Chronicling our adventures in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (1-3 weeks in each).
Highlights: Living out with the Maasai tribe, the great Wildebeest migration in Serengeti, Gorilla trekking with nearly extinct mountain gorillas, A little hunting trip with the Hadzabe bushmen, hiking (partly) Kilimanjaro, standing atop the highest pressure waterfall in the world, gorgeous beaches at Zanzibar, and SO MANY ANIMALS! Kenya: The capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, is probably where you will land. It’s chaotic and petty crimes are somewhat frequent. As a capital city, it is pretty standard, and hence missable. However, a day here is well spent at the David Sheldrick elephant sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants, a visit to the Giraffe sanctuary where you can feed Rothschild giraffes, and the very well stocked Nairobi Museum which has some pretty unique pieces, including the oldest known pre-human skeleton! Maasai Mara: The next day we made an early start with a car and an open top 4x4 jeep to Maasai mara, land of the Maasai tribe. On the way, we stopped to look at the grand rift valley, 7000km of trenches, whose tectonic plates continue to move and change the landscape around. The Maasai have a fascinating culture. The men leave home in their early teens to serve as Maasai warriors. During their warrier training, the group of boys travels on their feet for several years, mapping the surrounding lands, living off the land, fighting off animals, and sleeping in caves or on the plains. The Maasai believe that they are the ‘land people’ and that their god has gifted to them every cow that exists in the world. To this day, a Maasai will claim any cow in the world as theirs, wrongfully taken from them by greedy farmers. In order to assert their born right, as you might imagine, they need a lot of warriors! The Maasai people do not care for money, their wealth is measured in cows. When the Maasai boy is ready to become a true warrior, he must pass the ‘final exam’: the graduating group of boys must look a lion in the eye, and then kill it. If they succeed, they are declared men, and may return home to marry one (or more) women. The Maasai men gift their cows to the father of the bride, in the hopes of getting permission to marry their daughter. Sadly, he culture is largely sexist, as global society would view it, and the Maasai still practice female genital mutilation, a practice that is banned in several parts of Africa, but prevalent in the Maasai culture. We spent the next three days in Maasai mara in a Maasai women’s collective, started by a divorced woman to support women’s rights in the community. The days were spent doing game drives and checking out animals, and the evenings were spent walking the savannah, milking cows, singing, dancing and telling stories with the Maasai. Their culture is exquisite, their jewelry is stunning, and their ability to jump is world renowned. They are absolutely wonderful people, and I highly recommend their modest, but very comfortable homestay with many western amenities, that made for a perfect balance of adventure and comfort, while supporting a community that is trying to better for their daughters. Games drives in Maasai Mara were amazing, especially because jeeps were allowed to off road here. The network of guides were connected by radio, and so we managed to see all the big 5 multiple times. The highlight was watching a solitary cheetah catch a small deer. Cheetahs are sprinters, but not long-distance runners, and the cheetah typically will need to rest for around thirty minutes even before it starts to eat. We watched the cheetah (from 10 feet away!) guarding it’s prey, even as hyenas began to appear in the distance. Cheetahs are usually solitary, but Maasai Mara, uniquely has a group of five brothers that live and hunt together – the power of team work. I was mesmerized by this beautiful animal, which apparently is one of the friendlier ones, much like a house cat. Which brings me to the other highlight, a not so friendly cat, and apparently a rare one in the Mara – the leopard. After hearing about a potential leopard sighting on the guide’s radio, we zig-zagged through the Mara to make it to this tree along with five other jeeps. Lo and behold, the leopard was perched pretty on the tree, enjoying the freshly caught boar that he’d just dragged up the tree...just hanging out, passing us a wicked smile. Apparently you do not want to mess with the leopard, especially this one. The guides recognized it as the one with a scar across it’s face from a recent fight of dominance (I think). To the guide’s credit, all the cars were very respectful of the animals space. We saw plenty more animals – elephants that you could reach out and touch, giraffe’s giving you a lazy stink eye, the secretary bird mating dance, the cute serval cat, matriarchal hyenas scavenging prey (after the cheetah abandoned it) in order of their hierarchy with vultures