Encounter with a Masai in the Serengeti

On our second day in the Ngorongoro/Serengeti National parks, we stopped in an apparently empty plain for lunch. An older Masai man materialised a few hundred meters away. He walked straight up to us and sat down on a nearby rock. He didn’t say a word. We prepared a rice salad, and gave him a plate, which he ate with gusto. He thanked us and then asked us for tea (chai) and sugar to bring back to his manyatta. We gave him some and Caro took the opportunity to make a short video of the exchange. He knew exactly what was going on and mimicked someone filming with an old-style video camera.

VIDEO

He also tried to exchange his stick for Steve’s Leatherman, and laughed heartily when Steve refused. Then he used car’s side mirror to check his teeth, hair, ears etc. He was a very good-humoured and we all had a great time together.

On safari with friends

We have spent the past 12 days with friends from Cape Town. It has been wonderful.

We all met at TPC (20 km south of Moshi) on the Saturday and relaxed by the pool. On Sunday, Fred took us all for a walk in TPC’s forest to look for an elephant that had been spotted there the day before. While we were following his tracks along the path, we bumped into a group of men armed with machetes, spears, bows and arrows, looking very angry. Apparently, some Masai’s had stolen cattle from them, and they were out to find and punish them. Eventually we found the elephant, but we didn’t linger around too long as he wasn’t particularly happy to see us! We enjoyed cold beer and a braai, with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop.

Caro, Zia, Steve, Bruno and Fred following the elephant’s tracks

Unhappy elephant

Steve with Kili in the background

On monday we got ready for our safari:
Packing for our safari (journey) in front of Fred and Caro’s house

We had decided to spend 3 days in the famous Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks. We couldn’t afford more as they are very expensive: 50 USD/day each for the entrance fees + 30 USD/night each for the campsites + 200 USD/car to go into the crater. And in any case,Fred (who was working during the week) was waiting for us to go and spend a long weekend in a private reserve west of Kilimanjaro: Ndarakwai.

The parks were very dry. The annual rains were late. This was actually a blessing as it made the driving easier. We saw lots of animals: elephants and hyenas, some of them at night in the campsites; buffalos, elands, impalas, cheetahs, lions, hartebeests, warthogs, hippos, and lots of migrating zebras and wildebeests (gnus)! We also saw many birds, big and small: marabou storks, goshawks, eagles, superb starling, and many others of which I have forgotten the names! We were too busy admiring them all to take pictures, so here are a few images of animals (with a special thought for Pati’s imaginary menagerie :))

An elephant near Nyani (baboon) campsite

A marabou stork at Simba (lion) campsite

Lizards in the Serengeti

The first sight of the Ngorongoro crater is really awesome. It really is a very special part of the world. It was interesting to learn that colonial farmers were asked to leave the crater in the early 20th century, and the Masai’s signed away their right to live there in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. It was then turned into a Natural Conservancy and later a World Heritage Site.

View over the Ngorongoro crater

We camped on the crater’s rim, in the only public campsite. There are many other places to stay, but they are all either expensive lodges or private campsites. The atmosphere at Simba camp was peaceful and friendly. There was even toilet paper in the flushing loos (unlike the next day in the Serengeti); and hot water for the showers, which we really appreciated as it was freezing cold that evening: the crater rim culminates at 2500m.

3 pics at Simba camp on the Ngorongoro’s crater’s rim

Many Masais still live on the crater’s rim and along its slopes. We saw them the next day. They still follow a traditional lifestyle: they wear thin red or purple blankets, delicate beaded jewellery, and their cattle and goats (over)graze freely. Along the tourist route, many also try and make a living by selling jewellery or posing for photos.

Masais and cattle: between tradition and modernity

Masai man chatting to Bruno and Zia

Later that day, we took a less-travelled road and got lost. We ended up having to ask our way at a Masai village. Three young warriors quietly guided/herded us back on the right track. It was a strange and entertaining interaction.

On Ngorongoro’s slopes

That night we camped at Nyani public campsite in Seronera. Wednesday was spent in the Serengeti’s plains, of which I have too few pictures, but which others have photographed and filmed a hundred times better than we could ever do anyways.

A few images from the Serengeti:

After a last night back at Simba camp we drove back to Moshi. The next day we were off to Ndarakwai, a private reserve on the Western side of Kilimanjaro, close to the Kenyan border. It was a really beautiful place, and we enjoyed a secluded bush camp, away from the tourists’ route.

Tent and Zebra towel in the bush

We relaxed, went for a game walk with an armed “askari” (guard), and later for a drive. We admired Mount Meru in the distance, and erceted Scarlet’s awning to protect us from a refreshing rain. We cooked a potjies on the campfire, and staged the Kilimanjaro petanque tournament!

