Into Africa….Jan 25-26

The Dark Continent – at least it sure is at 10:00 at night! After flying overnight from Toronto to Amsterdam with an hour and a half layover, we then flew down across Europe, over the Alps, and headed across the Mediterranean from Greece to Egypt, Sudan, Kenya and finally Tanzania. Most of the trip was under cloud cover so there wasn’t much to see anyway. A good thing, since we needed a bit more sleep than what we got on the overnight flight. When Monica finally opened the window shade and looked down, all she could see was waves of red sand – the Sahara Desert at its finest. And it went on, and on, and on. It had gotten dark already (about 6:00 or so) before we saw anything that looked like civilization. Most of that was probably over Kenya. It was almost 8:00 by the time we landed and finally disembarked, in the heart of East Africa, 3 degrees south of the equator and about 4,000 feet above sea level (1,371 metres, if anyone cares to know).

First impressions – big, open, dark, warm (31 degrees C), and rugged. And great for star-gazing. Severin, one of our driver/guides for the Tanzanian part of the safari, met us and one other couple at the airport. We had been expecting the whole group to be about 24 people, but he told us that they had had a number of cancellations, and we would end up being the smallest group he had ever driven on safari – 12 people. Hey, we’re happy about that! The safari jeeps hold 6 people each, so that means only 2 vehicles for the tour, so we will have the opportunity to do more wildlife viewing if the opportunities arise.

Once we reached the hotel, the Arusha Mountain Village Hotel, we checked in and headed directly for bed after making arrangements with Severin to take us on a tour Saturday morning that included the twice-weekly open market, a drive around Arusha and lunch at a local restaurant.

Here’s a quick shot of the inside of our room:

 

The rooms are set in groups of 6 in separate buildings and are sort of wedge shaped. The front doors all come off of a small courtyard area,

 

but open up past the bathroom to the bed enclosed in mosquito netting at night, the desk and sitting area. It is actually quite roomy and, given there is no air conditioning, very comfortable with the overhead fan running at low and the windows open so you can hear the crickets chirping at night. Of course, that also means that you hear the roosters crowing at 6:30 in the morning (after all, it is a farming community in this area and you also hear the cows mooing throughout the day.

Our room overlooks Lake Duluti to the back of the hotel. Most of the rooms look out this way, and you can see why:

 

Here are a few other photos of the area around the rooms:

After a delicious breakfast – buffet cereals, fruit, breads and jam augmented by eggs to order, we met Severin in the lobby at 10:00. It was only the two of us - the other couple from our flight, Cory and Paula,  decided to take things a bit easier and stay at the hotel – so we set out to see the local market. And what a market! Since we were there early, there wasn’t too big a crowd, but there were still plenty of people around! Rather than going through the whole thing, we concentrated on the fruit and vegetable market. Here are a couple of shots from that:

 

Severin explained that many of the vendors are women because they decided a number of years ago that they wanted to contribute to their family income and sell their garden goods while their husbands did their jobs. So now many of the women have regular customers at their market stalls, their husbands appreciate the contribution they are making, and there is more equality in the family fortunes. All in all a good thing, according to Severin.

From the market, we wandered around to one of the small local ‘bars’ where the men socialize during the day. Many of them may not work jobs with regular hours, so they meet at the bars and if someone needs some work done, they will come in and ask for help. Anyone able to do the work will go out, do the job, get paid and then come back to visit with their friends again. There are a couple of Tanzanian specialty brews, one is a banana wine and the other a banana/alcohol concoction that looks sort of like a milkshake but a lot more dangerous! These are standard fare at the local bars, and often when one person ‘buys’ for another it is the local banana brew.

 

There’s a lovely system the Tanzanians have when they meet someone. If it’s somebody you don’t know, you say ‘Jambo’ which means ‘hello’, and shake hands. If it is somebody you know, be prepared for a barrage of questions after the ‘Jambo’, which include ‘How’s your family?’ and ‘How are your chickens?’ if you happen to raise chickens, etc. While we were in the bar, every man who came in, and some who were already there, came to shake our hands and greet us. They were a nice bunch of people and asked us a few questions about the social customs at home in Canada. It is a bit awkward to ask people to have their photos taken, especially a larger group, otherwise we would have had a shot of the guys. It was a nice way to spend a half hour and learn something of the local customs.

Our next stop was a trip into the city of Arusha. The road is one lane each way (and they drive on the ‘correct’ (meaning left) side of the road ) and rather busy with people coming and going from the market. The city itself is very clean and there are a number of new hotels that have gone up to support the safari market. The number of safari tours and tour companies was quite amazing to see, especially at the airport where they were picking up tour group members. But as Severin said, all of the safari tours that go to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti start in Arusha, and the businesses have grown in response to the need.

 

This is a monument shaped like a candle. It marks the beginning of, and is the symbol for, a Tanzanian equivalent to the Olympic torch run, except that it only takes place in Tanzania, and the run is held every year for Tanzanians to make donations toward a particular cause - it could be towards education, or health care, or anything of that sort. Large sums of money are raised each year and this is how the government keeps people involved in the social systems that are the foundation of Tanzania's domestic economy.

Lunch was in the Africafé, a restaurant that serves a variety of foods, many North American style, using processing methods that aren’t dangerous to those of us not used to the water in Africa. We both had Tarrazzinis, which are basically pita bread panninis stuffed with a choice of items. Larry had beef and tomato with cheese and Monica had grilled veggies and cheese. A delicious meal and not particularly expensive.

Severin dropped us back at the hotel after that, and we went to vegetate for a couple of hours before we had to meet the tour director in the lodge lobby. We sat in the Tea Garden with our books and a huge bottle of water, but took a few minutes to take some photos of the area so you can get an idea of the view:

 

 

 

 

We met 8 of the other 10 people on the tour this afternoon (the last 2 are flying in tonight at 11:00) and Rachel, our tour director, and got the overview of the next couple of weeks. Early mornings, lots of game drives, nice places to stay (all with safe food and internet!) and, from the sounds of it, the experience of a lifetime! After the meeting, we sat at the bar and got to know each other a bit better. We had dinner with Cory and Paula and have now finished repacking our stuff in preparation for tomorrow morning’s first trek out into the East African wilderness. More to come tomorrow from 7,500 feet up on the edge of the Nogorongoro Crater!