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| Gourmet bacon, scrambled eggs and cowboy coffee cooked over an open fire. |
Wilderness
We left Arusha in one of my new open Land Rovers which
immediately added an air of excitement, followed by my trusty Land Cruiser. A private lightweight camp had been set up for us
in a special campsite just on the edge of where most people get to in one of my
favorite national parks in Tanzania: Tarangire. When the focus is on a
wilderness experience, you sacrifice the wildlife abundance that you get in the
core tourist areas, but with the right guide, you get to immerse yourself in
nature. The encounters you have
with wildlife become much more meaningful and so much more than just about the
wildlife.
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| Three bull buffaloes visit a water hole while we quietly watch downwind of them. |
We didn’t really sacrifice comfort. None of us were cold,
and we had warm duvets to keep us warm at night. There was always cold beer,
gin & tonics at the end of the day, and the scotch was good around the fire
after dinner. We even had hot showers. The coffee in the morning was proper and
hot. But, yes, there were moments when the sun was beating down, and when we
got dust in our eyes. We woke up a couple of mornings having not slept all that
well, but it was because of the excitement of hearing a leopard on patrol, and
the hyenas whooping.
Rift Valley
Having enjoyed our wilderness experience, we ventured on,
taking advantage of the lightweight camp to see another part of the Tarangire
ecosystem that most guests to Tanzania don’t get to see. During the wet season,
just like in the Serengeti ecosystem, the volcanic grasslands of the Rift
Valley draw 10,000 wildebeest (10% of what there once were) to feed on nutrient
rich grasses and calve. But during the rest of the year, the valley is dry and
harsh. The fertile soil turns to talcum powder dust that feeds tornado-like
dust devils, and the volcanic rocks and lava flows violently shake any vehicle
that drives those roads. Yet, despite the harshness, Maasai pastoralists eke
out a living, herding cattle across the grasslands, and large herds of zebra
with their hardy digestive systems feed on the dry grasses that remain. And
then, as you come around the corner, Oldonyo Lengai seems to rise out from the plain
in front of you.
Under the light of the moon, we attempted began our summit bid. The views from the top are beautiful,
but the climb is brutal. Volcanic ash fills your boots, and you slip constantly.
There are no switch-backs, just a 5 hr, 6000ft ascent. Since its eruption in
2008, you can no longer walk out into the crater filled with lava and ash. Instead,
the mountain is higher than it used to be and the crater a deep, deep hole. 
That afternoon, after napping and eating, we drove to the
edge of Lake Natron in search of Lesser Flamingos. Lake Natron lies at a low
point in the rift. It has no outlets, and with high surface temperatures and
wind, the water in it evaporates leaving behind salt deposits that make it as alkaline
as ammonia. These conditions are
perfect for Cyanobacteria to flourish. Lesser flamingos are Cyanobacteria
specialists and use Lake Natron as a nesting ground.
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| A few thousand Lesser flamingos through the eyepiece of my binoculars. |
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| A lovely herd of giraffe... yes, those black dots in the background are wildebeest. |
Having completed another chapter of our adventure, we
climbed back into the vehicle and headed up the few million year-old rift and up
and over the 580 million year-old Gol Mountains to northern Serengeti. Unusually
dry for August, I was a little worried that the wildebeest migration might have
already disappeared across the river into Kenya’s Mara. Again we chose to spend
most of the time avoiding the other vehicles and bumbled around finding our own
lions, except for one drive that took us towards the confluence of the
Bologonja and Mara rivers to see the thousands of wildebeest. The rest of the
time we took the opportunity to be quiet and capture the ambient sounds of the
bush on film, sipping champagne in celebration of a wonderful experience and 69th
birthday, and watching a threatening thunderstorm bear down.
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| Finding predators is always very satisfying although most of the time they are sleeping. |
Post note: The group continued to Mt. Kenya where they
successfully climbed to Point Lenana, the highest point on the mountain that
doesn’t require technical climbing. Well done!
