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Safari Safi

December 2022 - January 2023
Auf bird-watching-Tour mit Franziska Read more
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  • Safari Safi
    Day 10

    Ab die Post

    December 15, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    On December 7th I arrive in Dar and spend a full week at Eckhard's place to work on my car. What is on the menu? My most important and challenging mission is to install a supplementary auxiliary battery with charging infrastructure for my fridge, inverter and USB ports. My remote preparations for this task back home in Germany consumed most of my free time during the past weeks. From Germany I brought a DC-DC charger for charging of the battery from the car's alternator during driving. I also brought a solar charger and a foldable 140 Watt solar panel. All necessary cables, connectors and fuses I also had to import because it is quite difficult to find specific parts here in Dar es Salaam. But the biggest challenge of all is to find an adequate battery! I was opting for a small modern Lithium battery (LiFePO4) but after investigating for weeks in advance, not a single shop or supplier in Dar nor in Arusha could offer what I was searching for. In the end, the only battery I can find around here is a conventional 100 Ah VRLA gel solar battery. Now I have to carry around 32 kg instead of my desired 6 kg in the car and it eats a lot of my valuable storage space. They do not have smaller ones on stock anywhere.

    Apart from that I invest in two new high-quality starter batteries, change my engine oil and bleed the brakes. My awning suffered a lot from Namibia's washboard roads back in 2020 and the rivets loosened, some even lost their heads. I replace all rivets, add some more for increased stability and also shorten the mounting brackets. Eckhard's mechanic welds new mounting brackets for my sand recovery tracks and finally I can remount them vertically on my roof rack again! Also my fridge gets a much quieter radiator fan because the original one drove me crazy.    Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 11

    Mambo View Point is where I belong

    December 16, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    On my way to Kilimanjaro Airport were I will be picking up Franziska in two days I visit my beloved second home at Mambo View Point where I say hello to Dagmara and her staff. What a great feeling to be back here again! Tears start to flow when I walk up to the cottage where I stayed 3.5 months back in 2020. Even more tears when I walk further to the view point overlooking Pare mountains. Speechless!Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 13

    United at Twiga Lodge!

    December 18, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    At around midday Franziska arrives at Kilimanjaro International Airport. What a tiny sweet little airport. And what a tiny sweet little girl! We head off through the dry, ashy and brownish steppe. They have not had rain for more than 6 months here. First drops appeared just a few days ago. Back at Twiga Lodge in Usa River we slide into a slumbery nap on the wide open balcony with great view on Mount Meru. Today we are not camping in my car yet but sleep in one of their luxurious guest rooms. What a wonderful place to grove into our next four weeks of adventure. As we stroll around in the nearby village at dusk, Franziska gets her cultural infusion directly this very evening. Being surrounded by curious Tanzanians a friendly random guy introduces us to his mother and later to his other mother. How many mother might he have? There is loud music and without realising it we are dragged into a local communion celebration where we get offered fancy local food by this mother-abundant guy: spicy pilau with creamy makande, rich ndizi nyama and fresh cole slaw!Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 14

    Arusha

    December 19, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Slowly we start the day. Nothing planned. The nearby German bakery is closed. Why? Because today is Sunday and it also features German opening hours 😛. We hop into allegedly busy Arusha for a small urban adventure and are well impressed by it's calmness and friendliness. Wherever we step we are received in a friendly manner. On a green park square they serve us coal-boiled coffee mixed with spicy ginger tea. On the central market we hold our noses while we are passing the butcher stands but later find fancy oyster nuts and chai masala. We are impressed by all the different varieties and colours of beans here! On the way back, a street tailor shortens my annoyingly long t-shirt while I wait at the street corner, undressed to the amusement of all other Arushans.Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 15

    West Kilimanjaro

    December 20, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    On our first day on the road we dawdle the morning away. Very late we start and oh, wait! We have to turn back and stock up bread from Tanz-Hands bakery! After lunch and banana shopping a gravel road takes us north around Arusha national park and leads us westerly of Kilimanjaro through wide plains up to juicy-green Simba Farm. Our second camping night. We meet a group of three Kenyan-Brits who arrived here on rugged Kibo motorbikes. After dinner we sip on our red wine next to a ceasing campfire. Our morning starts with bird watching straight from the breakfast table.Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 16

    Enduimet Wildlife Area, hidden emptiness

    December 21, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Rather unknown and unfrequented but highly interesting. Enduimet Wildlife Area enrolls in front of us as dry volcanic ash desert. Different shades of grey and brown are dominating. Carcasses of dead animals here and there. We are the only visitors to this area. Heat. Spicy ginger chai with Maasai. Sun. Only few animals we spot. One elephant in the distance, seen from a hill. Some ostriches. A 4x4 paradise off the track. Our afternoon at Chui bush campsite we spend watching birds and enjoying the open fire with our two Maasai guards who are enthusiastically scrolling though our birding book. Franziska spends the evening at the big open fire with knitting.Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 17

    Meerschaum

    December 22, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We wake up early for a game drive to the water pond and for having breakfast there. This main waterhole at the Kenyan border close to Amboseli national park uncloaks itself as former Meerschaum quarry. It is surrounded by hills of white, soft soil. We don't spot any big mammals. Just bones everywhere and ... are these here tracks of hyenas in the sand? Prof. Dr. Jan-Peter D. requested pictures of animal corpses for his university seminar program which we willingly provide. But what about this Meerschaum thing? As return service for our cadaver photos, J.-P. D. provides us with a scientific answer:

    "Meerschaum ist ein seltenes Mineral, das dann entsteht, wenn Meerwasser in einen ganz bestimmten Typ vulkanischen Ozeanbodens eindringt, dort aufgeheizt wird, und dann zurück an die Oberfläche perkoliert (also alles unter Wasser, in der Regel in Tiefen von einigen Kilometern). Das heiße Meerwasser tritt dann mit Mineralen, die in dem vulkanischen Ozeanboden enthalten sind, in Wechselwirkung, was dazu führt, dass sich Minerale verändern – und aus einigen entsteht Meerschaum. Normalerweise ist Meerschaum nur in Spuren enthalten, aber es gibt ein paar massivere Vorkommen – bspw. in der Türkei."

