Tanzania
You never know your last trip. But you always know your first. Mine was a three week trip to Tanzania. I need to qualify that: my first trip out side of work, to a country without family or friends. Why Tanzania? I have no idea. Most things just happen. And I happen to land in Nairobi after a transit through London. After spending a day in the city, I joined a tour group which took me to Serengeti, after a two long days of drive.
Serengeti has to be one of the greatest national parks in the world. Roughly the size of Holland at 15,000 km, the park gets its name from the Masai word Serenget meaning 'endless plains'. One glimpse of the park and you won't ask why it has been named so. As soon as you reach the outskirts of the park, you are greeted with a sight of miles and miles of endless African savannas filled with wild animals. It is this place which draws thousands from all over the world to witness the much acclaimed migration of the wildebeest - said to be one of the most fascinating sights in the world.
The park is the best place in the world to see four out of the 'big five'. The 'Big Five', for the uninitiated, are the lion, the leopard, the buffalo, the rhino and the elephant. We were fortunate enough to see four of them in close quarters (all except the Rhino). The park has lots of lions and we bumped into a pride almost every time we took a game drive. Lions are the biggest cat in Africa and the only cat bigger than them in the world is the tiger.
The leopard is the next toughest to spot among the 'Big Five' after the Rhino. Its numbers are very much lower than the other cats. A park as big as Serengeti has only about 50 of them.
The cheetah, of which there are only 500 in the park, is the most shy of all cats. Its timidity and its diminutive size are the reasons why it does not figure in the list of 'Big Five'. The park also houses plenty of herbivores. Each cat has its favourite prey and hence each herbivore has its deadliest enemy. The Thomson's Gazelle is the fastest of all herbivores. At 60 mph, it can easily outrun all the cats except of course the cheetah. The park has wide varieties of antelopes from the dikdik, the smallest antelope in the world, to the eland, the biggest.
Among the lesser sought after creatures in the wild are the insects and the tse-tse has to be the most painful of the lot. They are about twice as big as a housefly and their bite sting twice as worse as mosquitoes. But unlike the mosquitoes they do not leave behind a bad itch or swelling. The normal insect repellents didn't seem to scare them away. The only consolation we had was the knowledge that the ones in north Tanzania don't carry the sleeping sickness. One has to be more careful when visiting the Selous in the south.
The camping in this park, unlike the smaller ones, is generally inside its boundaries. Sleeping in the wild with constant growling of the lions and munching of the giraffes and buffalos was an experience of one's lifetime. The park will make it to anyone's list of top 5 natural wonders of the world. I don't think there are that many places in the world where you would be shooing away hyenas and lions during dinner time!
Our next stop: Ngorongoro Crater, which is in fact a caldera i.e. a crater which was created by a collapsing volcano. The Ngorongoro volcano, once upon a time, was actually taller than Kilimanjaro. Today with a diameter of 16-19 km this is easily the largest crater in the world. The view that one gets of the crater from anywhere along the rim is absolutely breathtaking. From the rim, the 265 sqkm large crater bed can be seen dotted with animals and with a closer observation one can spot herds of buffalos and wildebeest occasional lion pride or even rhinos. The Tanzanian government, the park rangers to be precise, should be complimented for taking care of the 15 rhinos in the park. Their dedication has ensured the poachers don't end up wiping out the entire population.
Next up, the twin parks of Tarangire and Lake Manyara. Tarangire National Park is the closest, hence also the most well connected, of the 4 big parks to the civilization. This is the only park which can be reached by paved road. Tarangire is famous for the elephants and the baobab trees. In fact the number of elephants have reached a level where it is beginning to give a real headache for the authorities. After their only natural enemy (us, that is) decided to protect them, there is nothing to keep their numbers in check. There are about 2 elephants per sqkm in this park and the animals are converting the entire area to a vast desert. At an alarming rate. Apart from the pachyderms, there are lots of baboons, giraffes, herbivores and also a few lions in the park. The giraffes found in these region, known as the Masaai giraffes, are the tallest of their kind in the world. These tall creatures are known to give birth standing, resulting in the young ones getting a rather rough welcome to the world. The fall serves as a thump on its back to make it start breathing and also helps the breaking of umbilical chord.
