Mama Africa House
Ever since Dona and I did a ten day safari with Dorobo Safaris in Northern Tanzania in 2014 we had wanted to return and do a walking safari. Neither of us likes being cooped up in a car all day, even when we're having fun, which we definitely were. For one thing, you don't have a chance to check out the wildflowers, butterflies and bugs. For another, you're restricted to the roads, and the roads in Tanzania's northern parks are pretty well traveled.
So we had arranged to do a five day walking safari with Dorobo. Our guide from our previous trip was in the United States studying, so for this trip we were guided by Joshua Peterson.
When I was arranging this trip I wanted an inexpensive place to stay the night before. We would be returning from Uganda and then leaving early the next morning, so we wouldn't have much time to spend checking out our surroundings. So it didn't seem like there was much point in staying at a fancy place that catered to birders or wildlife nuts. The international airport in Arusha, Kilimanjaro International Airport, is a long ways from anyplace. It's half way between the cities of Arusha and Moshi, and not convenient to either. Mike Peterson at Dorobo suggested we stay closer to Arusha; I thought that's what I was doing when I booked our room at Mama Africa House. However, it was actually quite a ways away. None of the taxis knew how to get to it. I tend to think taxi drivers know where everything in their town is, but in Africa they tend to know where the big / popular tourist hotels are. It took our driver a while to find the place, and he had to call a few times to get directions. It lies on a road behind the University of Arusha, and you have to drive through the University to get there. The road is the same one which goes to Arusha National Park, and it is 30 or so km from the actual city of Arusha. We would have never found it on our own.
John, the proprietor at Mama Africa House, was great. He had spent seven years in the United States in St. George, Utah, and was grateful to the United States for the education he received. John fed us and we crashed, eager to get rested before starting out in the morning. We had reservations to stay there after our walking safari as well, and he said he would take us to the airport then.
The next morning we were met by Joshua from Dorobo and James, who would be our driver. We had a Toyota Land Cruiser piled high and packed to the gills. The vehicles sold in Africa, and probably much of South America and Asia, are significantly different from those sold in the US and Europe. For good reason... We drove through Arusha and headed towards the Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti.
As we turned onto the road heading north we saw a long line of cars and trucks. Uh-oh. There road crosses a river right there, and the bridge had been taken out deliberately and was being replaced. In the interim, three not-so-large culverts had been placed in the riverbed and a dirt track detour graded in. It had rained really hard the last few days, and while the culverts seemed to have held, the detour as a whole had not.
We parked; it seemed the washout had occurred that morning. Joshua and James went to check things out and see if there might be some other way around that we could manage with the 4WD vehicle we had, but there was none. We learned a repair effort had been started and equipment was on the way. We waited and watched as the first large dump truck showed up. It gingerly backed up and dumped its load, making virtually no dent in the work needed to re-establish a crossing.
Joshua told us there was one other way to get where we wanted to be, and that was about a three hour detour. We would have to go south and completely around Lake Manyara National Park. We didn't even know for sure if we could get through that way; it might be too muddy and washed out as well. Or we could wait and hope they would get this crossing repaired. It looked to all of us that it was going to be a long time before any traffic was going to cross where we were, so we pulled out of line and headed off.
In the photo below there isn't much water in the river; the flood must have passed a bit before we got there.
Fortunately, the flood hadn't washed out the bridge on our detour. But there were clearly high waters running amok. We turned off the highway at Mbuyuwa, or at least that's what I wrote down in my diary; on our road map it says "Magugu", and on google maps it says "Madukani". Joshua told us that at a place near here, Geromaui (Geromani?), the German colonialists hung local people from Baobab trees. I could find no reference to that name or the events, but judging from their history of atrocities it seems likely. It is no surprise that I can't find these places on maps; As we have found on our travels in Africa, South America and Indonesia, there is often a large discrepancy between local place names and maps.
At the village of Magara we turned north into Lake Manyara National Park. We checked in and then drove north along the west side of the lake. We didn't stop for much wildlife viewing, as we had a long ways to go to start with and now we had to make up for the detour. Lake Manyara itself was mostly just a thin line in the distance.
But even though we were just driving through we saw Elephant, Klipspringer, Olive Baboons, Hippos, Impala, Lions, Dik-dik, and Vervet Monkeys along with a good selection of birds — Grey Headed Kingfisher, a Red Bishop, a Vernon's Eagle Owl, African Harrier, Fork Tailed Drongo, Violet Backed Starling, Lesser Flamingos, Water Thickknee, and Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleu.
