Cultural Tour

When most people think of going on vacation in Africa, they think of going on Safari. There is, however, a large cultural tourism industry - at least in Tanzania. Often these programs will show you what village life is like and try to show you a bit more of Africa than just the tourist hot spots. I decided to take one - mostly because I wanted to see the Kolo-Kondoa Rock Paintings - and below, I'll explain all about what I did:

I started my tour by taking a bus from Arusha, Tanzania down to the village of Kolo. What should have been a 6 hour drive on a mostly dirt road, turned into more than 10 hours because the bus broke down. Eventually my guide and I made it to Kolo where we had to postpone our hike to the ancient rock sites until the morning (it was too dark). When we did go to the rock paintings (which were pretty neat when we finally got there, though not as impressive as I had thought they might be) my guide got lost about four or five times. His English was not to great so it was hard for him to communicate to me what the problem was (though he kept saying "The problem is...").

Because we got lost, we missed our bus connection to the next town (Kelema). Though it sounds sketchy, the guide managed to get us a ride on a truck. It was actually a nice experience.

We got in fairly late (and were delayed due to security issues having to be sorted out for where I was staying (there was no lock or door where I was to be sleeping, even though I was promised both). We weren't able to do much that night, so we had dinner and went to bed. I got to stay in a house with no electricity or running water, but it was survivable.

The next day we went for a walk to a water project. Basically it was a hole in the ground, but in the future it would be fitted with a building and a pump for the community. Unfortunately, my guide didn't know much about it and couldn't really answer my questions (and even if he did know about it, his llack of English might have prevented him from answering). We also visited some teachers and walked around a lot that day.

Afterwards we caught a bus to another town (Kondoa) where I was put up in a hotel and given "time to rest" for the whole afternoon.

The next day I took a tour of the town which included seeing a natural spring, visiting an orphanage (where the children were extremely well cared for), and touring a market. The next morning I took a six hour busride back to Arusha.

As you may tell from my writing, I was not completely pleased with this tour, and will dedicate a whole post to that (mostly as a warning for anyone wanting to do a cultural tour). However, I want this one to be about what I did (since when I actually did things it was somewhat interesting.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the tour: 1) The bus was stopped like this for hours while we waited for a bolt to be driven from the nearest town, 2) A "river" near Kolo - it has been very dry recently, 3 and 4) some of the rock paintings near Kolo, 5) A family near the water project. As I arrived, they were all working the soil (I don't know the exact word). Even the older man and women were doing this physical labour. 6) What I was told was a Christmas Tree. Um... 7) These trees were grown by a women's cooperative in Kondoa and sold to peoplel. There were a large number of trees, including many fruit trees. 8) The very friendly and cheerful children at the orphanage.

Ngorongoro Crater

Despite the name, Ngorongoro is not actually a crater, but a collapsed mountain or caldera. It is approximately 17km by 21km and about 600m deep. There is a very high concentration of wildlife inside the crater and the scenery is in general incredible. We saw a lot of animals here (though I didn't get video or pictures of the coolest thing we saw - hyenas making a kill) and I took some decent pictures.

Anyway, here they are: 1) Entering the crater early in the morning, 2) Zebras, 3) Flamingoes, 4) More birds, 5) Zebras close-up, 6) It could be my desktop picture, 7) The elephant that came by when we got out of the truck (notice how we are back in the truck). It came pretty fast. 8) A second elephant that walked past us. Notice the scared workers behind it. Those two animals were HUGE. 9) Crested Cranes, 10) A view of the crater on our way out, 11) A buffalo we saw as we were leaving, 12) Our cook Juma (left) and guide/driver (Bariki). These two guys were incredible and did an outstanding job.

Oldupai Gorge

Located between Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Oldupai Gorge is a fairly famous archaeological site which has given a lot of information as to our origins. During my safari we made a stop here at the museum and we learned a bit about the Leakeys (Mary and Louis) who spent decades there, uncovering many fossils that are millions of years old and may be from our ancestors.

Most people call it Olduvai Gorge, but we were told by the guides at the museum that it is actually spelled with a "p" and not a "v" and that we should clear this up when we got back home. Not surprisingly, we also learned that many of the names given to places (and animals) in East Africa have errors in them due to mispronunciations by early Europeans.

Here are some pictures of the gorge:

Serengeti National Park

After a long delay, I am finally back and will be able to post a lot in the coming week or so. It will take some time as I have to sort through a lot of pictures and do many other things upon my return to Canada. However, here is the next set of pictures.

The Serengeti is probably the most famous of any of the national parks in Africa. After having spent two days there, I can understand why. It consists of several different areas including wide open plains, rivers, and forests. The biggest draw is the wildebeest, of which there are apparently over 2 million in the park.

Some descriptions to go with the pictures: 1) Ostriches, 2) A view of the plains, 3) Lizard, 4) Hyena, 5) Wildebeest crossing the road, 6) Cheetah, 7) Thomson's Gazelles, 8 and 9) A huge herd of wildebeest and some zebras, 10) Vultures, 11) Rainclouds in the distance, 12) I can't remember the name, maybe it is a Bushbuck, 13) Elephants, 14) The sunrise on the second day, 15) Lions eating their kill, 16) Vultures and a Maribou Stork scavenging, 17) A big puddle on the road, 18) A few of the seventeen jeeps crowded around a leopard (it never got close enough for me to get a pictures, but I did get some video which may be coming in a few weeks when I get the time to edit it), 19) Isn't the Serengeti gorgeous? 20) A bird (very common there, but I don't know the name), 21) Basketweaver Birds (I think) and their nests, 22) Lions sleeping, 23) Giraffe.

Lake Manyara National Park

The first stop on my safari was Lake Manyara National Park. Here are some pictures I took. Please note that I don't have a great camera and thus some of the animals are small. This park was by far the hardest to see animals in, so expect better pictures and more wildlife when I can get to posting pictures from the rest of my trip.

1) The Hippo Pool. 2) Giraffe. 3) Warthog. 4) Elephants. 5) Zebras. 6) Dik-diks. 7) Some birds (our guide told us the name, and it was at this point that I said I wouldn't remember all the animal names - looks like I was right in this case). 8) The view of the park from our campsite which was on the top of the Rift Vallety Escarpment (which is much more impressive than the Hamilton "mountain"). 9) Baboons with a baby (there were thousands of baboons in this park). 10) A vervey monkey (look closely, yes, they are baby blue).