Dec 2006/Jan 2007: Msambweni, Kenya and Northern Tanzania

Usambara Mts, Tanzania

In December, we rented a house at the beach with our friends the Carmichaels. The house was located in Msambweni, a small town along the Southern coast of Kenya. Russ and Pam had some car trouble on the way down, making it a very long drive. Eventually we all made it though. After that, it was time to relax. The hardest decisions were whether to swim in the pool or the beach, and what to ask the chef to make for dinner. Friends Ron and Tanya rented a place two houses over, so there was a constant stream of kids back and forth between the houses. We spent Christmast day with Ron and Tanya and had a huge feast.

After a week at the beach, we left Msambweni and continued South along the coastal route into Tanzania, crossing the border at Lungalunga. We werent sure how the roads would be, following our extremely wet November. We had been told a number of the bridges had washed out, and could not find a reliable mechanism to receive updated info until we were actually arrived in Msambweni. Luckily, the roads were into TZ were OK and several temporary bridges had been installed.

The coastal road took us down to Tanga, TZ, then we proceeded inland to the town of Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains. The Usambara mountains are very picturesque. They are very green, with lots of waterfalls and forests. It has been described as the Alps in Tanzania and I can see why. We went hiking to a waterfall in the Mkusu forest and then drove out to the Irente viewpoint, where we could lookout across the surrounding lands. We were about 3000 feet above the valley floor and had a 180 degree view. One of those things that's hard to get a decent photo of.

From Lushoto, we drove to Moshi and spent the night. It was a pretty drive, but mostly uneventful, except for the rain, which is odd this time of year. Our hotel in Moshi was a bit of a disapointment.

We went to Arusha NP the next morning. Had a nice drive around the small crater there and the lakes. Mt Meru and Kilimanjaro were hard to see because of the clouds, and it rained a bit. In the afternoon, we went into Arusha town to pay for one of our accomodations. The office was hard to find, but we eventually got there, only to find it was closed. We had forgotten it was Sunday. So, we headed South to Lake Manyara and hoped for the best. That night, we stayed in the Lake Manyara tented camp, which we really liked. Ruma and the girls stayed up until midnight to see the new year in. I was too bushed.

On the first, we went to lake Manyara NP. Really enjoyed it. We saw a lot of animals and birds. The elephants here are very used to people, so you could get very close to them. Tried over and over to get a decent picture of a hornbill, but just couldnt manage. Those birds were out to get us. Also had our first run in with Tse Tse flies. These things are really nasty. They bite hard, are hard to kill, and they follow your car. So when you stop for a photo, there they are! At the South side of the park, we ran into some serious mud. We got through it OK. The girls wanted more but Ruma and I were happy to get back to the populated parts of the park again. By the way, the town near our campsite was called Mto wa Mbu which translates to “river of mosquitos”. It is well named.

The next day, we took off from touring. We had been going a bit hard for a few days and it was raining, and I wanted to be sure there wouldnt be any issues with our next lodging, since we couldnt pay in Arusha. Wasnt any trouble. Was nice to have a day to relax. One thing we did find though was some black cotton soil outside our lodging in Karatu. It is almost impossible to drive on. We seriously thought about renting a different car (and driver) for Ngorongoro crater. But, we decided to use ours. If we get stuck when we go up to the crater, there should be other people around to help.

Went to Ngorongoro Crater the next morning. The roads werent that bad so I was much relieved. No sign of the black cotton soil. The Crater itself is spectacular. It's about 10 miles across and about 1800 feet deep. The sides are quite steep and the whole crater is very green. There is a small lake in the middle. We saw all the usual suspects, except for Giraffe. There are no giraffe in the crater. Most of the animals were on the North side of the crater because it's a bit higher. The South side was a bit boggy because of all the rain. We had a couple of exciting moments on the South side in the mud, but we were able to power through it.

While the crater was awesome, it was a bit anti-climatic. We had heard so much about the crater that it's hard to live up to the expectation; kinda like when you see the Taj Mahal. Still, we enjoyed it quite a bit. One thing that was really nice is that we didnt find it overly crowded. Maybe we are just used to the Mara.

The next day we went to Ol Duvai Gorge. It's located a bit to the West, between the crater and the Serengeti. We saw lots of animals on our way to and from the gorge. At the gorge, we self-toured the museum there and then went on a guided hike through the gorge. The hike was really something; our guide was pointing out fossils everywhere! I had no idea there were still so many. With each season/rain, more are exposed so they continually check the landscape to see what's exposed.

In our planning, we tried to go through the Serengeti, but couldnt get the lodging we wanted so we decided not to go there. Good thing too! Turns out, with all the rain we had, parts of the Serengeti and the Mara were impassable (including the lodges we wanted). So we were happy not to be headed further West.

The next day, we travelled back into the rift and around Lake Manyara to Tarangire NP. This is a very large park. It was also affected by the rains. The main roads werent too bad, but the river was overflowing and had washed out the road in several places and the bridges. We saw a ton of elephants. One thing noteworthy is that we didnt see any Gnu or Zebra in the park (we saw them outside). Apparantly it's not the right season for them. The TseTse flies were awful. We spent the night at a lodge in the park, which had a pool and a waterslide.

The next day was our last day of Safari. We got up early to go for a dawn game drive before we checked out. We drove for a bit to get away from the beaten track and then it happened; stuck in the mud. And we didnt have a shovel. Or a working cell phone. Ugh! At least we had water. We pushed and pulled, but that didnt get us far, so we gathered wood (which was very nerve wracking – we were in a game park after all). Ruma drove and I pushed. I a few hours, we managed to move the car back a bit, but we still had a long ways to go when another car finally found us. Hooray! I had a rope, and he pulled us out a bit more, but then it snapped. So, he went to get help and a bigger rope. Eventually, we were pulled out and got back to the lodge to clean up and get some lunch. After that we packed the car and headed back to Nairobi. I learned a few things from this one. 1) buy a permanent shovel for the car so that I dont forget it again, and 2) always carry wood.

View all photos from this safari

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