After hours of driving, we arrived at the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. We stopped briefly, but without a spotting scope and lots of time it's difficult to really see much from the rim. It's an incredible place; I keep wishing I had been there sixty or a hundred years ago,
We stopped for lunch at a picknic area near the rim, where we were visited by birds, zebras, and I can't remember what else.
We identified the sunbird as a Double Collared (Not sure if Eastern or Northern) and not a Beautiful because it doesn't have the long central tail feathers. However, the thin purple / blue collar above the red band appears to be missing...
Then we had the long descent across Maasai lands in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, past Mt. Lemakarot, and onto the Serengeti Plains. The land seemed overgrazed, even allowing for the pre-twentieth century natural intensive grazing by huge concentrations of wildlife and adaptations of the plants to the rainy and dry seasons and that intensive grazing. There are simply too many people in the world today and not enough land to support us all in the long run.
There are frequently zebra and giraffe in this area; we also saw groups of ostrich.
We entered Serengeti National Park at Naabi Hill Gate. While Joshua arranged our permits and paid our fees, Dona and I got out, stretched, and looked around. We found a few birds and flowers, but not a lot; it was rather disappointing.
Then we were off on the last leg of our long road-trip approach. We drove by numerous Kopjes; I wanted to stop at every one and poke around to see what might be hiding out there, but we didn't have time and you're not allowed to get out of the vehicle anyway. What a place to grow up as a Maasai kid before there was a park, before colonialism, before there was a road, before there were so many people. What a place to wander around, spear at hand, heart thumping, following curiosity wherever it led.
The paved road ends at the park gate; it's still a main route through north-western Tanzania, but it's a heck of a bumpy and washboarded one. We drove on to Seronera, then turned off on another road heading northeast.
On a walking safari in the Serengeti, you are required to have an armed guard who is an employee of the park service. At Seronera we picked up Saif, who was to be our Park Service guard. Both he and Joshua would accompany us on our walks; both carried large-bore rifles which were never even close to being needed. We also picked up Kipon, a Maasai who Joshua referred to as our "GPS". When we left Seronera, Joshua turned the driving over to Kipon.
Kipon wandered these plains as a kid. He put his foot down and we rocketed over the washboards at 90 km/hr, trying to make them disappear. It was getting late in the day; the sun was pushing down on the clouds rolling over the western horizon.
At one point we passed a Serval Cat; it didn't hang around for long. We also saw some Bat Eared Foxes, but they scampered off before we could get a picture.
At some point, unmarked and unremarkable, seemingly indistinct from the rest of our surroundings, Kipon turned off the road and headed across the plains. Joshua said, "Now we turn on the GPS." The vehicle didn't have a GPS, and no-one got a hand held device out. He was referring to Kipon. Our GPS was really cool. It navigated unerringly across the rolling, landscape dotted with trees to a place where we camped. It never ran over boulders or logs or other natural features any of the rest of us couldn't see. It dodged shrubs, rocks and trees, and we didn't have to worry about its battery running down. Everyone should have one.
It was dark by the time we stopped. Joshua and James went about setting up camp; someone got a fire started and some food going for dinner. Dona and I sat around feeling useless, but enjoyed getting a feel for the night and our surroundings.
We were just finishing dinner when the heavens opened up and we were pummeled by torrential rain and wind. We all huddled under the tarp set up over the cook area. The tarp worked as a sail and pulled out some stakes; I held a pole while Joshua went out and reset them. Then the six of us huddled under the tarp and tried to stay dry while we waited it out. I kept a hand on the windward pole, fearing the wind would pull stakes again. Eventually it passed and we relaxed. We were all pretty tired from the long day, so we turned in.
The next morning we got a better view of our surroundings. Nothing spectacular, but it was nice to be out in the wild in Africa, on our own feet and not in a vehicle or a fancy luxury camp. We had slept well and were looking forward to our first day walking. We saw a hot air baloon quite a ways away, low to the ground, quiet at this distance floating in the morning haze. It was the first and last encounter we had with other people on the trip.
