Life in Africa IX

One Christmas, we took good friends, their daughter and young Nai for a tour of Ngorongoro Crater and Manyara National Park.In those days, it was a bit of a mission travelling across the plain between Makuyuni and Mto wa Mbuu.

We stayed at the Lutheran Hostel at Karatu, which was only partially completed at the time, but none the less it was a pleasant stay and the food supplied was very good. The night guard even washed the car!

While the others slept a little later to recover from the journey, I was out as usual to explore the surroundings and found this local tree nursery. Nobody was there as it was a siku kuu - important day, ie Boxing Day but there were kids fetching water from the standpipe there. It was a very tidy little nursery with a good range of species.



Our friends were working at Dongabesh and knew Karatu much better than we did and they had made friends with the Gibb family who owned a farm and and worked at other enterprises there.
We spent a night there and and I found that they too had a very large tree nursery. The nurseryman showed me what he was doing and the techniques he used. The trees were for planting on the farm and also for sale.



There is a bush area within the precinct of Gibb's Farm farm where elephants frequent to take on certain minerals from the soil. It was a lengthy walk to get there but most interesting. Not only from the point of view of the mineral area, but also because of the bush and insect life we encountered.
Luckily no elephants came for minerals while we were there - it might have been interesting if they did!


I always felt a sense of excitement when I drove down to the floor of Ngorongoro Crater! It is an awesome thing - it was a huge volcano and its innards sunk, leaving a rimmed crater! Better folk tham me know exactly what happened, but I would expect that the ground shook somewhat. It is a caldera that happened 2 - 3 million years ago where the mountain blew apart [upwards] then sank back down into the space where magma had been. This left a crater 610m deep and circular 260 square kilometers.
All part of the Great Rift.

The environs at the time of our visit were experiencing a severe drought and the lake levels were low. Lake Magadi, called after the high levels of salts, hosts flocks of flamingos - but it is hard to get close to them so I took this opportunity to capture some. Some safari drivers illegally try to give patrons a better view - but they leave tracks.



Most of the safari drivers head for the hippo pools. You don't seem to see much of the hippos because they tend to stay submerged in the heat of the day. Of course you hear them grunting and farting and an occasional yawn. The egrets fly around in the hope of a meal.
I would guess that the water is not all that healthy!



Nai had not seen a large body of water before and was very interested. It was a good opportunity to see some of her country's natural heritage that perhaps she may not have the chance to do again. These days schools take kids to important places like Ngorongoro Crater, but very often their parents have to find the funds. Compared to tourists, the fees are low, but sadly many Tanzanians cannot afford to see the riches within their country.


Buffalo seem to survive very well in the crater because of the rough grass cover. Apparently giraffe find it difficult to move down the steep slopes so they do not enter the crater.
In the very early days, German brothers farmed the crater and tried to drive out all the Gnu/wildebeest and shot a number of black rhino - mind you, rhino running around your back paddock might be a bit daunting!




Neat, tidy Thompson's Gazelles are able to move in and out of the crater and while they are a common sight on wild life safaris, they truly are a beautiful animal. Food for the predators as well.







Vulture have a bad reputation and are not generally liked. We spotted these but they were not at a kill, but never the less they seemed to be busy interacting with each other. Looking into the sky for circling vulture is a good sign to look for when trying to locate recent kills and perhaps see big cats.
As a child I saw a movie 'Where no Vultures Fly' and it must have left an impression as I still recall it.


When it is dry, Zebras tend so show the dust n their coats. But normally they appear very clean and smooth coated.The contrast of their stripes probably contributes to their clean appearance. Though common and even seen outside conservation areas, they are a remarkable sight.




We had to rush to reach Olduvai Gorge and then be back before they closed the gate into the conservation area, but the trip was well worth it! This is the area on the Great Rift where some 3 million years ago hominid life developed. Bet they had a fright when the Ngorongoro crater was formed!
The Leakeys found a lot of fossil and archeological material - and they still work there, well the family. They found evidence of Homo habilis as well.
A fascinating place and maybe we should have found a way to stay longer. The small museum there is very well presented.

Life in Africa VIII

We were fortunate to visit the Matopos National Park in Zimbabwe. The first thing that I noticed was there appeared to be a lot of smoke. Our Safari Driver told me that this was because the traditional inhabitants of the area had been dispossessed of the homelands by the government and with no land in recompense. There only response to the situation was to scorch the landscape as they left.

Matopos is most famous for its rock formations.

This outcrop has a name that I cannot remember, but I'm sure most people will associate the form as a group of people, maybe a family. I remember similar outcrops in the way to Mwanza.
I have some fascination on the geology and how these outcrops were formed.

Rocks sitting on another huge outcrop. Some process of erosion has caused this and obviously rainfall has played a great part. Perhaps wind as well. Also time - these are ancient lands.

Yet another outcrop of rock. This is all granite kopjes eroded again eroded over time by the various forces of nature.
It is in this area that Sir Cecil Rhodes was buried [along with a number of others]. I remember from secondary school history that he was the driver behind the proposed Cape to Cairo railway.

On the way to a small village [set up for tourists] there are good examples of ancient rock art. I found this very interesting and could have spent more time but our driver was more intent on showing us a black rhino. I would have thought that Africa had the oldest rock art and that art is about what I would expect.
This is ancient stoneage -just how old is difficult to assess.



This is some of the oldest known rock art in Europe - enhanced because the rock background has been removed. It is from the Chauvet cave in France and drawn some 35 000 years ago. Still stoneage and Neanderthal peoples were in the same area at the time.




We visited a village set up for tourist and to provide an opportunity to purchase crafts. There is some difference to what we had experienced in Tanzania






There was considerable skill in the crafts made but it is a difficult life trying to make a living like this. All these crafts are available in the main centers and in other craft stalls. And tourists tend to be picky. There is also a tendency to barter unrealistically because it is thought the thing to do.




I made friends with the village kids and challenged them, and taught them the trick of placing a stone on your elbow and quickly bring your arm down so that you catch the stone in your hand. Kids remember this sort of thing and challenge each other.






There is no comparison to the wildlife in Tanzania, but our guide tried his best to locate animals. He tried to tell us that a distant warthog was in fact a rhino, but we let him believe in what he said. He did take take us to a place where we certainly could hear rhino puffing and snorting but they were not visible. In the end we did locate one but the picture I took was too distant for my camera. But for the record here is a Matopos warthog.