Thanks to Bruno and Zia for allowing us to gate crash their honeymoon. And thanks to Fred and Caro for hosting us so generously in their house on the sugarcane plantation (TPC) for longer than expected! It has been great sharing the past few days’ experiences with you in such a relaxing environment.

Tanzanian roads

Tanzanian roads have been mostly good so far.

However, we find that the better the roads the worse the drivers seem to behave. Whether it’s heavily loaded buses or trucks, or with private cars, people here drive fast and in the middle of the road. When they see us coming from the opposite direction they put on their right indicator on (that’s the one in the middle of the road as Tanzanian drive on the left-hand side of the road) and flash their head lights.

From what we understand, the indicator is a message for the cars following them; to warn them not to overtake as we are coming. The flashing headlights seem to be for us - to let us know that they have no intention of moving from the middle of the road into their lane, and therefore we should pull off to the side of the road as much as we can. If a pothole appears in the road, then any early warning is ignored, and is up to you to dodge the pothole and the now swerving approaching vehicle.

There is also the constant flow of people, bicycles,dogs, donkeys and cattle on the edge of the road. The goats and sheep especially worry us, you never know for sure that they won’t decide to leap onto the road at the last minute. Children are very weary of cars and run away when they see us approaching. We drive slowly and as cautiously as possible.

The numerous police blocks seem quite efficient at controlling bus and truck drivers in the more densely populated areas (villages and small towns). We get stopped almost each time as well, probably due to our foreign number plate. Most of the time we just exchange lengthy salutations in KiSwahili: “Jambo… Jambo sana… Habari… Mzuri Sana...”. We are asked where we come from and where we are going. Sometimes we are asked to show driver’s license and car’s papers, but so far we have never been fined for anything. The police are either much less corrupt than we feared, or we must be doing something right!

Quelle heure est-il en Tanzanie?

ou... quand deux heures en Swahili n’est pas ce que l’ on croit.

Hier, nous avons trouve l’explication a un petit mystere tanzanien:

Quand nous sommes arrives en Tanzanie, nous avons du passer par Songea pour officialiser notre entrée dans le pays. Mais l’apres-midi etait deja bien avancee, et la douane etait fermee. Avant d’aller trouver un endroit ou dormir, nous avons donc demande a quelle heure les bureaux ouvrent le matin.

On nous repondu: “saa mbili”.

“Mbili” c’est “deux”. Ca on en est surs. Mais deux heures du matin ou deux heures de l’apres-midi c’est un peu bizarre pour l’ouverture des bureaux… On a du mal comprendre. Quelques heures plus tard, la boulangerie nous repond pourtant la meme chose. Etrange…

En fait, nous avions bien compris. Les deux ouvraient bien a “deux heures”… mais “deux heures Swahili”.

En Swahili en effet, la logique veut que l’on compte les heures a partir de la premiere heure du jour ou de la nuit.

Ainsi, comme le soleil se leve a 6h (on n’est pas loin de l’ equateur), la premiere heure du jour c’est 7h. Inversement, et selon la meme logique, 8h du matin est la deuxieme heure du jour. Et donc "saa mbili", c'est 8h. Midi est “saa sita”: la sixieme heure du jour, etc. On recommence a partir de 6h du soir, heure a laquelle le soleil se couche.

C’est facile: il suffit de savoir compter jusqu’a 12.

Moja = 1
Mbili = 2
Tatu = 3
Nne = 4
Tano = 5
Sita = 6
Saba = 7
Tisa = 9
Kumi = 10
Kumi na moja = 11
Kumi na mbili = 12

Et meme les horloges suivent ce raisonnement : a midi, elles indiquent six heures...

First impressions of Tanzania - from Songea to Moshi

Our first impression is one of development. It must be the contrast with Mozambique.
There is no border post (as yet) on the Tanzanian side of the Macatchedj, the new bridge over the Rovuma River, and the Mozambiquan border control is housed in grass huts. We have to do the Tanzanian paper work in Songea, the next big town, 102km further North.

For a few kilometres we drive through virgin bush. The first villages we see have brick houses:

Brick houses with corrugated roofs

People also have cows, dogs, and much more material goods than we have seen in the whole of Mozambique.

Cows and a broken bridge

Soon we also notice power lines along the road, as well as obvious signs of road maintenance. With the numerous small industries that seem to thrive in Songea, the picture is complete, the Tanzanian economy is way ahead of Mozambique’s.

We enjoy the local advertising style and spelling:

Fast and flesh

We thought we were back in English-speaking country, but everywhere Swahili (the local language) dominates. It is a beautiful language and we wish we understood and could speak a bit more. We are learning “Pole pole” (slowly slowly): “Karibu” (Welcome), “Asante sana” (Thank you very much), “Habari” (How are you?), “Mzuri” (Fine), “Wapi” (Where), and we can count to ten…

For bigger numbers we learn from the notes. The exchange rate is of 150 Tanzanian shilling (Tsh) for 1 rand (ZAR), that is about 1300 TSh to the USD.
The local cell phone networks have welcomed us. There is Tico, and Zain with its bright purple swirls.

