Jake’s Visit and Safari Circuit

Last month, I was lucky enough to have yet another visitor during my time here in Tanzania. Jake and I did a tour of some of Tanzania’s northern attractions, which was just as much of a treat for me, since I had yet to pass through many places in that part of the country. Over the course of our week and a half trip together, Jake and I were able to do some scenic hiking, scourge the country’s main safari circuit, while also getting some in depth looks at Tanzanian culture, village life, and of course a wide variety of bus experiences.
Our tour began with a ride up to Moshi, home of the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro and well-known for its cool climate, hilly forested landscape, and huge coffee production. After meeting up with some other Peace Corps Volunteers, we went for a day hike to a nearby waterfall with an incredible 20-foot cliff to dive off of into a swimming pond below. The water was freezing cold, but the exhilarating jump made it worthwhile.

Damp and shivering, we followed our guide to the house of an old coffee farmer who is of the Chaaga tribe. He welcomes any and all visitors and demonstrates the entire coffee production process, from picking and de-shelling the beans, roasting and “twanga”-ing (grinding) them, and boiling water to serve the fresh coffee on the spot. Admittedly I am not normally much of a coffee enthusiast, but even I thought this was delicious, and also the perfect thing to warm us up after our impromptu swim.



From Moshi, we made our way to Karatu, the starting point for our safari, located right in the middle of many of the big northern game parks, including the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Our safari was a 3-day trip through Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Tarangire National Park. We would have liked to hit Serengeti as well, but it is located much more out of the way from the other parks, and didn’t fit into our travelling plans as well as the others. But that doesn’t mean the trip was any less exciting.

Lake Manyara National Park has a very diverse landscape and offers a wide range of stunning scenery. It has many dense forests which house a large number of baboons and elephants, as well as expansive plains near the lake which contain large herds of wildebeest and buffalo. These animals prefer to roam in open areas to get a better look at approaching predators. The entire park is bordered by a wall of mountains on one side, which is where our campsite was located and offered a wonderful view of the lake and trees below at sunrise. Even though it is a relatively small park compared to others in the area, Lake Manyara had a huge variety of animals and other wildlife, and was the perfect way to start our safari adventure.












Day 2 of our safari took us to the famous Ngorongoro Conservation Area, known for its 22 km-wide crater that is home to nearly every animal you could hope to find in East Africa, including the endangered black rhino, of which there are only about 100 left in existence. The crater is officially not a national park, because there is also a large population of the Maasai tribe that continues to live in their native home amongst the animals.

Shortly after descending down into the crater, we spotted a male lion laying low in the tall grass with a small herd of zebra approaching unknowingly. When the zebra came close enough, two additional female lions who had been hiding with the male sprang up, and one of them took off chasing after the zebra. She was unsuccessful in her attempt, but it was such an amazing sight to see up close and in person. The male and the other female remained behind, but amazingly were then actually chased out of their territory by a group of buffalo who apparently saw how tired and outnumbered the lions were. The male gave an angry roar, but had to accept the will of the buffalo and so the two of them retreated to a safe distance, which, conveniently for us, was right in front of our car on the side of the road.

 











Although the majority of our excitement came early on in the crater, the rest of the day was still filled with many spectacular sights. We saw elephants, giraffes, ostriches, flamingos, warthogs, and a mother hyena nursing her pups. At one point we stopped the car in the middle of the road, surrounded on all sides by TONS of zebra and wildebeest. Watching them graze and roam from as close as a couple of feet in every direction was really something special and quite a sight to behold.

 


After a great day in Ngorongoro, our final stop on the safari tour was Tarangire National Park. Known for its many massive baobab trees and enormous elephant population, Tarangire was a great way to finish our trip. The many hills and evenly dispersed baobabs created another very unique and beautiful landscape for Jake and I to experience. We were able to spot a female lion and her cub from a distance, but by far the most prevalent animals in the park were the blue-butted, lunch stealing monkeys. We managed to eat in safety, but the unfortunate people eating near the fenced part of the picnic area were literally invaded by a hoard of hungry hungry monkeys.













The safari lived up to all of our hopes and expectations, but with its end our trip was only just beginning. We bid farewell to the luxury of having a private car to drive us around and prepared to face the real world of Tanzanian public transportation. After a couple hours of waiting on the side of the road as full bus after full bus rolled by, we managed to secure standing space (just slightly smaller than the size of our bodies) on a bus headed towards the town of Katesh, the home of another volunteer friend of mine who we were going to visit. The bus to Steph’s village was comparably packed with people, though we had at least secured seats this time by getting our tickets as early as possible.

Since it was impossible to make it all the way down to my site during Jake’s short visit, I figured the next best thing was to see another volunteer’s site. Although it was slightly out of the norm in that her house had electricity and indoor plumbing, and her neighbor had a refrigerator(!!), Steph’s site was still located in the middle of nowhere and served as a good look into the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. We cooked, played card games, visited the neighbors, went on a long day hike to a couple of salt lakes adjacent to Mt. Hanang, the 4th tallest mountain in the country, and on the final night were invited to a massive goat roast next door where we stuffed ourselves beyond discomfort.













With the end of Jake’s visit drawing near, we made our way to Morogoro, the home of my 10-week training at the start of my service over 2 years ago, hopped on a loaded daladala and paid a visit to my host family whom I hadn’t seen in a very long time. They were really happy to get to meet Jake and greatly appreciated the surprise visit. We then finished our final leg of travel to Dar, where we enjoyed an evening walk-around and boarded Tanzania’s finest cruise vessel, a 5-minute 200 /= (about 15 cents) ferry boat that we stayed on and scored a free return trip, before finally returning to the airport.

All in all I thought it was a fantastic trip, and I was so glad to have another person to be able to share Tanzanian memories with when I return home. Thanks for visiting Jake!