Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya
Moshi -> Arusha National Park -> Ngurdoto Crater -> Mt Kilimanjaro -> Korogwe -> Zanzibar -> Ruaha National Park -> Twiga Lodge -> Bagamoyo -> Shimba Hills National Resereve -> Tsavo East National Park
Embedded Files
Nov 3, 1976, Moshi. A lot has happened since my last entry was broken off. Three people had walked past us in the lake, and invited us to join them in some water skiing, which we accepted with alacrity. Nat and Linda, married for eight months, and Leslie, 18. We swam in the middle of the lake, and Nicole went up on water skis her first try. It is now about 5 PM. We had thought the Sunday band on driving in Tanzania extended from 2 PM to 6 PM. Wrong: it extends to 6 AM the next morning: so drove my bus back to his house with Nicole and myself lying down on the seats (the fine for breaking the above law is 10,000 shillings and car seizure), invited us for dinner. We contributed bananas, a pineapple, and a papaya, and Linda whipped up a rice and tomato dish, chicken, soup, tomato, onion, and cucumber salad, fried luncheon meat, Alsatian wine (!), and magic brownies from his own plants (he had one plant about 4 feet high, leaves drying on the stem; he rubbed his hands among its branches and handed us a tennis ball full of fragrant buds). We listen to heavy rock, played “PIT”, zonked off around 11:30 PM: a delightful, if rigorous, evening.
The next afternoon, as agreed beforehand, we picked up Leslie and drove off to Arusha National Park: this turned out to be one of the good surprises of our trip so far. Ngurdoto Crater, tiny in size compared to Ngorongoro, and only visitable along its rim, is one of the truly magnificent views of my life. It’s literally teams with buffalo, warthog, elephant, bushbuck, etc., and, like ants, all go about their appointed tasks in this miniature green paradise. From the rim, you can look outside the crater to the Momela Lakes, small, sinuous, amongst lava tumbles, thick forests, grasslands; and Maasai plains stretch off into the distance. Mt. Meru, with its crater and internal cinder cone, is clearly visible to the west, and snowcapped Kilimanjaro, 50 miles to the north east, hovers above everything.
We saw gorgeous, black and white colobus monkeys, with long, bushy whiteTales and old-man faces on the drive to Ngurdoto, and lots of buffalo, plus some bushbuck, dik-dik, and warthogs, on the way to our campsite, clearing partway up the road to the crater. Beautiful night, with the moon more than half, and the thrill of buffalo closed at hand. The next morning we started walking to the, Meru Crater, but we’re stopped cold by a mother elephant with her baby: she stayed in the middle of the road, sniffing from side to side, and making us decide to beat a hasty retreat. Then a delicious nude shower under a waterfall, and some serious game watching until 3 PM. Lots of flamingos on the lakes – hope my pictures come out. A very tame pair of bushbuck was encountered, as well as an occasional duiker. Lovely, lovely park. Had an afternoon drink at a restaurant/zoo, where Leslie knows the young Hungarian manager. Possible to arrange a leopard watching session from his hide some day.
Leslie and her folks had us for dinner that night, and we’ve rarely spent a more pleasant evening. They are a lovely Scottish couple who have lived and worked in Tanzania for many years, first raising and buying beef cattle, and then going to coffee, flower seeds, and beans. “Bwana John”, the husband, used to spend 24 days out of each month buying cattle from the Maasai, and having it walked back through Wild country for distances of 200 miles and more.
Nov 8, 1976. Just back from Mount Kilimanjaro. Before we left, the Scottish couple loaded us up with goodies (lots of tomato products from the garden), begged us to visit them again, gave us the news on where to stay on the coast in December, and, in general, made us feel part of their family. We certainly will see them again, probably in Mombasa - They said they’d like us to drive Leslie to Lamu with us for a holiday. They are one of 5 expatriot coffee growers in the area , when there were over 1000 in the not-so-distant past. They love the country very much, but think Nyerere doesn’t choose great administrators. They saw the country in worse shape a few years back, when the old fuckers were passing laws about tight pants; they fortunately got over that stage, but the country is an economic disaster, much worse off than Kenya. Its currency, the schilling, is valued officially at one Kenya schilling, but is available in the black market at 1.8 to the Kenya shilling. And very little consumer goods are available in shops. We’ve had great trouble finding things like sugar, eggs, even wheat, while anything beyond the staples is there by chance only. Gas is over two dollars a gallon, twice its price in Kenya. We’ve been in Kenya about 2 1/2 weeks now, and have heard at least a dozen Tanzanian complaints about “ no money”, or “ no jobs”, or some such economic hardship. Yet everyone seems to be hanging on, and we’ve not met anybody thoroughly discouraged yet. We did find a Meerschaum factory and bought a pipe, however.
