Day 4 The paradise of Lake Eyasi, Tanzania

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Sunday 6th February.

Anyone who has stayed in a camp is aware of 'early morning tea'. This is a wake-up call before dawn, for people wanting to go on a morning drive in the park. This morning we got up before we were able to get early morning tea, which could not be served earlier than 6 am. We had our alarm clocks on for 5.40am. It turned out to be only us four adults going, as Harriet's youngsters thought there were too few animals around to warrant getting up at that un-godly hour, and of my two one was ill and the other impossible to wake!
Imagine if you will getting dressed in the cold morning, needing a torch to get to the car, shivering and trying not to make any noise as all sound is exaggeratingly loud in this quietest of hours. The car engine roars and off we go, all windows shut and headlights full on. We drive to a viewpoint, a picnic place, not too far from the lodge. The car engine is at last blessedly quiet, and we get out, still shivering. It is almost totally dark, just a faint glow towards where the sun will rise. Stars are still visible and I'm looking for the Southern Cross, but can't find it. There is a rail which protects you from falling down a steep slope, and we lean against this barrier, Harriet and Jon-Erik standing some metres from us, as this needs to be experienced in solitude. Before you realize it's happening, the first birds begin to sing and the stars pale. Where you could see nothing before, there is suddenly a misty plain stretching for miles below you. The river is there, a lone elephant bull, huge with massive tusks, walking quite briskly and purposefully along an unseen track. That lovely dove begins to coo. A dikdik gets startled just to the right of us and I try to spot its mate, as they always come in pairs. Some early starlings hop behind us, hoping that we might have brought breakfast, but no such luck. The sky turns mauve pink, and now we can clearly see the plain below. The elephant has now crossed the sandy river and is making its way to the right. Far behind it a herd of giraffe are very slowly ambling towards the river. We spot something I haven't seen before. There are about 20 or so palms below and suddenly baboons drop like heavy fruit from the crowns. There must be hundreds of them and they continue to drop and gather in a big troop beneath the palms. When we look with the binoculars you can see them nesting in the trees. Within minutes the sun is gloriously up, the sky turns blue, the air turns warm and it is morning.
We drove back to camp and breakfast. The dining room has netting across the open windows, as there are a lot of very quick and thieving birds, waiting to pounce on any unattended food. They may look sweet but I do understand that they are a nuisance.
We had a lot to do today, so we unfortunately had to hurry with our packing. Scott was feeling a little better, although he still had a temperature. You may have noticed that I have very little patience with illness, whether my own or anyone else's. My children have learned not to exaggerate their symptoms (unlike their beloved father, who being a man is dying when he has a cold or an unexplained rash…) so Scott was being very brave this morning. Just before we left Anja and I went to the little shop, which is a true gem of shops, full of lovely things. We bought some sandals for Anja, and the girl serving us was so sweet, a credit to the camp!
We said goodbye to Tarangire and backtracked along the Arusha-Dodoma road to Makuyuni where we turned north onto the road that leads to Serengeti. Our goal was Karatu, where we were to meet Edwin, a driver/guide working for Barbro Finskas, who runs a safari company called JM Tours. Harriet and Jon-Erik wanted us to do our only touristy thing, which was to go to the Ngorongoro Crater and they did not want to drive themselves, but had asked their friend Barbro for one of her safari vehicles. This Ngorongoro trip was really for the benefit of our children, who of course had never seen African wildlife at close quarters and the crater pretty much guarantees good viewing. I would have loved to have gone to Serengeti, to Ndutu where we once met someone called John Pearson who was a wildlife photographer in the 70s. He was murdered later, but I remember him as a wonderful, dedicated man who showed us the most gorgeous cheetah family he was filming at the time. Unfortunately our two weeks were not long enough to do all we wanted to.
The road to Karatu was very impressive. You drive up onto the escarpment, with Lake Manyara on your left. One of my heroes, Ian Douglas-Hamilton, worked in Lake Manyara National Park for many years, and his daughter Saba is now a presenter on various TV wild life programs and she is ever so good and sweet. I was really surprised at how lush the country side was, I know it had rained but it seemed that there was more forest and trees now than when I was younger. Jon-Erik told me that they have done a huge tree planting project in the area, and I could certainly see the difference. I remember this road as being very arid before.
Karatu lies just south of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which again borders onto Serengeti. It is high country and once you climb up to the Crater edge it can be freezing cold, as I'm sure you know. Karatu itself I can't remember from before, but we headed to a small Lutheran Hostel where we were to meet Edwin. Harriet and Jon-Erik have stayed at this Hostel quite often, and it's very clean and neat with lovely grounds.