Lake Manyara National Park stands out among the national parks due to its greenery. It is one of the few parks which is as much rich in flora as fauna. It is densely forested with big trees and presents a different picture than the vast savannahs of East Africa. This park also houses a wonderful example of the great rift wall. The approach to the park from the north greets the visitor with the spectacular views of the thickly forested park, the lake and the rift wall.The park is very famous for the tree sleeping lions. Nowhere else can you spot the lions climb trees with the dexterity of a leopard. We did spot a few sleeping lions, but unfortunately they were sleeping under the trees instead of on them. The drive near the lake would allow you to spot a few more animals and birds especially the flamingos which are found in huge numbers in and around the lake.
Olduvai Gorge is situated just off the road from Ngorongoro to Serengeti. If you start your journey to Serengeti from Manyara sometime early in the morning, Olduvai would be the perfect stopover to have your packed lunch. The name is actually a corrupted version of the Masaai word for a type of shrub which grows abundantly in this area: Oldpai. It is here that the famed footprints of the hominids from 3-4 million years ago were found. The footprints have now been carefully covered, but one can still see their casts in a few museums (including the Nairobi national museum and the Oldpai museum itself).
The route from the crater to the plains also presents a good opportunity to meet the Masaai and to get a first hand insight into their lives. The entry fee to any of the Masaai 'village' is 10US and this is the only place where you are allowed to capture the images of these colourful people on film. A typical village has about 80 to 100 people living in about a dozen houses. The houses, made of cow dung, are very poorly lighted and ventilated. But still don't miss a chance to see these things from the inside. Only women are employed in building the houses, while the men, the warriors as they like to call themselves, take care of the livestock.
The climb (via the Coca-Cola route) starts at the Marangu gate which is at an elevation of about 1800m. A good 3 hr walk through thick rain forests would bring you to the lower camp - Mandara, which is situated at an elevation of 2727m. A 15 min short hike from the hut would take you to a crater called Maundi, from where you can get very good views of the Horombo village and the surrounding tropical forests. On the second day, you climb for 5 to 6 hours to reach the middle hut - Horombo. The hut is situated at an elevation of 3720m and during the hike to this hut was the first time I encountered altitude sickness. And it wasn't very pleasant, but more about that later. After about an hour from the Mandara hut, the thick rain forest gives way to shrubs and the views just get better and better. It is here where the Mt. Kilimanjaro presents its first view to the climbers. From Horombo one can get a real good view of both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Mawenzie.
The third day, if needed, could be spent in acclimatising to the altitude. The task on the fourth day is a 5 to 6 hour hike from Horombo hut to the top hut - Kibo hut. Apart from the initial and final stretch, the bulk of the hike is on near flat land. But the altitude makes up for the lack of steep climb. Kibo is situated at the foothills of the Kilimanjaro peak and is at an elevation of 4703m. Needless to say, the place was very cold and did not have any heating. Our final ascent on the fifth day started at midnight. There are three reasons why we started so early for our summit climb. The most important of them all was the fact that the peak normally gets completely covered by thick fog by 8 am. So it is imperative that you come back by that time to Kibo hut and as the summit is about 5 hrs away, you are forced to start at midnight to beat the fog. The second reason was to make it to the top when the view is the prettiest, viz., the sunrise and the final reason was to avoid travelling during broad daylight when you can get a good view of the steep path lying ahead of you. The importance of the third reason became evident when I looked back at the path after returning to Kibo hut. I certainly wouldn't have agreed to move an inch if I had seen the path before.
I passed the 5000m mark, William's point, at about 2 in the morning and somehow crawled to the top by quarter to 6, in time for the spectacular sunrise. By top, here, I mean Gillman's Point which is at an elevation of 5685m. The actual highest point, the Uhuru peak is 210m higher and more importantly a good 2 hr walk from Gillman's Point. The effect of altitude combined with the knowledge that I would anyway get a certificate even if I reached only Gillman's Point, prevented me from going any further. A Kilimanjaro travelogue would normally end with the person scaling the peak. But mine has to carry on till I reached the Marangu gate. Instead of spending the fifth night at Horombo, thanks to my tight schedule, I was forced to descend all the way to Mandara hut. I reached the bottom hut at 4 in the evening of the fifth day, and since my day had started at midnight, I ended up having a 16 hour morning walk with a small breaks at Kibo and Horombo. My only solace was the knowledge that I wasn't alone in attempting the madness. My partner in crime was an Essex gentleman, one Mr. Garth Freeman and (I quote him here) : "After this, all that I am left with is a story to tell my grandchildren: your grand dad walked up the tallest mountain in Africa one day, and walked straight back home."
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