But to Kilimanjaro: we drove to Moshi the afternoon of November 3, and, failing to find the guide the German tourists had told us about in Ngorongoro, signed up for the “ rough way” tour (one guide, one porter: we carry most of our own stuff: 620 shillings, plus 42 for the warm clothing rental). After a dull dinner in a not very active restaurant and a night beside the Moshi cemetery, we drove to Marangu, at the base of the mountain, picking up our guide: Mr. Hedson N Kessy, and his brother, and started walking at around noon, after a delicious bowl of meat soup (1 sh). We reached the first hut (9000 ft) that afternoon, and rested the rest of the day.
We camped out all four nights, saving 280 shillings: we still had to pay 20 shillings each for the park entry fee, and 5 sh a night for camping out. We bought just the right amount of food, and used all of it except a few oranges. Each evening, our guide would boil us water, we would cook in the porters quarters with them, and Hedson would clean up afterwards. Lots of tea is what I most remember of the food. Day two we walked about five hours, arriving at Hiram’s hut in the early afternoon, 12,300 feet up. Most of day one we spent in the forest, which we visited in the morning of day two and gasped at the lichens, the tropical trees, the flower covered trees. Horambu hut is out of the forest zone and its scrub, with giant lobelia and a stream nearby. Mawenzi Peak loons over the hut from the north east, and we spent a chili night on the hard ground. (the previous night it had rained hard for several hours.). We got to the final hut, Kibu, by noon the next day, after a long flat walk across the saddle between Kibu peak and Mawenzi peak: 15,500 ft. Kibu hut is on the flank of the peak, with only a few grasses growing, no water. We go to bed early, because we must begin climbing at 2:30 AM, for some unknown reason. Miriam, a fellow climber working as a nurse in Bukavu Zaire, on Lake Kivu, has a headache, as do several others. We are fine. The next morning, by the dazzling light of a full moon, we trudge up a steep, dusty face to Gilliman’s Peak (18,300 ft), where Nicole goes back at the insistence of our guide. She later insists she felt only a little tired. I went on to Uhuru Peak (19,341 ft), and stayed long enough to take some photos. Clouds covered all of Tanzania, while the Kenya side was clear. On the way back I hiked into the crater to walk amongst some curious ice walls. Then raced with a guide down the dirt, and the hike is essentially over.
Resting up on a lawn at the base of the mountain, we learned that, Ivory is very cheap in Dar, while malachite is cheap in Zaire. We have hot baths (5 sh each), and Nicole has a great lunch (but is not charged for it by mistake), and we chat with Miriam, Gary (from New Zealand), and others. Nicole grabs a good address in Lusaka. The “ fully equipped” American from Chicago marvels at the ivory and jewels one traveler is hoping to get into England, and takes our picture. The afternoon continues. We deposit Miriam at the YMCA (with pool!), have dinner dining with a guy from southern Botswana, who highly recommends the Okavango Swamps (except you can only go through Chobe National Park from October to April - Botswana's only rainy season - by government vehicles, which don't stop. Albrecht
thinks Chobe is better than anything he seen further north - wilder game, and more of it. Slept once more beside the cemetery. The next morning, a soldier from the nearby camp came to the fence and bargained for five cigarettes. Poor Tanzania.
Nov 13, 1976. Silver Sands, Tanzania. Bought some coffee from “Mr. Patel” on Aichinhead’s recommendation, just before leaving Moshi. He roasted six bags of his finest pure Arabian beans, and charged us only eight shillings per bag. The most expensive coffee in the world, it Is normally mixed with four times as much robusta (usually from Brazil) to the latter flavor and aroma. Mr. Patel also supplies all the national park hotels with coffee. Will send them to our respective folks as soon as we get back to Kenya.
