Highlights of Tanzania

Zanzibar

• The North Shore - Nungwi Beach.

Zanzibar's northern shore is like a different island altogether.  Whereas Stone Town is a cosmopolitan cultural mixing pot, Nungwi beach is the ultimate tropical getaway.  5 miles beyond the end of the paved road, you come to the little village of Nungwi.  Driving through the village, there are turn-offs that will take you to the isolated "resorts" that line the shore.  These are not high-rise Sheratons.  These are bungalows with minimal acoutrements:  electricity and plumbing.  For $35 per night, the Amaan bungalows offers a comfortable room within 10 yards of the most spectacular beach that I've ever seen.

At low tide, Nungwi beach is about 250 yards wide.  At low tide (about noon), the locals harvest seaweed from the beach in selected areas where they have created artificial reefs.  The tourists stroll along the beach, collecting shells, or they set a lounge chair in the shallow water, where their feet can lap in the water as they read.

At high tide, the waves crash against the rocks below the bar.  High tide (generally around happy hour) is a good time to relax at the bar and drink a Kilimanjaro lager or go for a swim.  The smooth, white sand beach you walked on earlier in the day is 3 meters below you underwater.

• Mitu's Spice Tour

Once upon a time, Mitu was a taxi driver in Stone Town.  But years ago he invented the "Spice Tour" industry and now he has a million imitators.  A Spice Tour has nothing to do with Ginger Spice.  Rather, it begins with a history lesson on the origins of Zanzibar's fabled past as the capital of the Sultanate of Oman and the spice heydays of the 18th and 19th centuries.

After your history lesson (often given by Mitu himself), you are crammed into matatus (minibuses) and hurtled through the hills of the interior to a plantation or two, to sample the spices and learn about how they are grown.  This is a fascinating tour.  Every tree that you are introduced to produces a spice.  Frequently, you can smell the spice before you get close enough to recognize what it is.  Most of the time, you can pick a sample off the tree and taste it fresh and raw.

At the end of the tour, you are treated to a typical Zanzibari meal that is prepared with many of the spices that you've just seen on the plantation.

• Sundowners at the Africa House Hotel

Each evening, as the sunset approaches, every mzungu in Stone Town heads to either the Africa House Hotel or Blues.  Most everybody eventually ends up going to the Africa House Hotel.  It is an icon of Stone Town.  Perched on the far Western edge of Stone Town, overlooking the ocean that separates Zanzibar from the mainland, the bar is a perfect place to watch the sun go down.  It's a 1990s version of Rick's "Cafe Americain".  Here is the perfect place to mingle with the locals and hear their stories.  Despite the fact that Zanzibar is 95% muslim (and not supposed to drink alcohol), a surprising group of them show up every night for a beer.  Some of the local "tour operators" (i.e. hustlers) come here after "work" to meet and greet their clients.  Our hustler, named Manyara, was an 18 year old kid from Arusha.  He was plugged into just about every racket between Stone Town and Lake Victoria, and we were happy to do business with him, because saying "I'm working with Manyara" clears paths in Zanzibar.

Blues, on the other hand is very, very touristy.  You will not find any locals there, so I would only recommend it if you are the cruise-ship type.  My wife and I went to there once with some of the folks from our Encounter Overland trip.  I was not too impressed with the 1200 TSH  (about $1.80) price of a Kilimanjaro Lager (compared to the 700 TSH price at Africa House).  The only thing that I think Blues has going for it, is its proximity to the Farazani.

• Dinner at the Farazani

One of the most fascinating meals I've ever had.  Farazani is not a restaurant.  It is a park along the waterfront, situated between "Blues" and the harbor.  Every evening at sundown, 50 or 60 street vendors set up a table in the park and prepare quick snacks and take aways.  The most common eats to be found are:

• Grilled octopus
• Grilled squid
• Grilled shrimp
• Grilled beef on a kebab
• Naan bread (Indian bread)
• Samosas of various sorts
• "Zanzibari Pizza"  - an interesting concoction, made with egg, cheese, onions and sausage, cooked in an eggroll wrapper.
• Grilled yucca (a starchy, potato-like vegetable)
• Coconut juice
• Tamarind juice

Maasai Lands

• Lake Natron

One of the primary breeding grounds for the large flamingo population in East Africa.  Flamingos come here by the hundreds of thousands to mate and lay their eggs.  The lake itself is a soda lake, so it is quite shallow, and you can get a 4x4 vehicle out onto the lake bed when it is reasonably dry.  After taking your vehicle out as far as you safely can, you can walk to nearly the very edge of the water before the muddy ground beneath your feet starts to give way.  If you wait long enough and quietly enough, the flamingos will settle yards away from you.