not too far away. Lots of good stuff here and in the days to come! Lake Nakuru Next up after Maasai Mara, is the small park called Nakuru, known for it’s soda lakes that house flamingos and rhinos. Because of changing tectonic plates in the grand rift valley, water levels have apparently been increasing very rapidly in these areas. The changing water levels changes animal behavior as well, and we had a hard time spotting the elusive white rhinos, but did see a couple of black rhinos with their babies. We also saw a lot of cute flamingos! Hells gate and Lake Naivasha national parks The next day started with a visit to Hells gate national park, named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once the tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the great rift valley. The coolest part about Hell’s gate is that we could walk (actually cycle) out in the open since it doesn’t contain any life-endangering animals! As we rode our bikes past a herd of water buffaloes (the most dangerous things out there), all 100 of them simultaneously lifted their heads to give us the death stare...after that close encounter with death, we rode to the gorge at the end which has a mediocre viewpoint and through which you can hike, but isn’t really worth a visit in my opinion. Then, we headed to lake Naivasha, is a soda lake, where we did a boat tour, which was very cool, mainly seeing hippos, gazelles, and several types of birds. The water levels here too have risen by several metres because of increasing water levels of the great rift valley. We spent another day befriending Kenyans and hanging out in local spots before making our way to the southern land border into Tanzania. Here, there’s the Amboseli national park close to the border of Tanzania known for its many elephants and Kilimanjaro backdrop. However, we were going to visit a similar park in Tanzania, so decided to save this one for another time. We crossed over into Tanzania and spent the night in Arusha, a convenient stopover town for Kilimanjaro and Serengeti. Tanzania Serengeti The most famous savannah in the world: the fabulous Serengeti! Its plains are expansive, the landscapes are picturesque, and the days are adventurous. Maasai Mara and Serengeti border each other separating only by the Maasai river. Every year, about six million Wildebeest make their way from one to the other, crossing the river, facing their most aggressive predators, hippos, lions, crocs. They are joined by zebras and gazelles, and thousands fall during the journey, especially at the river crossing. They birth babies in Serengeti and then make their way to Maasai Mara in search of greener pastures, literally. This grand wildebeest migration is the topic of many documentaries and definitely a sight to behold. No matter what time of year you go in, you will see plenty of Wildebeest in these parks to last you a lifetime. The Serengeti has some wonderful fancy stays inside the park, and we decided to splurge for a couple of days! Living in the middle of the savannah is exciting! We slept to the sounds of the hunting cats, and woke to the banter of the elephants... you never know when you might stumble upon a friendly giraffe. The Serengeti is much bigger than Maasai Mara, so I’d recommend maximizing game drive time, however drives here can only be done on pre-set roads, unlike Maasai Mara where offroading was allowed (which was way cooler). On the way back from Serengeti, we spent the day in the Ngorongoto crater, which is a wonderful little green enclave full of lush scenery, and SO many animals. You’ll see many many animals here, some with babies, some just hanging out. We had way better luck with rhinos here than we did in Nakuru. Honestly, Ngorongoro was my favourite gamedrive. Hadzabe bushmen After Ngorongoro, we made a short detour to visit the Hadzabe bushmen, which was an absolute highlight! These bushmen live in the bush, literally. They sleep in caves, hunt birds and animals for food, and cook them on a self-made fire. They live in wonderful communities that were completely isolated from the world until very recently, don’t speak a word of English, and have no clue what ‘tourists’ mean, truly. As skeptical as I was, it felt like very non-tourist-trap hang out with some cool bros that offered us bushmeat. While I was initially apprehensive of the experience being exploitative on them (which is definitely a concern with growing tourism), I soon came to realize that these bushmen had little value for money, and simply saw you as a visitor on their land, a friend. They didn’t sing or dance for us, simply went about their daily lives while we joined. I think they were quite confused to see us there, to be honest. We went hunting with them (and I’ll tell ya, this girl struggled to keep up with these men that were at most 5 feet tall – and I was running while they were ‘brisk walking’), where they caught 3 birds with a hand-crafted bow and arrow. Then they super casually made a freaking fire in the