There was no sign of Edwin's car! Nowadays there is cell-phone coverage almost everywhere in Tanzania, so it only took a quick call for us to learn that the vehicle had broken down and was now at a garage in Karatu. We had to re-think our plans as there was no way the car would be repaired in time to go to the Crater. We drove to the garage and here we met the owner/manager who knew Jon-Erik well. The car had a leak somewhere, but we were assured it would be ready by tomorrow. Tonight was to be spent at yet another of Harriet's gems, a place called Kisima Ngeda by Lake Eyasi. This small tented camp needs to be forewarned for lunch and dinner, as they have to plan carefully ahead of time any meals because they are literally hours from any shops. We had told them we needed no lunch as we were planning on arriving late afternoon, so now we had to find somewhere to eat in Karatu. When we lived here in the 70s there were not many places to eat anywhere. Although adventurous in many ways, my parents never ate at any local restaurants or bars, believing that to do so would make them immediately ill. This is of course not true; many big hotel buffets are more dangerous than freshly cooked nyama choma for example. Today we went to my first Tanzanian food restaurant. There was only one thing on the menu which we all but Scott had, and it arrived within minutes. We sat on a small veranda and drank soda, as there was no beer because of the place being Muslim. The food came on metal trays with small compartments for each food; Jon-Erik and I had ugali and the others had rice. There was meat and sauce and also mchicha which is my favourite spinach of all. Ndisi for dessert.
After lunch we drove to one of my favourite places; Gibbs's Farm. Many of you will remember it, it's been there since the 30s. It was sold to James Gibb in 1948, and was turned into a lodge in 1972. Here we met a manager, who showed us their tree nursery. This was quite sad as the project that had funded the nursery had stopped for some reason and now the farm found itself with thousands of tree saplings that could not be distributed. Jon-Erik was very interested in these saplings, and hopefully he'll be able to help out.
Gibb's Farm has beautiful sloped gardens. Another of my interests is gardening, and I spent a long time wandering here. They had some huge steglitzias, with unusual flowers and some amusing impatiens with big seed heads that would pop in your hand if you touched them. We had sodas and beer in the garden overlooking the coffee plantation and the view down the valley.
We then started on our journey to Kisima Ngeda. This road is amongst the most horrific I've ever driven on, full of grooves and stones and you certainly need a 4WD. It took us about 2 hours. About half way we saw a dead hyena by the side of the road. This caused huge interest among the children, who wanted to get out and have a closer look. Harriet forbade them to do so, as she wisely knew that the smell would be horrendous and the cloud of flies would probably darken the sun. Fond as I am of hyenas, this one was hideous and only deserved to be watched from the safety of the air conditioned car.
The country changed when we got closer to Lake Eyasi. There was more sand and it seemed a lot drier. We knew we had arrived when we were suddenly surrounded by European looking dairy cattle; we had taken one wrong turning and got to the farm instead of the tented camp. This was quickly rectified and within minutes we were at the car park. Now, this Kisima Ngeda is one of earth's paradises! It is so unexpected and a true oasis in the middle of nowhere. It lies on the shore of Lake Eyasi, which in turn is a salt lake. It is bordered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and you can see the hills opposite the lake. The camp is set amongst palms, so it's quite shady in this hot place. They have a restaurant and bar area, built out of what looked like bamboo in a very open fashion, so that the wind can blow freely through it all. There are I would say 5 tents of the same type you get in Tarangire, that is with permanent roofs and toilet/shower at the back. They are set far apart from each other so you really don't get disturbed by anyone. The view is just wonderful towards the lake. The best part is that they have a fish farm, and the top pool, fed by natural springs is also a swimming pool for guests. It is shallow and there are small fish darting in and out of stones and plants. The water is crystal clear and cool. There is a small veranda type of building with lounging chairs, where you can sit between dips in the water and the staff will bring you drinks there if you so wish (which you do, as this is bliss).
At 6pm we gathered in the car park to do a small walk up on the hill above the camp to watch the sun go down over Lake Eyasi. One of the staff showed us the way and it was good stretching the legs. The hill is not very high but the view is out of this world gorgeous. We saw surprisingly a motorbike out on the lake, followed by a couple of dogs. The lake was rather dry and the earth must have been hard enough to support the bike. This turned out to be the owners, Chris and Nani Schmelling, biking with their kids. They have a house nearby and Chris told us they often do this on a Sunday. Chris inherited the farm from his parents and built the camp some years ago. He has grown up in the area of course, but did not go to ISM. We'll forgive him that, as he is a lovely person! He met Nani some 7-8 years ago, while she was travelling on her own in Africa for 5 years. She is Argentinean, and Chris said she felt very much at home here as the countryside was not too different from what she was used to in north Argentina, apart from the fact that there would be giraffe heads sticking up from the bush! She is now writing a book about her travel experiences, and I will look out for it as soon as it's published.
We had potato soup, followed by chicken in coconut for dinner. The staff at Kisima Ngeda is amongst the best I have ever seen. They are attentive, quick and very friendly. A kalimba player entertained us before dinner, he was a local guy and Paul was very interested in his instrument.
This night we went to bed soon after dinner, as we had been up so early this morning. And so ends our fourth day!

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Photos

Weaver bird nest at Kisima Ngeda
These weaver birds are amongst my favourites

Watching the sun go up
Early morning at Tarangire

Lunch in Karatu
Eating ugali with our fingers

Arriving at Kisima Ngeda
What bliss to get a drink on arrival.

The little bath house
The top pool of the fishfarm was for swimming in

Harriet in the Kisima Ngeda fish pool
Perfectly clear water at a perfect temperature

Lower fish pool at Kisima Ngeda
one of the lower, terrassed pools, full of fish

Pool view at Kisima Ngeda
One of earth's paradises

Paul watching the sun go down over Lake Eyasi
The Ngorongoro Conservation area is in the background