• Oldonya Le'Ngai

Just South of Lake Natron is an active volcano that totally dominates the landscape.  Oldonya Le'Ngai, which means "Mountain of God" in Maasai language, is an almost perfect cone--very similar to Mt. Fuji of Japan.  At 10,000 feet ASL, it is not an especially tall mountain, when compare to its big brothers, Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro.  But the summit of Oldonya Le'Ngai is reachable in a single day's 5,500 ft climb.  An extremely difficult vertical to tackle in a single day, you must start climbing at about 1 - 1:30 AM in order to reach the summit by sunrise at 6:15 am.

Climbing with a flashlight and a walking stick is a requirement for a night ascent.  There are no switchbacks on the mountain.  You go straight up...No turns.  Once you reach the top, and descend into the caldera, it's as if you've landed on the moon.  Otherworldly ash cones rise from the lava smothered surface of the caldera.  You place you hands to the ground, and feel the heat.  Your guide must enter the caldera first, in order to determine which areas of the ground have fresh lava flows and should be avoided.  My wife's hands were cold, so she broke off a few chunks of lava from last nights flow, and stuck them in her jacket pockets.  They kept her warm for about 15 minutes.

As you stand there at the edge of the crater, the sun rises from a gap between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Kilimanjaro is barely visible on the horizon, almost 100 miles away.  Meru, 50 miles East, appears like a big brother to Oldonya Le'Ngai in shape and size.  As the sun rises higher, you notice the huge shadows--dozens of miles long--that both Kili and Meru cast.

You have to hire a maasai guide to take you up the mountain.  It is normally not a problem to arrange this only a day in advance.  You can do so at the Lake Natron campsite located near the waterfalls to the Southwest of the lake.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

This was the biggest highlight of the entire trip for me.  Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro became a bit of an obsession.  I researched this climb to death...I scoured the web for all references to the mountain.  I requested information packets from every safari agency who would respond.  I researched every trail up the mountain.  I researched Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) heavily, I researched diamox.

It is definitely not the most exciting climb that you will ever do.  I mean, the scenery isn't incredibly spectacular (when compared to other climbs I did in Tanzania), and the trek itself never tested my limits, like Mt. Meru did.  But that notwithstanding, when you summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, you are at the highest point in Africa.  And the feeling you get from being on top of Uhuru peak completely offsets the negatives.

There are quite a few routes up Mt. Kilimanjaro.  I will give a brief description of the most popular:

• Lemosha Route.  7-8 days.  Favored by American expedition companies.  I chose this route for its length and scenery.  This trail was blazed by Scott Fisher of Mountain Madness, Seattle, Washington.  Starting in the rainforest on the Western side of the Shira ridge, Lemosha route climbers spend one night at 9,500 ft before crossing over the Shira ridge to settle on the Shira plateau for 2 nights at 12,000 - 13,000 ft.  From the Shira Plateau, you merge with machame route climbers at Lava Tower Hut (14,800 ft).  From Lava Tower, you go to Arrow Glacier Hut (16,000 ft.).  At Arrow Glacier, you have a choice to make:  sleep in the crater or no...If you choose not to, you should plan to begin your summit bid at 2am-4am in order to reach the top before noon.  Sleeping in the crater can be a very dangerous thing to do.  At 18,500 ft, most everyone is miserable.  The advantage is that you can leisurely summit the following morning whenever you choose, since it is only an hour from the top.  You also get bragging rights for sleeping in the crater.  Most people who die on Kilimanjaro, die in the crater.
• Machame Route. 6-7 days.  The second most popular route on the mountain.  This route starts in the rainforests above the Machame village on the Southern slopes of the mountain.  After a steep 2 day climb, you emerge onto the Shira plateau and camp at Shira hut.  From here, you can either join with the Lemosha route at Lava Tower (as mentioned above) or you can cross the Great Barranco to Barafu Hut and summit from there.  The Great Barranco valley has incredible views of the mountain.  David Breashears told me that he considers this to be the most beautiful place on the mountain.  I did not go this way, so I cannot say.  Once you reach the Barafu Hut, you will wake up at 1am-3am to begin your summit bid.
• Marangu Route. 3-4 days.  Also called the Coca Cola route.  This is the most popular route.  Thousands of people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro via the Marangu route every year.  Less than a third of them make it to Uhuru peak, the highest point.  Half of the climbers reach a place called Gillmans Point, at 18,000 ft. and are so miserable and exhausted from their much-too-quick ascent that they turn back.  Another batch of climbers turn back when they reach Stella Point at 19,000 ft., only 45 minutes from the top.  They are so sick from the altitude that they cannot go on.  Needless to say, I do not recommend this route for anyone.  You ascend so quickly that you will most likely fail to reach the top.  If you do manage to make it to the summit, you will probably feel like crap (on the plus side, you get to sleep in beds the whole way).
• Mweka Route. 4-5 days.  This route is used mostly for descents and expedition resupply.  It is far too steep and quick to ascend the mountain to make a feasible route for tourists.  On the other hand, mweka is a great way to come down the mountain quickly.  This route ends at Barafu hut.  From there you take the Barafu route up to the summit.

