Ngarenanyui is NW of Arusha and to get there it is necessary to pass through the Arusha National Park. I had been into the park before, but only briefly - once to carry out undercover work pilfering snails, and the other to carry out undercover work to pilfer Dodonea seed. Both with the best of intentions and said 'tongue in cheek' - I think.
Actually I was collecting Dodonea seed which is the same plant as NZ Ake Ake - the plant being endemic to NZ, Australia and Africa. It is a hardy shrub and the Maasai use the ash of it to line their calabashes to protect the inside and to give the sour milk a flavor they like. I was happily picking the seed [with Missy] when there was a rustle in the scrub and not more than 5 metres away stood this giraffe looking down at us, blinking it's long eyelashes in wonder of what we were doing.
I picked up Loti at his village, just by the Seventh Day Adventist complex and we proceeded through the gate of the National Park. Actually this was the boundary of the park and people used to walk, bike, motorcycle, lead donkeys or travel by vehicles through the very rough road to Ngarenanyuki without any payment. At a fork in the road, you turn right and after some distance you arrive at the Park HQ where tourists pay. By keeping to the left there is a small area locals call 'Little Serengeti' and budget safari people [maybe taxis or con-men] take unsuspecting tourist.
Things have changed - quite recently, the Park HQ is pretty much at the park boundary and the road has been done up. It is no longer easy to go to Ngarenanyuki in a vehicle without payment.
We proceed
ed into the park and stopped to look at Little Serengeti and it was usual to see buffalo, zebra and giraffe. This first time they were all quite close, but at other times they were quite distant. I was told that only occasionally are people traveling by foot were injured by buffalo - there is always the danger with them.The road varied between muddy to rock - sharp rocks - and at times only experienced drivers are able to negotiate the road. Usually I traveled in four wheel drive to make it easier on the tyres. I was seldom able to go fast enough for third gear and at times I needed to go so slowly I needed low ratio.
From time to time the
re were the elusive Dik Dik and the odd troop of baboons, some with red bums and the occasional big old man sitting on a rock being the boss. Rarely and with luck we would see the Colobus monkey with it's black and while, hairy tail.We never actually saw elephants - plenty of droppings - but not the animal. They cause havoc in the water supplies and in village maize crops.
There were no big cats in the park, which is why tourists are able to walk in the park.
The road climbs quite steeply in parts and sometimes there were village road gangs carrying out maintenance with jembe [hoes] and they would ask for a toll. Loti usually talked them out of it but it was voluntary work - sometimes though as punishment. I thought that users of the road should perhaps contribute, but Loti's point of view was that we were voluntarily aiding the villages where these guys came from.
The road climbs up into rain forest where it was generally wet and I always expected to see wildlife. We never did but for the Dik Dik, so elusive and always in pairs. But there were (often) clouds of iridescent blue butterflies which seemed to drink in the puddles on the road.
The road descends abruptly and it is possible to view the whole Ngarenanyuki area in all its' dry beauty. It takes a while to descend and there is a place where there are always warthogs and they run off with their tails up like little aerials. And there is the camp where the park rangers and trainees stay - it is always green there.
The road follows a ridge and the Ngarenanyuki River, with its' red water, is to the left and there are Pencil Cedar trees -Juniperus procera and yes they were used to make pencils. Only a small area of them remains. From here very often there are many giraffe to be seen and from time to time we stopped to watch some of their antics.
Then at the Momella Gate, the other road that went through the National Park joins here and there is a ranger post [and some accommodation for rangers]. This is the step off point for those who are going to climb Mt. Meru. Each day as we passed through there, there were always young men waiting to gain employment as porters - the majority went home empty-handed each day.
Of course Mt. Meru dominates the landscape and we travel on its' Eastern flank. Also worthy of mention is the outstanding views that can be had of Mt. Kilimanjaro - that is when she lifts her skirt of cloud up and that does not happen all that regularly.
It is downhill into Ngarenanyuki (the area), the first village being the growing frontier village of Olkung'wado dominated by the grey colour of its concrete block buildings. But before reaching there we pass by the turnoff to Nasula Primary School, the name of which has been changed to Momella.
This area has some fame: The movie Hatari was filmed here (John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Red Buttons) and Hardy Kruger was the one who started the Momella Lodge. The Pastor-in-charge of the area, Mch Mbise told me that as a child he remembered holding Kruger's hand. The same Pastor also told me that he once saw lions resting right on the junction of the main road and the road that we had just traveled.
There was a flat, always wet area where the road was a bit tricky to negotiate and up to our left was Mwakeny Village and primary school we would work there later.
There is a stand of Fever Trees, with their yellow bark. The name came from the supposition that the trees contained and antidote for malaria, but it is not so. The trees though are an indicator of ground water.
Just before Olkung'wado, there is a small bridge but before that is another river crossing that leads up to Kisimiri.
Before the road was improved, the main public transport was by Landrover some covered and others not. There was no timetable, when the vehicle was full, the journey started. Most times they were overloaded and tragedy did occur. If you met one of the Landrovers on the road, you had to give way as the driver chose what he thought was the best path for him and he would not deviate!
We were well known in the area and sometimes friends of ours would request a lift from us. Of course that meant the Landrover would miss out on a fare and mean they had to wait for another. The drivers and conductors did not like this situation and once they blocked the road for us by parking on the bridge. The Mtendaje came to our aid and the driver had a week's stay in jail. I had to negotiate a peace with them and made the rule that if it is a Pastor or Evangelist, then it is our business and we should give them a life. If they happen to be our friend or the child of a friend (the Ngarenanyuki Secondary School had boarders) then it must be expected that 'friendship rules'. They accepted that - grudgingly.
On this trip we only went as far as the Olkung'wado Church where we spoke to Mch Mbise - in charge at the time - and the Medical Assistant who was in charge of the clinic there. They were building a new clinic at the time and moved there after some time. The Medical Assistant was a cousin of Loti's and he wanted trees for the extensive area around the new clinic. Also for his home.
Mch Mbise told us that he would advice the Pastors in the area that they would see us and he welcomed us into the area.
I could see that the area was dry and I was told currently the drought was the worst for some ten years. This did not improve and generally the short rains failed each year. The long rains always arrived but not with the regularity of the past.
The area was going to have its challenges, but it was appropriate that an environmental program be carried out there.
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