A nostalgic safari in northern Tanzania

Fifty-one years ago Barbara and I, along with friends, the late Vic Bryant and his wife Jo, and their young son Andrew, undertook an epic journey from our home in Zambia for what we planned to be a 6000 miles (9500 km) East African tour through Tanzania into Uganda, then into Kenya, returning to Zambia from Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.  The maps showed us that most of the roads would be dirt, but we had encountered dirt roads in Zambia. Unfortunately, however, we could not have envisaged how bad these roads would be, suitable really only for four-wheel drive vehicles, not our family saloon cars.

The drive from our home in Chingola to the Tanzanian border at Tunduma was 720 miles (1150 km), and was the easiest stretch of the journey. For good reasons, the Great North Road in Tanzania had earned the name ‘hell-run’. Since Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence, it had provided Zambia with a lifeline for supplies of oil from the port of Dar es Salaam. Fleets of huge trucks, including dual-purpose tankers, carried both petroleum imports and copper exports, overburdening the road and leading to deplorable conditions and an appalling accident rate. Winding through rain forests, game plains and mountain ranges, the road was regarded by many as the world's worst international highway. Blinding rains and eerie mists made it all but impassable from October to May, and the right-of-way was often taken by rhinos, herds of elephant and lions basking in the sun. 

The road lived up to its name. The 113 km from the border to Mbeya took over 2 hours on a surface containing pot-holes resembling bomb craters, but eventually, battered and bruised by suitcases flying around the cars, we arrived at the Mbeya hotel for our first overnight stop.

Respite at Mbeya

It took us three days to cover the next 745 miles (1190 km) to Arusha, with overnight stops in Iringa and Dodoma. The scenery was striking and varied, initially over wild mountain passes which led to tea and banana plantations and then into ‘real Africa’, the savannah, endless plains of corn-coloured grass and the distinctive flat-topped acacia trees.

The roads from Mbeya had varied from bad to atrocious and we had to make running repairs to the cars throughout the journey. Vic had a puncture repaired in Mbeya and then had another just before Arusha. The terrible flint and broken rock surface between Mbeya and Iringa jarred bones and teeth, and dislodged the bolts in my gear selector, which we had to patch up with bolts and screws taken from the car bonnet. We had close encounters on the narrow, precipitous mountain pass with convoys of trucks travelling to and from Zambia. Between the capital, Dodoma, and Arusha we hit a 30 km stretch of road which beggared belief and the cars threatened to completely fall apart. Vic’s car sustained another puncture and my petrol tank holed, but patched up with chewing gum and leaking petrol all the way, we finally limped into Arusha.

Approaching Arusha on a relatively decent road

The highlight of our journey was the wonderful area near the Great Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park, and we vowed that one day we would return. Earlier this month we did just that, 51 years on, a half century anniversary postponed for a year due to Covid restrictions.

Source: whileinafrica.com

This time we arrived in Arusha in style, after long flights from London Heathrow to Doha by BA and then on to Mount Kilimanjaro Airport, where we were met by our driver from the always excellent Audley Travel, who transferred us to the Rivertrees Country Inn in Arusha.

In 1971 we camped for three days in the Lake Manyara National Park, a narrow strip of land between the Great Rift Valley escarpment and Lake Manyara, a shallow alkaline lake described by Ernest Hemingway as the loveliest lake in Africa. This month we stayed two nights in the Ngorongoro Farmhouse in Karatu from where we visited Lake Manyara National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater, one of the wonders of the natural world, a volcanic caldera in the Rift Valley.  

Fifty-one years ago we managed to see many elephants at Lake Manyara in the clearings in the lush tropical canopy, where lions lazed in the trees during the heat of the day. On this visit we saw little apart from a small family of elephants, but that is the nature of safari, you may see nothing at all, or have the experience of a lifetime.

Lake Manyara 1971 and below a fleeting glimpse of a small family of elephants in 2022

Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest extinct volcanic caldera, teems with life, huge herds of wildebeest, zebra and gazelles, and the ever present lions. The caldera is home to diverse habitats, a vast plain, lush forests and fresh water and soda lakes.

 In 1971 we camped on the crater rim amidst grazing zebras and grotesque marabou storks, from where we descended the precipitous track in a chartered Land Rover to the crater floor 600 metres below, into what can only be described as a Garden of Eden. 

Ngorongoro Crater seen from the rim

1971

Half a century later the Crater certainly didn't disappoint.

Back to 1971, and after wonderful days at Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro, the situation with the cars became a familiar reality again. Although we had covered only 140 miles (225 km) since leaving Arusha, the roads had been of the usual standard, and had taken their toll; the steering bushes on my car were in a bad state and Vic’s car had a holed radiator. We patched up as best we could and then reluctantly returned to Arusha for more major repairs. The front suspension on my car had to be removed to replace the steering bolts which had fallen out, and the radiator drain plug hung by a thread.

The next afternoon we left Arusha once more for the 200 mile (320 km) drive to the Serengeti, along the familiar corrugated dusty roads, through the Olduvai Gorge, the Cradle of Mankind, to the beautiful Seronera Valley where we camped for two nights. 

The Olduvai Gorge monument, 2022

Camping in the Seronera Valley, 1971

On our journey to the Seronera this month we encountered lions, elephants and elusive leopards.

As in 1971 we camped in the Seronera Valley, in the Lemala Ewanjan Camp, a remote location where we could lie in our tent and hear the wild calls of Africa, including nearby lions and hyenas, who were fortunately not as close as Amanda experienced 10 years ago with her frightening encounter with lions in her camp in the Serengeti (see Tales of Wild Africa).

Passing by the resident Marabou Stork en route to an early breakfast

On a long day out with our guide we saw many more lions and truly experienced the tremendous diversity of African wildlife and the beauty of these magnificent animals and the wilderness which is their habitat.

The dik-dik is one of Africa's smallest antelopes

Wildebeest congregate for the great migration.....

....while a lioness looks on with interest

Look both ways! Cheetah ever vigilant

All too soon our safari came to an end and after three nights in the Serengeti we left mainland Tanzania for a few days relaxation in Zanzibar, via a 3 hour flight from the Seronera Airstrip.

Farewell to the excellent staff at Lemala Ewanjan Camp

Leaving the Serengeti at the Seronera airstrip

Back in 1971 our adventure was by no means over, however, as we headed north from Seronera on a dire road to Mwanza, little knowing what fate awaited us on the opposite shore of Lake Victoria (see Adventure in Tanzania).

Safari is a magical experience, but a tiring one, involving great distances on dusty, bone shaking roads. The roads had certainly not changed in half a century, but the traffic certainly had. Goodness knows how we managed all this, and a great deal more, in our old Ford Corsair - our guide and others were totally incredulous. But 51 years ago we were 51 years younger!

These days all vehicles in the safari area are 4-wheel drive, owned by the many safari companies, and while in 1971 we might not see another vehicle for hours, now they are in profusion, and at one lion sighting we counted 40 vehicles waiting in line! The animals have become accustomed to their presence and the larger ones have no fear of them, which is good as all shooting is by camera and it is hard to understand why anyone would want to kill these magnificent beasts.

It was wonderful to visit Tanzania and its friendly people again after all this time, and we thank Arista Midwinter at Audley Travel for putting together this tailor-made trip and to our excellent knowledgeable guide, Noel Mollel, for spotting things we would have missed and for teaching us more of this fascinating continent.

@barrywills