[Note:  I will probably extend this into a separate "Guide to Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro" soon.]

Mt. Meru

Strenuous.  Breathtakingly beautiful. This climb allows you to flirt with high altitude without really spending much time in thin air.  Depending on how you do it, this climb also involves one of the most strenuous days of hiking you will ever experience.

The normal climb up Mt. Meru is three days, two nights.  Day One goes from the base (5,500 ft.) to Camp one (Miriakamba Camp) at about 9,000 ft.  This is a fairly easy 4 hour climb.  Day Two is a 4 hour climb from 9,000 ft to Camp Two at 12,000 ft.  Again, the climb is not terribly strenuous, but unless you are well acclimatized already, the altitude should start to hit you here.  If you are up to it, after lunch at camp two, you can summit Little Meru (12,500 ft.) for better acclimitization.  This will also give you some beautiful vistas of Meru and Kilimanjaro.

After a 5pm dinner at camp two, you go to sleep as best you can.  The huts have reasonably comfortable foam matresses.  Once the sun goes down, the air temperature is about 20 degrees at camp two.  You sleep peacefully in your nice, warm sleeping bag until your climbing guide comes to wake you at 1am.  After breakfast at 1:30am, you start your summit bid at 2am.  A tough, 4 1/2 hour climb through the black night to the summit.  The final 30 minutes of the climb, as you are approaching the final push, the sky slowly starts to brighten up.  You reach the summit just as the sun lifts above the Southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The wind is whipping over the summit at 30 miles/hour.  The air temperature is about 15 degrees.

After your celebration at the summit, you descend.  And descend.  And descend.  All the way to the bottom.  From 14,600 ft, you descend to the base at 5,500 ft.  As if that wasn't challenging enough, there is about 1,000 feet of additional ups and downs between camp two and the summit.  So, in effect, you are climbing 3,000 ft up and 10,000 ft down in one day.  My wife and I are pretty fit, and we reached the bottom at about 3pm; we had been hiking since 2am that morning.

Alternatively, you can summit and return to camp two for a second night.  This will aide you in acclimitization if you are tackling Mt. Kilimanjaro next.

Serengeti National Park

We went to the Serengeti after our Kilimanjaro climb.  At this point, my wife and I had just climbed 3 huge volcanoes in succession (Oldonya LeNgai, Meru, Kilimanjaro).  So, we were pretty tired.  After the first day's punishing 8 hour drive from Arusha to Seronera campsite, we had a wonderful, relaxing 3 days of game viewing.

Game viewing safaris are pretty straightforward.  You get up before dawn and have a game drive while the animals are still relatively active.  This is your only real chance to see lions do anything other than sleep.  After a 3-4 hour game drive, you come back to the camp (or lodge) and have a nice breakfast and a nap.  If you are at the lodge, this is a good time to go for a swim.  Otherwise, you hang out and wait for your next game drive, which should start at about 4pm and last until sundown, when you must be back at the camp or lodge (park rules).

See Serengeti in the Guide To Wildlife Photography.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

See Ngorongoro in the Guide To Wildlife Photography.

Ngorongoro crater doesn't really require more than a day.  Unless you are supremely unlucky, it will be a fantastic day of game viewing.