AFRICAN ADVENTURE
Couple’s 12-day trek across Tanzania ‘more than delivers’
This is the first of a two-part series on the wildlife parks of Tanzania and the country’s people and culture.
The night is tepid and coal black, as it often is in the wilds of Africa, when our Masai security escort, flashlight in hand, suddenly halts.
“Go back,” he says calmly but with authority.
We see and hear nothing to be alarmed about. Did we hear him correctly?
“Go back,” he repeats.
My husband Rick and I quickly retreat to the dining hall, leaving the tribesman alone with just a stick and spear in hand.
A couple of minutes later, he comes and gets us. Upon reaching our cabin he shines his flashlight on the river in front, and there stands the hulking frame of an elephant, trunk swinging, still ravenous. The slight stirring of some leaves on a large bush beside our room had given away his banquet spot, and the tribesman had chased him away before returning for us.
It is one of many highlights on our great African adventure, which had us trekking across Tanzania in the hopes of seeing a menagerie of wildlife and immersing ourselves in the culture.
Our 12-day Wildlife Parks of Tanzania trip more than delivered. A National Geographic Journey with G Adventures, it featured visits to two villages, a museum and a wildlife research centre as well as tours of five game reserves and national parks, some of them remote and underexplored.
When researching trips, we were a little concerned about this tour’s itinerary because it involved more travel, but since we wanted to go on as many safaris as possible, we booked it. We needn’t have worried since a lot of the transitioning consisted of sightseeing drives to tiny bush airstrips, one only three minutes from our camp. And, unlike Canadian airports, we were often in the air within 20 minutes of our arrival.
Seeing animals in multiple landscapes was well worth it, with each area offering numerous “wow” moments.
Our trip begins in Arusha, a bustling city of more than 400,000 people, where we meet Filbert Ludovick, our chief experience officer (or CEO, as G Adventures likes to call them).
Born and raised in the Kilimanjaro region, Ludovick spent three years studying African wildlife management at an international college in Tanzania thanks to the generosity of two American couples who, with the help of their church, fundraised
to pay for his tuition and living expenses.
“I came from a pretty poor family of nine kids,” he says. “My dad was a farmer growing only enough to feed us. I was the only one to go to secondary school and college.”
After his studies he joined G Adventures as a CEO, a job he says he loves. It shows. Despite having gone on the same safaris countless times, his excitement at spotting an animal was almost greater than our own, and we learned a lot thanks to his boundless knowledge and enthusiastic insight about the animals, environment, people and culture.
The next day our group, consisting of four other travellers, visit the village of Mto wa Mbu, where we enjoy a cultural walk and a traditional lunch that includes beef stew, okra, polenta and eggplant.
On arrival, smiling children sprint to see the pale-skinned visitors, eager to have their photo taken. We view the village’s rice field, sip banana beer, learn how they build their huts and watch artisans paint colourful canvases.
After lunch we drive to Rift Valley Photographic Lodge, marvelling along the way at women in kaleidoscope-coloured dresses balancing massive banana bunches on their heads and tiny boys single-handedly shepherding well-behaved herds of cattle, goats and sheep.
In the afternoon we visit Lake Manyara National Park, hoping to see the famed tree-climbing lions. Before even reaching the park gates, we view male olive baboons showing off their Dwayne Johnson physiques while moms feed their babies and juveniles roughhouse.
Ernest Hemingway described the area, with its varied landscapes of lush forest, grassy flood plains, huge escarpment and distant volcanic peaks as “the loveliest I have seen in Africa.”
Although we don’t get up close and personal with any lions, we do go paparazzi crazy when spotting elephants, zebras, impalas and “Pumbaas.”
It was amazing to see all of these species grazing side by side, in harmony. Ludovick says it is the same for Tanzania’s more than 120 Indigenous groups, getting along because “everyone is very humble” and there isn’t a politically or culturally dominant ethnic group.
Back at the lodge, we marvel at a massive baobab tree. Nicknamed the Tree of Life because they provide food, shelter and water, they have trunks so wide that eight people holding hands can’t reach around.
The next morning we’re off to a Masai village to learn about a G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstoves Project. The bomas (traditional homes), built out of sticks and termite soil mixed with cow dung, do not have chimneys, so when the women cook on an open pit the smoke stays inside, causing major health problems. Thanks to the project, 75 women have been trained as stove engineers and have built 4,600 stoves. Each costs around $55 US, with the family paying 25 per cent.
Back on the road, we head for one of Africa’s most famous national parks, the Serengeti. Like Saskatchewan at harvest time, it is a never-ending sea of gold, the perfect camouflage for predators.
The park spans 14,750 square kilometres, and we motor across parts of it, bouncing around like balls in a pinball machine. “Enjoy the free African massage,” Ludovick jokes.
The dust flies, and despite being in an enclosed vehicle (with a pop-up roof to view wildlife), we are soon covered in a thin layer. No matter. Impalas, gazelles, zebras and wildebeests are plentiful, and we are riveted by their antics.
Soon we come across the skyscrapers of the savannah, with their oxpecker hitchhikers. The giraffes are as interested in us as we are in them, often turning to study us with their thickly lashed, dark brown eyes.
After shooting dozens of photos (thank heavens for digital cameras), we’re off to search for our next Kodak moment.
It isn’t long before Ludovick points out a cheetah in the distance, then two tiny dik-diks (a species of antelope), an African fish eagle, a jackal and, finally, what we’ve all been waiting for: a pride of lions dozing in the shade.
“Simbas,” he yells excitedly. “Get a picture, get a picture.”
Next, we hit the safari jackpot. A leopard grooms itself in a yellow fever tree, unperturbed by our presence.
The rest of the day is spent watching in fascination as wildebeests and zebras race in and out of a watering hole, fearful of being a crocodile’s dinner, and photographing the tail end of their migration to greener pastures.
I hum “The Lion King” theme as we drive back to camp, where we sleep soundly in our luxury tent, complete with queen size bed and shower.
The next day we soar over the Serengeti plains in a hot air balloon as dawn breaks and eat breakfast (on china, no less) under an umbrella tree before heading out on another game drive. It isn’t long before we see more animals, including some lionesses, one of which decides to hunt a gazelle. “She’s going shopping,” our CEO quips.
Mesmerized, we watch as she stealthily approaches her prey, carefully creeping through the tall grass. When close, she lunges forward — but to no avail. Her prized grocery item easily bounds away. She returns to her companions, shopping cart empty, lies down and dozes off.
Next week: Learn how bees are being used to keep crop-raiding elephants away and what almost caused the writer to have a panic attack.
Christina Jonas is a Hamilton-based freelance writer.