The drive was pleasant enough, thanks to the presence of Albrecht, Gary, and (?). Had a lot of giant joints, and ate lots of fruit - pineapple, coconut, oranges, bananas, jackfruit, papaya, etc. Spent the first night at a volunteers quarters in Korogwe, where Nicole whipped up a fine ratatouille. The drive to Korogwe was beautiful, with lots of steep, green mountains, sisal plantations (Tanzania is the worlds leading producer), and even kapok trees. The drive onto Dar was less interesting - just a gently rolling road winding through little villages and greenery of all sorts. Dar Es Salaam is hot, true, but kind of nice anyway. Not much traffic, roads in utter disrepair, a feeling everywhere that the place is (economically) crumbling to pieces. But it has lots of small shops and restaurants, and the supermarkets, not as rich as in Nairobi, are still doing all right. We’ve been driving into town each day since we arrived, hoping to find Fatwan, get our money, and see a bit of the place. Right now we are down to three shillings, but maybe today is the day! in the meantime, we lay out on the beaches north of the city, cooking all manner of things, swimming, jogging, and enjoying the slothful life.
Nov 15, 1976. Silver Sands Hotel. Yes, we’re still here. Fatwan, it seems, is still in Nairobi, and, according to Makoti, is not planning to visit Dar at all! I am pissed. We will go into town today to book passage on the boat to Zanzibar, and hope to spend a week there and on Pemba before returning to Dar and - who knows? - Fatwan!
Yesterday (Sunday) was delightful – lazed all day on the beach, after a good breakfast of eggs, tomatoes, and toast, and a few brochettes for lunch. I bought about a half pound of cashews for sh 1.40, and we ate them all in a flash. We dropped acid (Nicole‘s first), and she giggled her way through the afternoon and evening. I feel so good about Nicole now, and I think she is very happy too. We talked until late (9 PM!) about where we will go next: Zambia, Botswana, Rhodesia, and Malawi; then up the coast to see the Wrights for Christmas; Lamu, Mount Kenya, Lake Victoria, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire; back to Nairobi to sell the car in March; Then off to Madagascar by boat for a year. I wonder how close we will keep to this plan…
Nov 20, 1976. Zanzibar. We are now on our second day in Zanzibar, after arriving late Thursday afternoon by boat (the captain gave us first class seats, and we ate in the dining room for six shillings. Kind of a luxurious passage. Incredible slowness in embarking and disembarking – like entering a new country. The first evening strolling around the town: narrow streets, high wall, buildings, wooden doors with carved lintels and brass studs, elaborate, wooden and metal balconies. The town seems economically, stagnant, with very few consumer goods or restaurants; a sleepy, a hot haze hangs over everything, bringing our walks to a slow, almost painful cadence. Spent the night of the 18th at the Zanzibar Hotel: Bed and breakfast, 144 shillings for both, a rare splurge. Last night we found cheaper digs by going to the police station and requesting special permission to sleep in the Victoria Hotel (50 shillings, B&B, for both), on the floor of a room occupied by an English traveler, and Mr. Delmee, A French volunteer based in Kigali. He recommends a walk with a guide from Ruhengeri, between Karisimbi and Kisoro, if we want to see gorillas. Also, Gisenyi and Kibuye, on Lake Kivu, are supposed to be great spots.
Nicole bought two “pommes d’ambres” (apples, covered with cloves) from an antique store, but that’s about all. We’ve seen plenty of new fruits in the market: good mangoes, soursop, custard apple, grapefruit, tamarind (the kids seem to just chew and suck on this reddish brown bean shaped fruit ); but no shrimp or lobster in the fish market - we have to wait for Lamu, I am afraid.
We’re very lethargic this afternoon - the day is hot and humid, with very little breeze, and we slept badly on the concrete floor last night, plagued by mosquitoes most of the night. There is really nothing to see of great interest on the island; even the old slave market has been obliterated by a church square in its center. We have a plane reservation back to Dar next Tuesday, but we hope to board tomorrow. Meanwhile, books, fruits, diary, notes, and cold showers should see us through somehow.
Nov 26, 1976. Great Ruaha River, Ruaha national park, Tanzania. Morning, light clouds, not yet hot.
Pied kingfisher (several)
Fish eagle
saddle-billed stork (a pair)
ring-necked dove
black-winged swift
crowned plover - banded in front
marsh sandpiper
Waiting out the heat of the day in the hostel at Ruaha. We’ve been battered by the heat – first I had a mild flu, now Nicole has a sore throat - we both are suffering a bit from salt loss.
