TARANGIRE

GLIMPSES OF TARANGIRE

A vist to Tarangire was a must. My African tour would have been incompete without visiting Tarangire. I had decided to get into the bushes of Tarangire, which is well known for its elephants.
Sarangeti is the farthest of all from Arusha, which takes five to six hours to drive. Other places are at a distance of one to three hours drive and the approach roads are good. Shafiq picked me up at around 7 am in his Range Rover.On the way, I could see the deviations for Lake Manyara national park, Ngorongoro and Sarangeti. Behind Manyara Lake, I could see the mountain range in neighbouring Rwanda from the road itself. I was feeling bad for running out of time and missing seeing these places. I knew I was going to miss a lot of places in Tanzania.
'There is always a next time', I said to myslef and decided that I would visit Arusha first, when I get back to Africa again.
Shafiq explained me the different terrains in the area and told me that I should have stayed in Tanzania for little more time. He spoke good English and had good knowledge about flora, fauna and lifestyles of the region. In total, he could be one of the best tourist guides.
On the way, we came across the Maasais of Tanzania and Shafiq gave me a brief description of the difference between Maasais of Kenya and Tanzania. According to him, the Maasais of Tanzania were the real Maasais, while the Kenya Maasais were a mix of Somalis and Ethiopians.
"A maasai drinks hot blood of the animals he kills. He eats the meat and treats himself with native medicine. That is the life style of a maasai. Look at the people in Kenya, who claim themselves to be maasais. They eat jowar like us and go to doctors for any treatment. They have adopted some of the culture of maasai, after getting influenced with their lifestyle,’’ Shafiq argued.
That does not mean Shafiq has great respect for either of maasais. According to him, a maasai is nothing more than a cattle grazer. ``A maasai can marry any number of women. His wife will look after the family and even pays him for his expenses. I have only one wife and two children. I have to earn for my family and a maasai man does not take such responsibilities. There is no difference between an animal and a maasai man,’’ he said. Sounded interesting.
The maasais in Tanzania were as colourful or more colourful than maasais in Kenya. Most of them looked very business-minded, putting up shops on the road side. But, they have not given up their traditional attire.
As we entered into Tarangire national park, I realised that the bushes in Likipia were different than the bushes at Tarangire. In Likipia, the bushes are thicker and the terrain is totally different. As usual, we passed by herds of giraffes, antelopes and baboons. While we were passing through a herd of zebras, Shafiq pointed out at an Albino.
This was the third kind of zebra, I was seeing in Africa. First it was the regular zebra and then the Grevy’s zebra in Likipia. The Albinos are called mountain zebra, which has brownish stripe on its back. Besides, the stripes resemble the shape of a flower on its back.
We saw all animals, but still there was no glimpse of an elephant, for which Tarangire is famous for. After an hour or so, we sighted two of them and headed towards the view point next to the Tarangire river. It is a spectacular view, where the river flows 100 feet below the valley.
While we started descending down the valley, we came across the first herd of around 15 elephants. After playing in a pond for some time, a huge tusker walked straight towards us. I was confused for a moment, but the tusker decided to change the direction, barely 10 feet from us. As the herd passed our jeep, we could see another herd of around 25 elephants heading towards the pond.
We moved ahead towards the river bed and sighted more and more elephant herds. Most of the herds were moving towards the river bed and as we reached, I could not believe myself. It was just elephant herds everywhere and the number could have easily crossed 500-600. I made a futile attempt to get the picture of the entire landscape, but could not cover even half of it. The elephants looked like ants in the pictures I took.
While we were having lunch, we saw an elephant herd just 10 metres behind our jeep. There was a huge elephant grazing on the river bed, which was again 10 feet below where the jeep was parked. In whatever direction I turned my eyes; I could just see elephants and elephants. I thought, this is what is called 'elephants in thousands'.
At around 3.30 pm, we headed towards Arusha and Shafiq had told me that I had to be dropped at the hotel by 6 pm. This time, I nodded reluctantly.

BUS TO TANZANIA

BUMPY BUS RIDE TO TANZANIA

In order to enjoy the surroundings in Africa, I decided on a bus journey to Tanzania. I was heading to Arusha town, around 350 kms from Nairobi. Siva had told me that there was `luxury’ bus service between Nairobi and Arusha.
It was a kind of mini-bus called shuttle service and the experience was exactly as any private buses in India. There were agents and bus operators, trying to woo the customers. But, they take good care of their customers and are very polite.The bus
started at 3 pm, one hour behind schedule. By the time we came out of Nairobi city, it was almost 4.30 pm. Getting out of African cities by road can be as frustrating as getting out of Bangalore city. The crowded traffic in the outskirts and foot path hawkers will add to the misery. Soon I realised that it was not a highway journey as I presumed. The Chinese are laying the road in a big way, but at the moment, we had to travel on a mud road. It was very dusty, and the journey was very bad. I could see the quality of work being done by the Chinese. The entire road, after levelling, had been covered with long plastic sheets. On the side of the roads, laying of optic fibre cable was also in progress. ``Road to development’’, I thought.
The rural side in Africa is very beautiful. Large tracts of open land, bushes and small hillocks ae worth enjoying amidst a bad journey. At around 7 pm, we reached Namanga, the Kenya-Tanzania border. Namanga is a small town, which has immigration offices of both Kenya and Tanzania. There is no presence of either military or any kind of security forces here.
It was a nice experience to see the vehicles crowd at the border. Long queue of trucks, and cars parked on both the sides ae a common scene. While you walk around the offices, hawkers, especially the Masai tribes approach you with colourful ornaments to make some quick business. The immigration process is too simple. Just walk into the Kenya office and get the immigration cleared. Enter Tanzania office and get a visa. Officials in both the offices were friendly. The Kenyan authorities inquired about my return date and wanted to know if I would be spending some more days in Kenya after my return. The Tanzanian officials asked me how long I would stay and suggested some places to visit. They generously issued visa for three months, though I told them that I would be staying in their country for only three days.
Even after all the passengers completed their immigration and visa process, the bus took a long time to start. We were only four foreigners – including two Israeli women and a US national. The rest were locals and we asked if there was any problem. But the driver assured that everything was fine.
At last, we started from Namanga at around 8.30 pm, only to be stopped within next 15 minutes at a customs check post. The bus did not move for one more hour and there were negotiations between the bus driver and the customs officials. At the end, the bus driver decided to leave behind some luggage, which was under dispute.
Things went wrong further down the journey. On the way, there was a huge pile up of the highway traffic, following a small accident. The driver did not even give a second thought and diverted the shuttle bus towards a road under-construction road. It was bumpy and too dusty, but there was no option. By this time, even I felt a little fatigued, but could see some lights at a distance. In the next 15 minutes, we were in Arusha and the driver dropped me at Impala hotel, where I had booked my stay. One good thing about the shuttle bus is that they drop the tourists and pick them up from their door steps. Though a bumpy and dusty ride, I was happy at the end of it.

Arusha