This walking safari was like most others — we walked, but we didn't backpack. Joshua, Dona, Saif and I would head out from camp with small day packs. James and Kipon would break camp, pack up the Land Cruiser, drive to the next camp spot, and set up camp. It limited our flexibility in terms of how far and where we went, as we had to end up at our pre-arranged new camp. But it also meant we didn't have to carry heavy packs, something neither of us is very much capable of doing any more.
Our first day was our longest; we covered about 14km (~8 mi). We headed out about 08:30, single file, Joshua in the front and Saif bringing up the rear. The terrain which at first seemed rather flat was in fact a series of low ridges. We worked out way up and down them, heading across diagonally. It was great to be able to stop and inspect wildflowers, chase birds and butterflies. The land was green; it was the rainy season, or between the short and the long rains, depending on whether your point of reference was long history or global-warming screwed up changed history. If the night before was any indication, we were in the latter.
Most of the larger mammals we saw were farther off. strange as it may seem, they are less afraid of a large noisy thing like a Land Cruiser than they are of a small walking human. Consequently, it is often easier to approach them in a vehicle. But it is not as much fun. Being small and vulnerable; having to worry about getting eaten; being slow and having no good natural weapons other than a big brain; having nowhere to run that is safe — all of that makes a journey on foot more rewarding.
Dona spent a lot of time with her nose at ground level; she discovered flowers I often missed.
Dona also has the patience it takes to chase a butterfly around until it gives up and poses for a photograph. She would take lots of pictures; one of them was usually a keeper. Early in the day when the light level is low it is hard to get a good picture — they don't hold still for long and with slow shutter speeds photos are often blurred.
Since we had our noses to the ground a lot of the time, it was had to miss some of the bugs crawling and hopping around down there. The dung beetles were amazing. There are numerous different species. We saw some pretty good-sized ones and smaller shiny green-backed ones. Once they get a ball going, they move it around by more or less standing on their hands and pushing with their feet. Or at least that's how I look at it, thinking of their front legs as their arms and their back ones as their legs.
Despite the large numbers of animals seasonally wandering around the Serengeti, you don't find a whole lot of bones — an occasional skull or vertabra here or there, but you're not tripping over them everywhere you go. It's a well-tuned ecosystem, and hyenas can reduce a kill to very little, crushing the bones and completely digesting them.
Joshua and Saif both had eyes far better than ours; and Dona's are better than mine. I often felt like a blind man, having to ask repeatedly for better instructions on how to find something. It didn't matter whether it was a bird or a beast, I needed a pretty good navigational map. Once I knew where it was I did ok, but that first sighting was often difficult.
While we were looking at some termite mounds Joshua told us a story of how ingeneous the Maasai are. They were on a trip and someone dropped their cell phone down a hole in a termite mound. It fell down in quite a ways, and they couldn't reach it. Termite mounds are tough, and they didn't want to destroy it. They dug a small trench up to the mound and into it, then got a long stick and split it at the end. Then they stuck the stick down the trench to where the phone was and pushed it up against the far wall of the mound chamber, wedging the phone in the fork in the stick. Then they could pull it out. Ingenious!
We came across several columns of large ants heading somewhere. Joshua said they were probably Matebela Ants, a species which feeds almost exclusively on termites and raids termite mounds. They have a reputation as fierce creatures; their bites are at least thought by some to paralyze and even kill children. (Please note, however, there are no scientific citations for the behavior described, so it may be an exaggeration.)
The first two hours of our walks were usually the best. I realized this first day we should be getting up earlier so we were out and about earlier in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't act on it. We were a bit low on energy still, probably still recovering a little from our earlier sicknesses when we first arrived.
We got a real treat when we came across a group of Bat-Eared Foxes.
Joshua pointed out some mushrooms growing in a den of some kind. Being underground and shaded it held just enough moisture for them to make it. None of us knew if they were edible or not.
When we would top a rise we would do so cautiously, always anticipating something interesting would be just out of sight. The Serengeti is so vast that distances are deceiving; an area that at first glance looks empty might be crawling with animals. Check out the image below; depending on your browser, after you open it you may have to click on it again to get the full-sized image.
Reptiles are some of the cooler things around, and we were delighted to run across a few on our walk. There were lots of Agamas around; we particularly enjoyed the Common Agama. We have seen quite a few of them but they are always a delight with their bright colors.
We also found more Leopard Tortises. I'm not certain these are all Leopard Tortises, given the large variation in the patterns on their shells. I need a better field guide...
