Tanzania

1st - 11th September

by Alex

Since leaving Malawi, we have spent most of our time in Western Tanzania, off the beaten tourist route. We decided to skip the better known eastern route through the country, which takes in Zanzibar, Dar es Salam and the Serengeti, and opted instead for something a bit different. We almost bit off more than we could chew....

The plan was to visit the extremely remote national park of Mahale Mountains, on the shores of Africa's second largest lake, Tanganyika. The object was to track wild habituated chimpanzees (ie they're happy to let people watch them), in a park covered by pristine montane forest, on the sandy shores of the lake. The guide makes it sound idyllic, and so we started planning. The main catch is access. The only way to reach the park is by $3000 charter airplane, or steam ship on the lake. Needless to say the flight was not an option, and the steamship is currently busy ferrying refugees back to the DR Congo. We enquired about driving with the park management, and were told that theoretically, it was possible. The lake side villages are served by local boat taxis, as they are 150kms west of the nearest maintained Tanzanian road, but we were told that tracks did exist winding through the mountains and streams that could eventually get us close to the national park, from a point where we could hire a boat for the last 20kms into the park (since the park has no roads).

And so began toughest drive I'm certain any of us have ever faced. It took us about 5 hours to cover the 80km stretch of reasonable track, the only obstacle of note being a fallen tree, which we towed off the road. After this start, we were optimistic, but as the terrain became more mountainous, and the path more difficult to follow, we began to realise that we wouldn't make it that night. Every local villager we asked would say another 30 minutes (this continued for some hours). We eventually realised that there is no point asking for distance or time estimates.


We enlisted the help of a guide as the light started to fade, but unfortunately his 50kg rice sack proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Although in this case the camel is the land rover, and its back a shock absorber. The loud pop as it blew a cupful of high pressure oil out of its seal sent us all into our thoughts. We had to chuck out the guide and go back to our somewhat blind attempts to make it to the Lake. Eventually we gave up and camped at the house of a what appeared to be an 18 year old with 2 wives and about 8 children. An odd experience for all involved.

On the second day, the terrain became a lot more difficult, we crossed several streams which have evidently seen no vehicle traffic for a long time. The land rover was constantly bashed by branches and scraped by thorn bush. We had to use our shovel to make one of the dry stream beds passable, even then, it took 5 people to help push the landy up - I would guess the slope was about 45 degree.



So was it worth it? Since it's Alex writing this blog, I have to say yes, because I loved the challenging driving, and it was amazing to see what a 4x4 is capable of traversing. When we finally arrived at the park, the slightly surprised park manager said that since he had worked at the park, only 5 tourists had arrived by vehicle. "That makes us numbers 6, 7 and 8 then?" asked Kathy, "No. 3, 4 and 5" came the reply. The real treat, of course, was to track the chimpanzees in the forest the next day. We spent about an hour walking to find the group of habituated chimps - the trackers go out early in the morning to locate them. Once we found them, we weren't sure what to expect, perhaps watching from a distance, a photo here or there, but what happened was a surprise to all of use. For about an hour, a group of between 5 and 15 chimps played around, even showing off at times! It was amazing to be right in the middle of these animals as they fought, swung in the trees, groomed and ate. As we were about to move off, our hour complete, one of the chimps found a machete that a tracker had absent mindedly dropped. The chimp kissed the cold blade and shouted to his family to come and see the strange object. It was amazing to watch - I thought back to the opening scene of Space 2001, when the apes create fire and find the first monolith. The chimps all gathered around and cautiously touched the knife and recoiled back in shock.

After we left the park, we decided to split into two groups - Nico and I would get the Land Rover back across the 150kms of track and then onto the city of Kigoma, about 300kms north on the lake. Kathy would take the local boat taxi straight to Kigoma, saving 2 days (we thought) to try and source a new shock absorber and find a mechanic. It was an extremely hair brained scheme, hatched whilst on a (fruitless) chimp trek on our final morning in the park. Within 2 hours of planning it, before any of us really registered what was happening, Kathy was being transferred mid lake from our tiny speedboat into the lake taxi! We waved goodbye, and I wandered how her journey would be. As it turned out, her boat would take 24 hours to reach Kigoma. That's 24 hours on a tiny 40ft wooden boat completely overloaded with rice, maize and 300 people. No toilet, no food and a litre of water. Kathy, I'm not sure how you did it, but my hat is still off.


The rest of the trip through Tanzania was enjoyable, but hard work. Nico and Kathy got to chat away in Swahili once again after 4 years away from Tanzania, and met up with an old friend from times gone by (below at our 5am start...), and I was introduced to the joy of the "egg chop", a kind of reverse scotch egg. We have decided to take things a bit easier in Rwanda....