middle of the savannah and cooked and ate the birds. They seemed to feel pretty sorry for us as I showed no signs of being a capable hunter, and offered me some bird, which I politely declined. I was met with shock and confusion when I told mainstream Africans in the cities about being vegetarian, so I wasn’t going to try to explain this to the Hadzabe. This was an absolute highlight I only recommend this for the intrepid traveler – I don’t think they have particularly feminist values. Their cultures are different, so for your safety I would not recommend getting very friendly with them, especially if you are female. Manyara and Tarangire national parks: Next up is Manyara national park, known for tree climbing lions. If you’re very interested in seeing lions in trees, this is worth a stop, otherwise, the animals were far fewer than some of the other parks. However, the next park, Tarangire was worth the full day and more. It’s known for its elephants, that roam in large groups. Here we saw large groups of upto 40 elephants, walking right past our jeep, making eye contact knowingly, watching us as we watched them, and occasionally sniffing the sides of the jeep. Babies running behind their mums and rolling in mud, and then mamas helping them get cleaned off. Elephants are incredibly intelligent animals, and I could recognize a depth of emotion while looking into their eyes – life connecting with life, animal connecting with animal, over our joint experience of what it means to be alive. Arusha: After the past few days of animal watching, Arusha is a good center point to relax for a day or two. There’s a wonderful hike to a waterfall here, fairly off the beaten path, and you’re likely to meet only locals. There’s also a coffee tour enroute this hike, where you can make and drink that famous Tanzanian coffee. Once we recovered, we got ready for our day hike in Kilimanjaro. If you’re a hiker, and have more days I highly recommend the 4 day hike to the summit, as everyday takes you through a different landscape and different vegetation. However, we only had time for a day hike, and got rained on most of the way through the first rainforest section (which is apparently very common). Post-hike, back to Arusha to relax and maybe do some shopping before flying to Zanzibar! Zanzibar (beaches and more beaches): The beautiful emerald waters make Zanzibar is an island for relaxing, swimming and chilling. You could spend anything from 3-4 days to 7-10 days here. We spent a week, most of which I spent pretending to live Freddie Mercury’s life (yes, he lived here!). While the focus is on tourist seaside resorts, and the luxury relaxation experience, there’s a lot of activities to be done if you are interested. Here’s the ones, we did: The spice farm tour was cooler than it sounds. We went to a farm where they grew over 50 different types of spices, and smelled and tasted everything. Jozani rainforest with red and black colobus monkeys and several layers of rainforest trees. Prison island with big Seychelles tortoises (second largest only to the Galapagos toroises) followed by a snorkel around the market. Zanzibar was the center of the eastern slave trade. Visiting the slave market and the museum was educational. It is also the birthplace of Freddie Mercury, although his house is now a museum. Fumba island for water activities and snorkelling Stone town has an interesting vibe with narrow winding alleyways, and white houses, ideal for shopping. Sailing the Nglawa, which is a tiny sailboat about 2 feet across. S Seaweed farm, and tour a soap making factory, but these are probably missable. The Rock restaurant built above the water level at high tide, which is world famous, but frankly way overpriced. Enjoy Zanzibar at your pace, and then catch a flight to Kampala, Uganda. Uganda: Kampala Uganda's capital city - Kampala - is actually a pretty cool city. It has many chill cafes and homebrews, so we spent a month just hanging out in the city and catching up on work. It’s a very liveable city, I will admit. The comforts of being able to hire someone to cook for us was convenient, and felt a little bit like India. Source of the Nile and Murchison falls: We made a day trip out from Kampala to Jinja (the birthplace of the Nile). To be honest, it looked like any other part of the Nile... or any other part of any other water body. This is apparently THE place to do white water rafting though, but of course, we (Jacob) scared ourselves into not doing it. Murchison falls. Very cool, apparently the highest velocity waterfall in the world. There are two ways to view the falls- standing on top, or a boat tour to the base, and they are both AMAZING! On the boat tour we saw massive crocs, and some other animals. On the top, you can walk up (with caution please) to the edge of the waterfall, often shrouded in mist and rainbows. It was somewhere close to here that we did some Chimp tracking. Tracking these beautiful creatures, which are so much like you and I, and