Africa – Tanzania

We arrived in Dar es Salaam not quite certain what to expect during our two weeks in Tanzania.  Not terribly excited about spending two days in the city, we booked a couple of nights at a resort in Amani Beach, 35 miles and a short ferry outside of the city.  As with many of the places we have traveled these past months, 35 miles can be quite a travel burden with no direct roads and lots of traffic.  It took us nearly three hours and a few locals pushing our car out of a muddy ditch to complete our journey.  Although it took more effort than we anticipated, arriving at Amani Beach was incredible – a beautiful resort in a remote location on a world class beach.  The best part was, with the exception of the crabs, we had it nearly all to ourselves.

Our beach days there were second in enjoyment only to our time in G-Land and a full day was spent exploring the grounds, shelling and swimming in the ocean.  Tanzania was off to a very good start and the excitement was building for our Kilimanjaro trek and safari…

We arrived at Kilimanjaro airport on a cool morning from Dar Es Salaam.  Our guide, Joseph, from Summit Expeditions and Nomadic Explorers (SENE) loaded us up in a safari customized Land Cruiser and welcomed us to the beginning of the seven day adventure of our lives.   The drive west past a few small African towns and onto the dirt roads of Mhabe Farm was filled with views of lush tropical farmland.  It was a good omen of things to come when Campbell spotted her favorite bird of all time, a Lilac Breasted Roller, within the first hour after arriving.

The beautiful Mhabe Farm sits at 6,000 feet in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, nestled within the lush tropical forest that envelops the mountain.  The farm is a perfect location to access the popular mountain trail head of the Marangu.

Soon after arriving we were warmly welcomed by Simon Mtuy, the founder of SENE and the steward for his family’s farm.  He came with an entourage of family and warm friends.   Immediately upon meeting Simon we were star struck by his worldly persona.  Simon has attained legendary status in Tanzania by all his accomplishments as a world class endurance runner and climber.  Besides many top finishes in ultra-marathons around the world, Simon holds the world record in the fastest, unsupported, ascent and decent of Kilimanjaro.   Over the next couple days we had an amazing time at Mhabe Farm getting to know Simon and his crew chatting for hours over tea, coffee, beer and many bottles of wine accompanied by an unending succession of incredible meals prepared from scratch with ingredients sourced from the farm’s gardens.  We encourage you to read more about Simon here (http://www.nomadicexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Simon-bio-long.pdf)

Simon’s right hand man, Wilson, was also an amazing person.  At over 70 years old, he has reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro over a 1000 times.  His warm, gentle disposition and knowledge of the area was invaluable.

The weather at the Mhabe Farm was not ideal (rain and low lying fog most days) but the great company, rich culture and local fauna made up for it in spades.  On the morning of our trek, we set off early for a 20 km hike up to the Mandara Hut and the Maundi Crater, which is the first camp on the way up Kilimanjaro.   Our guides were Simon’s brother Felix and neighbor Mumbasa.   Mumbasa not only carried our lunches on the trail, he packed in a full size set of wooden salt and pepper mills that must have weighed a good kilogram – but made our hard boiled eggs taste so much better!

We were the first group to reach the hut where we had lunch in the presence of two giant ravens.   After lunch we continued onto the Maundi crater. The flora had changed from rain forest to mountain foliage.  At the crater the weather was still foggy with limited visibility, but we enjoyed many local scenes like the water soaked Protea flower which is the national flower of Tanaznia.   We circled the crater and then descended back to the hut and the Mhabe Fram.   To everyone’s great surprise the whole trip turned out to be 35.1 km (miles) which was a big Lund family hiking mile stone.

Our last morning at the farm were mixed feelings of sadness and nervousness that we were departing this sanctuary too soon coupled with tremendous anticipation for our safari experience that was about to begin. There were heartfelt goodbyes from the staff at Mhabe Farms.

As we left the farm, we couldn’t have been more excited to see Joseph awaiting us outside his custom SENE safari rig.  Luckily, it was only a few hours drive to Arusha National Park for the first of three game drives through Tanzania’s amazing network of National Parks.

It is somewhat difficult to put into words the truly awesome experience of being able to observe so many majestic animals in their native environment.   So therefore we’ll defer the textual descriptions and use pictures to convey the magic of our time.

 

One of the most memorable moments of our safari came at the end of day two, when we had many of The Big 9

animal sightings under our belt, yet we still had not seen any elephants so the anticipation to see one was building.  Before the safari we had spent months reminding everyone about the importance of being calm and quiet when in proximity of the animals.   All those lessons were briefly forgotten when, at the end of the day, Campbell spotted several elephants in the dense bush surrounding Lake Manyara and announced her find with loud excitement shouting “ELEPHANT!”   Fortunately, the herd was not startled by Campbell’s cry of joy.   Joseph deftly reversed the car and we were able to spend about 10 minutes in fading evening sunlight while watching the elephants before they ambled off.

Another great safari moment happened on the following day in the Ngorongoro Crater.  Our day in the crater was truly a once in a lifetime experience (no exaggeration this time).  As we approached, in the early morning, our first glimpse from the crater’s edge was unbelievable, akin to our first glimpses into the Grand Canyon or the Yosemite Valley (or Mt. Baker on a sunny powder day).   As we slowly descended into the park, the amazing views and thousands of animals (seen only as small dots) turned into lush, green grassland filled with large and majestic African wildlife (elephants, zebras, buffalo, wildebeest, lions, hyenas, birds, hippos, … ).  We were hoping to spot some rare and endangered animals living within the shear masses in this protected area.

Although there are over 25,000 animals roaming the Ngorongoro Crater, the park contains just 12 black rhinos, a tiny population that can often manage to stay hidden for up to a week at a time.   Thanks to the keen spotting eyes of Campbell, Kim, and Joseph we were lucky enough to see four rhinos during our game drive including a mother and baby pair.

Just before lunch, Gil had his first big spot.   A large male lion was sleeping soundly in some tall grasses only a few meters off the road.   As we waited patiently, a large face stared up from within the grass.  We spent probably 10 minutes intimately checking each other out before he finally got up and moved to another spot, hidden from view.  We were entirely alone with no other safari vehicles in sight.  It was just us and this magnificent animal.

The next morning we were off to Zanzibar to process our time on Safari and the wonderful planet we call home.