Dona and I were getting pretty tired towards the end of our walk. Part of it may have been the heat, part of it may have been we were still recovering from being sick, and part of it is likely that we are just getting old! But the landscape was getting more interesting; the low rolling ridges were starting to be covered with rocks. Now this was really cool terrain!
We worked our way around some of the rocks, and in the hollow below we found our new camp. Was it ever a cool spot. We'd been more or less following a tributary of the Grumeti River all day, but it had been off to our left and out of sight. Our new camp was near the river, but not crowding it.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and poking around camp. There were a bunch of Fisher's Lovebirds hanging out in a tree near the river. They were died-in-the-wool groupies, sticking together like a school of fish in the ocean.
After it got dark we took a black light out and went looking for scorpions (the entire carapace glows under a black light) and chameleons (they reflect white in a regular light). Unfortunately, we came up empty.
That evening as we sat around the campfire the frogs started singing. Wow, what a chorus! I turned on my camera to record it even if we couldn't see them. One sounds like a lot of raindrops, and is the Bubbling Cassina; The other is the Painted Reed Frog.
That night we went to sleep to the sound of hyenas; they seemed really close. Then it started to rain. It rained really hard. It sounded like it was raining really really hard.
We woke up to a gorgeous morning and a breakfast omlette with ham, juice, fresh fruit, toast, rolls, and cereal. We stuffed ourselves in preparation for another day.
When we looked at the river it had changed completely. The slow lazy stream from the day before had turned into a rushing flood.
Looking at the swollen river, I thought about the washed out culvert on the main route to the Serengeti. Any work to fix it might be washed out again due to this rain. We learned upon our return it wasn't replaced for a couple of days; maybe that's why.
We headed out for a morning exploration with Joshua and Saif. This was certainly not the dusty, dry Serengeti you see in most pictures. Everything was pretty green, grabbing what moisture it could during the short rains and putting out a growth spurt. It was a time of plenty for grazing animals. As a result, they were widely dispersed over the landscape. There was water everywhere — in pockets in rocks, in seasonal ponds, in ephemeral streams; and the main watercourses were bank-full.
With each rise we topped or corner we turned we would stop and scan for animals, hoping to spot a lion or a leopard or something else elusive before it spotted us and quietly dropped out of sight. But we stopped to enjoy the smaller things we found along the way. Cool lizards, birds and butterflies. We spent some time trying to get close to a Martial Eagle, with only limited success.
We saw quite a few Klipspringers; they always made me smile. They were perched on top of these big tall rocks, and you had to marvel that they could even make it up there. They reminded me of me as a kid, and as a not-quite-grown-up-yet adult, always wanting to be on top of the biggest rock to look around and see what I could see.
And then we came around a rock and Joshua held up his hand and quietly whispered, "There's a lion." Saif didn't believe him; I believed him but couldn't see it until he talked my eyes over to it.
"On top of the rock."
"On the horizon."
"To the left of the gap."
Can you see it?
We decided to try to sneak up on her as close as we could. We couldn't get really close; well, maybe we could, but then we would be under the rock she was on and we wouldn't be able to see her. But we wanted to get as close as we could and still see her. I'm not sure I want to be at the bottom of a rock with a lion up on top anyway.
She would periodically raise her head and look around; we waited until she put her head down looking away from us and then approached a bit closer, crouching to try to keep a tree or rock between us.
Eventually we got to a place where if we tried to get any closer we would basically be right under the rock she was lying on. If we did that, we couldn't see her, and we would likely disturb her in the attempt. We watched her for a little while and then called it good and backed off.
After we had gotten sufficient distance between us we had to move back into the open to continue our hike. When we looked back she had turned and was clearly watching us as we left.
As we continued our walk we were delighted with the flowers we found tucked in amongst the grasses and forbs. There weren't vast carpets of anything, or even much in the way of clusters or bunches of things; just individual gems here and there.
The butterflies were, as usual, stubbornly active. But we did catch pictures of a few.
We came upon some impala who seemed disturbed by something other than us; one of them started running straight towards us. We froze and waited. He got pretty close before getting wind of us and deciding this was not a good direction to be heading.
In the afternoon a small group of Zebras came down to the river. Unfortunately they spooked and left when they saw us.
That night we were grunted to sleep by the sounds of lions and hyenas. The day dawned bright and clear. We took a walk before breakfast, then took a last look around camp and headed off over the hills around 08:15. James and Kipon broke camp and headed to our next rendezvous.