So far we have only had one of the local beers. Not surprisingly, it is named after the Kilimanjaro. “It’s Kili time! Make the most of it.” says the advert. We follow the advice when we get to Moshi:

Our first clear view of Kilimajaro from Fred and Caro's house in Moshi. It is normally covered by clouds as you can see on the picture below:

Braaing in the bush after looking for a visiting elephant on TPC's land. With Fred, Caro, Bruno and Zia. And with Kilimanjaro in the background

Not only do the markets and shops offer more choice, but costs are also much lower than in Mozambique. A Coca-Cola costs us Tsh 500, a cabbage Tsh 400, an hour on the internet Tsh 1000. Our best surprise is the cost of petrol: it is closer to South African costs, under 10 ZAR a litre. In Mozambique it was between ZAR 15 and ZAR 20 a litre, much more than we had budgeted for.

By now we are used to shopping at local markets, washing our fruits and veggies in clean water before we eat them, as well wearing long pants and long sleeves shirts together with anti-mozzie spray in the evening to avoid getting malaria.

We were carrying water from Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). We had filled our 60l tank straight from the lake one morning, and purified it with a few drops of chlorine. We ran out of water shortly after Kondoa so we filled up from a well in the mountains at Mbulu. We haven't had any tummy problems yet.

Waiting for our turn at the well near Mbulu

Otherwise, apart from the half-day stop in Songea to deal with the border crossing paperwork, we haven’t really had a chance to experience the Tanzanian culture yet. Generally people aren’t as smiley and friendly as in Mozambique, but they seem pretty relaxed nonetheless. Policemen haven’t cause and problems, although they always try their luck and cheekily ask: “What gift have we brought them from South Africa?” We just laugh with them and say that we’ve eaten all the Christmas cake. We would rather sit and wait rather than offer any bribes, and so far it’s been fine.

From Iringa we took the “bumpy” road North to Arusha through Dodoma and the Masai Steppe. This has allowed us to drive through isolated villages and to meet a few people along the road. To me, the most striking cultural experience so far, has been our timid encounters with a few Masai men. They are very tall and very beautiful. They also have a strange intensity about them. They walk fast in long loping steps, some occasionally ride a bicycle, and young boys herd cattle. They all carry sticks, long knives, and they all wear a blue or purple cloth/dress (different from the traditional red). We re amazed that they survive in this dry thornbush environment and look forward to learning more about them.

Below are a few pictures taken on the road between the border and Moshi:

The road opening onto the Masai Steppe

Tying up the surfboards on the bumpy road through Dodoma

Helping out fellow travellers on the road

On the road from Dodoma

Camping in the bush on the Masai Steppe

The mountain road to Mbulu

In Karatu, a fellow South African, Andre, hosted us. The two Masai men working for him were intrigued by our surf boards

Border crossing from Mozambique to Tanzania in Songea

The border post at the new bridge in Congresso had not been officially opened yet. The immigration officers on the Mozambiquan side were working out of straw huts, while new offices were being built. However, crossing the border from Mozambique into Tanzania went easily. They stamped our passports, and suggested we leave them our unused Mozambican airtime, before letting us go without no further searching of Scarlet.

On the other side of the bridge a Tanzanian official working out of an isolated snack-bar, wrote down our names, passport and license plate numbers. We were told to report to immigration Songea, 102km away.

We arrived in Songea after 4pm. What we thought was the immigration office was closed. “When will it open?” we asked. “Saa Mbili.” we were told. Impossible we thought, and checked with someone else – same answer. This was our first introduction to Swahili time – 7am is the first hour of the day, 8am the second etc etc. We spent the night at a Catholic abbey about 20km out of town.

The next morning we drove back into Songea to report to the immigration immigration office. We found it eventually, located in the Ministry of Finance’s buildings. The officials were friendly enough. We completed our forms and were told to go and pay the 50 US$ visa fee (each) at one of the local banks. They would stamp our passports when we brought back the deposit receipts.
We had to admit that this is a very good system to prevent corruption. Although, walking across town in the heat and queuing there for an hour to pay the fee, didn’t really seem worth it.
We got our receipts, and went back for our stamps. You can normally get a multiple-entry 3 months visa for 50 USD, but the officer told us he didn’t have the authority for the multiple-entry, and gave us a 1-month single-entry visa instead.

We’ve now been busy for 2 hours and haven’t had breakfast yet, but we need to go through customs first. The customs officer normally works out of the Post Office. We found the Post Office but the officer was on holiday and we were directed to the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) instead and another long queue. No-one there really knew what to do with our Carnet de Passage (CDP). After we had waited for almost an hour, someone from the car licensing department came over with the necessary forms, a wad of carbon paper for several copies, and a box of stamps, and proceeded to register our car.