We left Dar Monday afternoon, after discovering the guard of our car lifted Nicole’s sweater, some of my dope (!), a knife, and a rearview mirror. We drove past Morogoro, and spent the night off the road. The next day and night we visited Mikumi National Park - we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Saw some kudu at a distance, and a nice pride of lions at dusk. The ”hippo pool” Had some tame baboons, and some fine elephants who came down for a drink.
We were awakened at 10:30 PM by an elephant who was pushing from the front, causing it to shake quite forcefully. We shooed him away with shouts (partly of fear). Ruaha prove to be even less visited - I suspect we are the first visitors in days (weeks?). The “Great Ruaha River” (great in that it has water in November!) is loaded with hippo, crocodiles, storks, and birds of all sorts. We have seen more elephants, giraffe, and impala than anywhere else, and kudu are fairly common (we’ve seen them four times in two days). The elephants seem wilder, and we’ve been “challenged” while driving along the parks road. Also new: a giant lizard (maybe 5 feet long), a quite large crocodile, and a wildcat (on the road the morning we arrive). The impala have put on some spectacular jumping displays for us, sometimes leaping almost 10 feet into the air just for the hell of it. And as I write these notes, a band of about a dozen vervet monkeys is screwing around, looking for an opening. I just chased four of them out of the car, where they got into the rice and the spices. Still, they are remarkably clean and intelligent animals, and I like their company.
When it cools off some more, we will drive to the ferry to see some kudu, and then back to the fine town of Iringa, where Nicole almost found some kitenge material to her liking. From there we either go south to Malawi, or Northeast to Dar. Once more, our choice hinges partly on Fatwan’s mysterious ways, the fucking bastard.
Dec 8, 1976. Twiga Lodge, Kenya Coast. Some catching up! It rained when we went back to the ferry, so no kudu. However, a few kilometers out of the park, at dusk, we encountered a truly magnificent Greater Kudu on the side of the road, who gave us a good profile and head on shot of his unbelievable horns before trotting off - a pretty amazing animal.
We indeed bought more kitenge in Iringa, and then it was back to Dar. No news of Fatwan - he’s still in Nairobi, the fuckhead. Anyway, we now hope to see him back in Nairobi and just simply get our Kenya shillings back. Good luck, Sam and Nicole…
We bought a bunch in Dar: another kitenge shirt for me, a T-shirt for Nicole, some Makonde candlesticks, a Makonde comb, and an ivory bracelet. Lovely stuff, and pretty damn cheap. We also spent one more day at Silver Sands, and bought a final vast cashew supply from the adjacent village.
Had a fright on the streets of Dar when a bunch of men suddenly seemed to converge on me from nowhere, rendering me temporarily immobile, while one worked at the zipper of my backpack. I turned and screamed, and they melted away. All in broad daylight, observed by lots of people. Amazing guts…
We drove to Bagamoyo next, and camped next to some 15th century Arab ruins just south of the town. Not much left of the good old days, but the museum at the old Catholic Church had a photo showing an ivory caravan of 2500 slaves at Bagamoyo, waiting for transport to Zanzibar, to be sold there. Saw where Livingston‘s body was kept while waiting to be shipped to England, and where he lived before setting out. Also a plaque to Burton and Speke. Bagamoyo has some nice carved doors (not as nice as Zanzibar’s), not much else…
Our next step is Twiga Lodge, not too far south of Mombasa, a funky hotel that costs seven shillings to camp. Beautiful shaded area, 50 yards from a white sand beach; pools of snorkeling at low tide; volleyball; guys who come by selling, lobster, crab, prawns, shrimp, fish, fruits, cashews, baskets, shells, etc., nice fellow campers; a market, bar, and snack bar next-door. Paradise. We have been here eight days already, and will happily spend more time. Scott and Bardie showed up a few nights ago, much to our surprise and joy, and the foursome is working out remarkably well. Our days are heavenly, peaceful, our meals, delicious and varied, our moods on top of the world. Nicole unfortunately burned her right foot rather severely, and hasn’t been able to swim with us much, but she still in a great mood - we love this place! I’m jogging and doing push-ups twice daily, and feel wonderful - my weight is probably 10 pounds off when I left Cupertino. No more fat stomach! Learned from Scott that Access II and Image/2000 have both been canceled, and the group dissolved. Good old HP.