We came upon a small herd of Cape Buffalo. We edged closer to them but they had already seen us ad headed off before we could get too close.
We saw a few Bateleur Eagles; the females are fairly easy to identify by their "Wedding Dress" attire, white wings underneath with a black edge. We were more excited by the Martial Eagles we came upon, partially because it is the favorite bird of our first Tanzanian Guide on our trip three years earlier and we never saw one.
On two occasions during our walks Saif found animal snares — big animal snares. They were made of about 1/4" cable. He gathered them up and brought them back with us. It's disheartening to find that sort of thing in a National Park, and it's particularly troublesome when the animals being targeted are something we know is sentient like an elephant. I don't know whether it's greed, or poverty. I think the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of the demand, and that requires somehow convincing the primary purchasers of ivory and rhino horn and gall-bladders that these things are not signs of success and wealth or aphrodisiacs but rather signs of pitifully small people with horrible inferiority complexes.
We arrived at our third camp spot about 13:00. It was almost as cool as our second one. It lacked the river, but made up for it with cool rocks. Joshua said when his father and Kipon were first scoping it out as a potential camp they counted forty lions. There are not that many around now, but you can see how there would have been a lot back in the day.
We awoke to the sound of lots of birds. Dona had not slept well, bothered by itching from bites on her back. The bugs definitely prefer chewing on her than me. No fun, but she still wants to go back! We heard a leopard prowling around during the night.
We set out slowly, carefully checking out all the kopjes, but didn't see any big cats. But we found lots of birds, and a turtle in one of the ponds.
Camp four was less inspiring than the previous two. The terrain was more open and there were no big kopjes close by. We took another short walk from camp in the afternoon and again in the evening, and we had a great sunset after we got back.
Joshua told us a story Kipon had told him, one of many things Kipon did as a young Maasai growing up. As boys they would sit around and listen to their fathers; one of the things the older people said was that if you were charged by a lion and had no weapons for defense but were in tall grass, the thing to do was to was to run towards it, then drop down so you couldn't be seen and wiggle to rustle the grass. Apparently it was supposed to confuse the lion and make it worry about a big snake in the grass.
Well, one day Kipon and a friend were out on the grasslands and they ran into a lion, and the lion started coming towards them. Kipon's friend wanted to run, but they both knew they couldn't outrun the lion. Kipon told him, "Remember what our fathers told us, run towards him and then lie down and shake the grass." So they did, and he's here to tell the story. Now that would be scary.
Near camp we found an African Pipit nest on the ground with a just-hatched chick and a couple of unhatched eggs.
We also found a Vitelline Masked Weaver that was just starting to build a nest. A talented bird, that one. It's pretty amazing to watch. The bird has a very definite idea about what it is doing and why.
Here he is a little further along with his project.
After dinner we relaxed around the fire, listening to the sounds of the evening, sad that this was our last night out here. After we went to bed we heard a leopard prowling around.
In the afternoon we took a walk to a big rock, from where we had a good view. On the way something we saw prompted a discussion of animal reproduction. We told Joshua about a book we were reading, The Evolution of Beauty by Richard Prum. That prompted him to suggest Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation.
We heard a leopard growling around somewhere outside the tent that night, as well as hyenas and maybe a lion. It sounded pretty close, and it was pitch black — the moon wasn't up yet. I think that was the night Dona didn't want to go outside to pee. I, of course, was much braver — but then I didn't have to pee right then...
The next morning after breakfast we set off again; we would meet Kipon and James at the big rock we had walked to the evening before. We had a long drive back but we still wanted to see what we could on our last morning. We had a pretty good morning with a fair number of birds and mammals; we found leopard tracks, but no leopard.
Joshua showed us how the Maasai and others extract scorpions from a hole using a noose made from a blade of grass. He was unsuccessful, but it seemed like perserverence would have paid off.
All too soon we were at our rendezvous with Kipon and James. We piled in and started the long drive back. One the way we passed many large mammals like the ones we had seen on foot, but it wasn't the same. It's a treat to see them at all, but it's a real treat to see them as a two-footed upright wimp passing slowly. We would love to go back and do something like that again.
We dropped Saif and Kipon at the Seronera Ranger Station. James and Joshua dropped us off at Mama Africa House, where we cleaned up for our flight back to Dar es Salaam the next morning.