    Digging around in Franziska's family history we learn that her great-grandfather – a seafaring man – owned a precious pipe made with Meerschaum.    Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 18

    Fake eruption 😜?

    December 23, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    While driving around Mount Kitumbeine we spot the first free-roaming giraffes and zebras. This ancient volcano with its soft slopes looks very inviting for a hike up the ridge. But also his brother Gelai further north does. Or should we better hike up the holy Maasai mountain Ol Doinyo Lengai? Hmm. Too many options and the air is thick, hazy and lacking my expected wide view over the great rift valley. Instead, while reaching the foot of Lengai, a thunderstorm is approaching and eating up Kitumbeine in the distance with massive black clouds. We decide to hop off the gravel road in order to quickly find a slightly hidden wild camping spot before the rain begins. Franziska is being watched by giraffes while peeing in the thorn bush. Cicadas in the acacia tree above us start their ear-splitting hissing song when we see the first bands of rain approaching. But after just a few minutes they stop again as abruptly as they began. No rain is reaching us. Night breaks in.

    The next morning our departure is blocked by a bus trying to bypass a stuck truck with a broken front axle. We enrich the spectacle of colourfully scattered passengers with our curious presence and some stupid questions 😛.

    Our hungry stomachs stop us in Engare Sero. What a strange town! First of all we have to pay 90 USD for just using the road along Lake Natron. Then, Engare Sero consists literally just of people wanting to sell you Maasai jewellery, of people wanting to guide you around "the area" and of food points. In the lunch place of our choice we are greeted by grinning ladies with dancing, dangling boobs. Just like in the Maasai painting on my wall at home, yay 🤗! A drunken Maasai appears. Everything looks like a house of pleasure here. And our served rice with beans is indeed pleasurous 🍛!    Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 18

    Up for a soda?

    December 23, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Lake Natron – a place I wanted to visit for years already. Indeed a beautiful and diverse landscape guarded by Mount Gelai. In the distance we spot some few flamingoes in the water. From the rift valley where the alkaline soda lake acts as water sink we gradually climb up the first ridge onto Sale plain. Soil colour and composition changes multiple times. At one place we stop in a canyon-like, deeply eroded setting with ochre-coloured sedimentary and clayish soil, breadcrumbed with ash and pumice pieces. Here we also find reddish stones with strangely banded, alien outer crust and amorphic white core. Must have truly been a lithological and mineralogical party place here!

    The earth's crust implements a multi-layer concept here near the rift and once reaching the top of Sale plain, we find ourselves next to yet another ridge which would elevate us just another few hundred metres onto Serengeti plain. We pass a Chinese mine which probably is the reason for the good road condition here 😛. The moment we arrive in Sale, hundreds of colourful Maasai women are flooding into town from the north. Later we learn that they came in protest against unfair land distribution. Here we turn south again in direction of Malambo.    Read more

  • Safari Safi
    Day 19

    After the rain comes life

    December 24, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Why Malambo? It's in the middle of nowhere! But beautifully surrounded by scenic eye candy. We want to visit the "Help for Maasai" project where Dirk and Sahra work, whom I met on my Tanzanian road trip a year ago. But apparently, instead of being here, they chill out in Arusha over Christmas 😅. Anyway, we spend two nights camping on the project's guest compound where we are hosted by lovely Jakobo who cares for us and everything most passionately. There is a very annoying dog around, just being lonely and deserving love. And a cat, fighting and loving this very dog. Jakobo's fellow walks with us around the primary and secondary schools and is very proud of showing us the connected biogas facilities (!), the solar plant, Tanzania's first (and only?) solar corn mill and the highly modern water refinement installation featuring technology from Augsburg in Germany.

    During a day's hike to Ng'abolo waterfall we are overwhelmed by the variety of different birds in this area. We are unable to catch up identifying all of them even though Franziska spends 80 % of her day switching between binoculars and field guide, squeaking bewildered sounds all the time. Some of these birds simply are not listed in our book! The recent rain lets nature overturn itself in terms of boosting new life. All birds are mating and building nests everywhere, especially these gregarious, loud and lovely weavers 🥰! The once dry soil is speckled with tiny shoots of grass, plants and flowers. It hasn't rained for 6 months here and many of the Maasais' cattle recently died. We see many stinky cadavers which – to our surprise – have been explicitly dumped in the drainage channels and streams around the Maasai bomas. The Maasai say that this will wash the cadavers out of their sight with the next rain. But where do they think these rotting juices will be washed to? Isn't the next village just a few hundred metres downstream where children are playing in the water and even drinking it? Hmmm 🤔. I am wondering that there are no vultures around to take care of the rotting meat and also the Hyenas are not able to cope with the amounts of flesh even though we hear their "whoop whoop" howls at night. Franziska is frightened but ... we have the dog guarding us and the cat guarding the dog. No animal on earth is capable of defeating this one-eyed pirate cat 😁!    Read more

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