We spent a day in Shimba Hills National Park, a few miles from Twiga. Fabulous place. Beautiful rolling hills, with Green clearing interspersed amongst forest tracts, and the access road generally following the soft foothill ridges, with grand views of the coast and the Indian ocean. We saw little game, but never mind: a herd of elephant charging and trumpeting across the fields; a herd of about 15 sable antelope (we stayed with them for about two hours); a few roan antelope another 1/4 mile up the same road; an African civet (which stayed with them for about two hours); Crowned Hornbill; and silvery-checked Hornbill. A good day!
Saw Ken and Vickie for one last time.
Bardi is right now making chapati’s. Last night we had shrimp with garlic and lemon sauce. Before that, lobster, and crab with hot sauce. What a paradise, and what fun people to be with! Now off to my afternoon jog!
Dec 18, 1976. Tsavo East
little swift, striped swallow, African pied wagtail, Layard's black-headed weaver, Somali ostrich, Marabou stork, Great white egret, wooly-necked stork, European black stork, black and white cuckoo, Egyptian goose, helmeted guinea-fowl, bataleur, namaqua dove, yellow-throated sand grouse, laughing dove, lilac-breasted roller, African hoopoe, golden pippet, red-winged starling, Superb starling, white-browed sparrow weaver, tawny eagle , golden breasted starling, crowned plover, grey headed kingfisher, orange bellied parrotwhite-headed buffalo weaver, yellow-billed stork, African spoonbill, spurwing plover, sacred ibis, Abdim's stork
black-headed heron, white stork, little stint, greenshank, blackhead plover, black-winged stilt, red billed hornbill, white-backed vulture
Dec 23, 1976. Nairobi: Staying at the home of friends of friends just outside Nairobi. The car has a flat fire, and the window doesn's roll shut. Nicole is in town. With Jeff and Chan; might as well put some news down.
We came to Nairobi from Tsavo East two nights ago, and luck has been with us. Lots of mail was waiting at American Express, including a fine note and $50 from Irv, and letters from the folks, Bruce, Sarah Holt, Tracy, and even Pat Whiteley! Nicole has two packages at the post office, and, best of all, good old Fatwan is still in town! He, in fact, never left Nairobi, and spun an incredible tale why so: his younger brother, whom he hadn’t seen since he was 17, accidentally killed himself in Kinshasa driving off a building (?) while practicing kung fu, and Fatwan how to get the body shipped to, and interred in, Kenya. Anyway, he paid back the 2000 shillings he owed us, with a promise of more later (to cover the expenses), incurred by his not going to Dar, as planned). We see him again around 8 January.
It’s like a reunion here: Ed and Linda and Jeff and Chan (all friends from Twiga Lodge) are also staying at this house, as well as the two sisters who’ve been hitching and working in East Africa for a couple of years. It’s fun to be in such a lively group again, and to catch up on firsthand traveler news. It looks like we will do a clockwise loop through the north and east of Kenya with Jeff and the second week of January, for about a month - we may even add Lake Rudolph to the agenda, and finishing up at Twiga Lodge again. This time I’m not just going to look at the fish and lobster: I am going to snag a few. Tsavo East, where we passed five delightful days with Scott and Bardi, turned out to be a fine park, even though the short rains dampen things a bit each day, and the game was somewhat scattered. We saw lots of bright, red elephants and rhino, a herd of at least a dozen giraffe, 200 buffalo, 200 oryx , and even some gerenuk ; Only one glimpse of a female lesser kudu. Lots and lots of birds everywhere. Bardie got nailed by a scorpion our last night there, and was in intense pain for several hours, poor girl. They’ve been having rotten luck with their VW bus, and blew a generator bearing while driving us to the middle of nowhere: it took a full day to get that straightened out.
We did some shopping in Mombasa before heading for Tsavo: Nicole exchanged two of her purple kitenges for a blue and a light green kikoi; we got our four orange and yellow kitenges into a double sleeping sack; and we blew about $10 on every spice imaginable. We also did a feed at a Mombasa seafood restaurant with Scott and Bardie, where are we encountered Ken and Vickie: mutual embarrassment all around. (they since returned to Nairobi, where they found our letters to them, and wrote fine responses: I am still amazed at how different our perceptions were of what was going on!). One bit of bad luck: we lost our tent while driving to a fancy beach hotel to visit a cousin of Nicole’s on her honey, and it will take some time to round up a replacement, I’m afraid.
Google Sites
Report abuse