then laying down beside them while the two of you attempt to communicate in a universal language, is beautiful in a way words cannot describe. The alpha 'king' scratched his armpit while I scratched mine, and then we both just kind of hung out. Bwindi national park: Next stop is the stunning (no, really) Bwindi national park through some volcanic lakes and Queen Elizabeth National Park. You do catch peeks of wildlife while driving past. For a more elaborate game drive, I recommend spending a day or two here, but be warned this is probably not as good as the ones in Kenya and Tanzania. This drive goes right by the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (which is apparently a war zone - 2021) and kidnappings of tourists by DRC militants crossing over is not uncommon. The majority of trips go without a hitch though, but always best to keep an eye out. We got within 100m of the border and then promptly turned around and high tailed out of there. Batwa tribe: Bwindi national park was another highlight of this trip. The drive to, through, and from were all stunning, and we made several photo stops. I highly recommend the guesthouse, perched on the absolute top of a hill, with a view all around. For $100 a room, it was perhaps the best stay of my life. The host is a wonderful woman that was born in the village, went into the city to get educated, and is now back supporting the local community through her guesthouse business. Here we also visited the Batwa community, a tribal community that lived in the Bwindi forests, completely off the land, until they were kicked out by the government for conservation of the gorillas. They now live on the fringes, in the worst of both worlds. We asked the elders whether they prefer living in the jungle, or in the government provided homes. With a little nostalgic twinkle in their eye, they talked about the jungle, the land they belong in, the land they long to go back to. We danced all evening, and they taught me some cool moves, and then we left after donating a bunch of clothes to them. Our host told us with a laugh, that they cherish those clothes forever, and never wash them. Gorilla tracking: Bwindi is also where you can do the famous gorilla trekking! In the past decade, the mountain gorilla population dropped to around 2000. It is now on a steady upward trend thanks to intense conservation by the governments of Uganda and Rwanda, which are the only two places you can find mountain gorillas. The gorilla trekking permit costs $600 per person ($400 when we went during discounted low season), but most of this goes towards protecting the gorillas that have 24x7 armed guards to protect them against poachers. The gorilla hike itself was extremely cool, we were literally hacking through rainforest bush and sometimes sliding on our butts down super steep forest terrain looking for the gorillas. Once we spotted them, we had about an hour to hang out with them. We hung out with a group of about 20 gorillas, with some cute babies that kept trying to approach the humans, and the silverback (dad) gorilla kept pushing the babies behind him. One of the babies was entertaining himself by hanging off a branch on one arm and spinning back and forth – reminds me on my childhood hobbies. Almost to Rwanda If you want to make your way by road to Rwanda, this is where you can do so. There’s apparently cool volcanoes just over the border that make for some intense hiking and backpacking for the experienced climber. We were unable to cross, as land borders were closed at this time. Crater Lake Bunyoni: After saying goodbye to an amazing experience, we went to lake Bunyoni, which is also a crater lake, dotted with several very small islands, many housing a guesthouse each. We stayed on one such island in a hostel, who sent a little boat to pick us up and ferry us across. The owner told us stories of the ghosts of Bunyoni, and then sent us off to sleep in a remote cabin perched on the edge of the water. Not scary at all. We woke up the next morning happy to be there and happy to be leaving. I spent all morning just sitting at the entrance to my cabin with my feet hanging into the water, looking across the water. After a canoe ride back, followed by a car ride to Kampala, we were ready to call it a day, a week, a few months. We flew out a few days after, onward to the next adventure, but never forgetting all the wonders of East Africa!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Sanjukta Krishnagopal
This is where I put random musings created on cold rainy nights whilst typing away furiously on my laptop. I have been published in the 'creative writing' category' at the Unknown Pen, Youth Ki Awaaz, Terribly Tiny Tales, and Berlin Unspoken. I was also Chief Writer of the Department of Journalism and Media at BITS Goa. I also treat this space as a personal travel blog with practical information. If you are interested in talking about writing, I'd love to hear from you! Archives
September 2022
Categories |