East Africa: Home to the Big Five, the African wilderness and African snow. And it’s all in Tanzania.
I arrived here having crossed the world’s largest tropical lake, and indeed the second largest fresh water lake, Lake Victoria, to camp at Speke Bay – named after John Hanning Speke the British explorer who first sighted the lake in 1858, believing it to be the source to the Nile. Driving to nearby Mwanza takes you past some strange granite formations that seem to have been balanced by a giant in times past.
From there we headed into the Serengeti in an effort to spot the Big Five. And we weren’t disappointed. A pride of lionesses rested mid-attack as a wounded buffalo staggered around – these were true ladies that lunch. Elsewhere giraffe, with their long gait, seemed to glide around, while baboons, jackals and antelope frolicked at their feet. One of our party proved her amazing eyesight as we headed out of the park when she spotted a cheetah among the long grasses several hundred metres away. It would remain the only one we’d see in the wild over the next three months. The endless savannah, with the odd rocky outcrop offering a smattering of shade in the sun, is a sight that will never leave me.
Next stop: Ngorongoro Crater. The caldera that remains from a long-extinct volcano provides fantastic protection to the wildlife inside – and it is teeming. The only animals you won’t find here are giraffe, whose legs can’t cope with the steep crater walls, but flamingos and other birdlife are plentiful, as are hyenas, warthogs, and elephants. You even get the chance to leave your vehicle, but be careful because you can still be attacked, as I was. But it was only a bird swooping down to steal my sandwich; even so it was quite a whack to the head!
We wended our way towards Dar-es-Salaam, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, and stopped off at the small town of Arusha. Like many towns in this region street vendors sell everything from machetes to decorative spears, from necklaces to batiks.
Lonely Planet’s East Africa edition is chockfull of interesting items and suggestions, but if you want a guide to the wildlife – and trust me, you do – Insight Guides’ East African Wildlife gives clear information on seemingly everything. And if you’re feeling more energetic than I was, you may want to do more than just pass by the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, in which case Kilimanjaro Trekkers Guide by Stanfords’ Alexander Stewart will be invaluable. Reise Know-How Verlag’s Tanzania map gives good detail.
Browse our collection of Tanzania Maps and Guide books here >
Author: James Innes Williams