clunked our way into the courtyard of The Outpost and the safari was over.
The next morning, we were at Arusha airstrip to catch the morning plane to Dar. From Dar, we were going to take the afternoon ferry to Zanzibar. However, a few minutes after take off the pilot announced the plane was going to Zanzibar before Dar so we were saved the ferry ride.
I liked Zanzibar more than I expected. It was fun to get lost in the narrow alley ways of Stone Town and to be close to the turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean.
After a couple of nights in the town, we took a mini-bus to Jambiani on the east coast and took a bungalow by the sea. We arrived at the Coast mid-morning on Boxing Day, but luckily the island was unaffected by the Tsunami. Here, Rowena finally got to have a beach holiday.
Alley way in Stone Town
On the east coast
Footnote
Shortly after we returned to the UK we were very saddened to hear that our Safari guide, Milinga, had died suddenly. He was a great character and generously shared his knowledge of Tanzania and its animals with us.