We were then told to go to the bank again (a different one) to pay a 25 USD fuel levy before we could have our CDP stamped. So off we went, queued patiently, paid, and eventually got a receipt, and our stamp.

The whole process had taken us over 5 hours and we were about to happily get something to eat and drink and be back on the road, when the officer who stamped our CDP asked to see the car, which was still parked at the Ministry of Finance! We fetched the car and reported for our inspection. Fortunately this only took a few minutes, and by 12 o’clock we were on our way to Iringa and the Old Farm House campsite, our patience tested to the limit.

Hippos and crocs on Lago Niassa (Lake Malawi)

When we first arrived at Lago Niassa, we basked in its peace and beauty. Little could we imagine that a few days later we would be joining a hunt for hippo and crocodiles.

It just so happened that the government had approached Keith, and asked him to help rid the village (Meponda) of a hippo that was causing extensive damage to people’s crops. And this was the weekend that he and his neighbours (Warrick, an ex-hunting lodge manager, and his father, also Keith) had chosen to go on the hunt.

We joined in the Friday night festivities to get into the swing of things. We all jumped on the boat and motored along the lakeshore looking for crocodiles. We spotted one amongst the reeds. It was small (about 1m) and our hosts leapt fearlessly from the boat to apprehend the little guy barehanded. Somehow, the snorkelling we had enjoyed earlier that afternoon felt like much more of a dangerous adventure than what we had thought it to be.

Then on Saturday afternoon, men, women and children, all jumped on the boat again. This time we were going to drive down the river mouth and look for the hippo so that the men would know where to find him in the evening. It had rained over the past few weeks and the river was brown with mud. It was difficult to spot a hippo in those conditions, but the reeds and river banks showed evidence of the hippo’s presence. We travelled as far as we could up the river, asking local fishermen on their tiny dug-out canoes if they had seen the hippo.

Yes they had. Some said there were 5 hippos. Others said there were 30… Eventually one motioned for us to go back towards the river mouth. He had just seen a hippo in the river!

We started carefully back down the river, looking for eyes or bubbles in the water, when suddenly the boat hit something big! The jerk shook the boat quite strongly and Steve fell over board in the muddy water. We all held our breath as he re-emerged. We were expecting the hippo’s charge. Steve couldn’t decide whether to swim or run back to the boat, but somehow made it back on board. Then we realised that we had just hit a big log.

It lasted for just a few seconds but we all got a serious fright. One of the girls soon started singing and the mood lifted. They sang the song again for us as we parted, and we recorded it:

VIDEO of the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frtu11EIozY



The “smoke” in the background is actually swarms of lake flies which hatch periodically from the lake. The locals catch them in nets and eat them.

Lago Niassa / Lake Malawi

After the rather difficult drive through Northern Mozambique, we have found a piece of paradise on the shore of Lake Niassa, better know as Lake Malawi. Its waters are fresh, pure and transparent.

We are staying in Meponda, a small fishermen’s village. Keith and Bronwyn have generously let us set camp under their baobab. What was to be a one night stop has become a five day holiday within a holiday. We kayaked, snorkelled, water-skied, and went crocodile and hippo hunting!

Thanks a million to all of you there!

Bronwyn, Keith, Zoe and "Dog"

Abubakar / Daniel

Lazaro Water-skiing with new friends

And the place in images :

The road from Montepues to Lichinga

We left the Mozambican coast at Ibo and ventured inland to the west. Our goal was to drive across Northern Mozambique to Lago Niassa (Lake Malawi) before the rains make the road impracticable. There we could rest there before heading North to Sanga and across the new bridge to Tanzania.

But first we had to get to Marrupa! It was to be quite an adventure: two full days to do 500km, a slow difficult road, dodgy wooden bridges, two breakdowns, and two nights in the bush in very isolated areas.

General view of the main road

Detail of the main road Dodgy bridges (Caro scouting one of them)

Curious villagers (Scarlet is an attraction)

Warning: elephants crossing Cooking in the bush

Caro shot some videos en route:

One to give you an idea of what the main road across northern Mozambique is like (approx 300km between Montepues and Marrupa) …and we were lucky that it was relatively dry!

VIDEO of the road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY7bqOVYYXU


… And one about what happens when a branch jumps up of the road and lodges itself under the car.
Fortunately there was no serious damage to the brakes or fuel lines, tanks etc.

VIDEO of the breakdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQgvDMVfJ9M



Fortunately, once we got out of the forest at Marrupa, we found the best tarred road yet in Mozambique! It took us straight to Lichinga across stunning landscapes of high plateaux.

Images from the high plateaux