Introduction to Tanzanian Odyssey.
This is written over 20 years after our trek in 1986. My granddaughter suggested that I write it before I forgot the details. There are bound to be errors. Conditions in Tanzania have no doubt changed. For example there was an acute shortage of batteries and people were trying to buy it from us. There was an acute power shortage. I am sure this is no longer the case. Certain things like the kindly people, the excellent beer and the wine and the fantastic Ngorongoro and Kilimanjaro will not change.
This account of our visit does not have a happy ending. A few years after our visit Idi died. We used to meet Ida when ever she came to India. A few years later Musa passed away. Ida stayed on in Dar bringing up Rajube. Last year Ida died. Rajube is a young man working in a non governmental organization. This writing is dedicated to Rajube in memory of his parents and the happy times we had with them.
Tanzanian Odyssey
We are a group of friends who love trekking. We go on treks to various parts of India as often as we can. Till recently this used to be an annual feature to which we looked forward to. A lot of planning was involved and one of us looked after this. When every thing fell into place and we could get away from work we were off. I have a feeling our wives were glad to have a break from us. Once in a way they joined us to keep an eye on us when we went to exotic places like Himalayan Garwhal or Spiti valley.
In 1986 we decided that it was time we ventured out of India and finally settled on Tanzania. Why Tanzania, one might ask when the whole world was available. Remember, twenty years ago getting foreign exchange for going abroad was difficult in India. The amount sanctioned was meager and inadequate and was available only every two years or so. This limited our choice. One of our group, Nat, knew an Indian lady Ida married to a Tanzanian. They were prepared make up our shortfall of Tanzanian Dollars and we paid the equivalent rupees into her Indian account. Then there was our fascination with Africa as we were taught in our school days about Dr Livingston and Stanley and their epic crossing of Africa. Hollywood cinemas about wild life hunting in Africa acted by Clarke Gable had left in indelible impression.
We planned to leave on 1st may. Our group who could make the trek came down to three. We were able to add two more from outside our group- Raja, Nat’s brother in law and his ten year old son Madhav. The unexpected has a habit of happening when you plan treks. First, Madhav developed appendicitis and had to undergo an emergency operation. Our friend Ram who operated said - a week’s rest and he will be fit to climb Everest. So that was sorted out- only Raja and Madhav arrived two days after us in Dar es Salem. Then I was diagnosed as having kidney stones which had to be removed by operation. Our friend Dr Ram said no way are you going to miss the trip. He asked me to drink a lot of beer in Tanzania and gave me a lot of pain killers should I run into trouble! I was to have my operation a few days after our return. Then we had a few anxious moments about the yellow fever vaccination as the vaccine was out of stock. Fortunately it arrived on time and we left on 1st May to Mumbai.
We flew into Nairobi early next morning and caught the connecting flight to Dar es Salem. We were all excited to have our first view of Kilimanjaro from the plane. It was clouded up and was not a clear day. 
We had a royal reception from our Tanzanian host Musa. The usual problem of lost baggage was serious as our backpacks were missing. Musa took us to Oyster Bay hotel facing the sea where we stayed during our stay in Dar es Salem. Musa assured us that our missing backpacks would turn up in a day or two. We took it easy for the day. Our backpacks arrived the next day without the fancy cloths we had wrapped them in! Musa was in charge of all arrangements. Our original plan was to visit Zanzibar. Musa said it was not safe then and so we dropped it. We had included Selous game reserve but Musa ruled it out because of the rainy season and poor facilities. The final list was Mikumi, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Maniyara, and Kilimanjaro National park
Oyster bay- Dar es Salaam
We went west to Mikumi, then north to Ngorongoro ,Serengeti, south east
to Maniyara and then to Kilimanjaro. We then took the flight to Nairobi. The
map above gives an idea of the of the route we took.

With th Musa family-Ida, Idi, Nat with Rajube, Madhav, Musa, Raja and Sattanathan.
Having sorted out the details of our trek we next asked Musa about the availability of beer to look after my problem. Musa assured us that beer was available and also wine made locally at Dodoma. That night we tried out both and found they were excellent. So we were all set and next morning took off to Mikumi National Park by a van via Morongo.


Morongo Market

Mikumi forest lodge

Getting shooting gear ready

Tasting Tanzanian wine and beer

Mikumi park entrance
All was not smooth inside the park!
Farewell to Mikumi
We returned to Dar es Salaam that evening. Raja and little Madhav had arrived and we had nice evening with the Musa family. They had an adopted son Rajube and nephew Idi with them. Musa was all praise for how India was managed unlike Tanzania. Musa worked for a government department and Ida was a teacher in a management school. Musa insisted in calling his wife Lakshmi saying that when you have such a lovely name why do you use Ida! The excellence of the local beer and wine was confirmed by extensive trials. I felt sure the kidney stones would not bother me with such excellent beer available!
We visited a few Indian business men. One of them was running a small abrasive manufacturing plant. The other was really big operator who ran a number of units including a franchise for soft drinks. They appeared to be quite prosperous. We had dinner at the Gymkhana Club. We were shown bullet marks in the walls caused by armed gangs about three weeks back. During our stay in small towns and the country side we were told not to go out in the night. Surprisingly even in Nairobi no body went out at night. All the apartments were barricaded with heavy steel doors at night. This was two decades ago and may still be the case now.
Next day a friend loaned his van to go to Bogomoyo. It was a dirt road all the way. Bogomoyo was an old port from which the African slaves were shipped. This was also the town that Dr.Livingstone came to after crossing Africa west to east. There was Roman Catholic seminary and school and nothing else except the dilapidated custom house and chambers were the slaves were chained. The whole place was depressing.
Bogomoyo custom house
Ruins of slave prison
Church were Dr.Livingstone stayed
Group in front of the church
Back in Dar it was time to pack up and get ready for the next stage of our trip. We were taking the morning flight to Kilimanjaro airport near Arusha. We paid a farewell visit to the Musas. Next morning Musa took us through the morning traffic to the Airport. The security at the airport stopped Nat and wanted to know what he had in the bag slung over the shoulders. Nat took out a handful of Tanzanian shillings notes to the amusement of the security staff. The security staff carried AK 47 rifles and looked a formidable lot. We were met at Kili airport and driven to Arusha where we had lunch at a hotel at the foot hills of Mount Meru. It was a fantastic sight. With our van driver Zackaria as guide cum driver we set to Ngorongoro reserve.
Rift valley with lake Maniyara in the distance
Lake Maniyara on the rift valley
It was day long drive past the Rift valley ,vast empty grass lands ,
a dusty drive ending up in gentle climb to the top of the Ngorongoro crater.
Entrance to Ngorongoro conservation area
First view of the Ngorongoro crater
Ngorongoro forest lodge
Ngorongoro is an extinct volcanic crater. Animals have migrated to the bed of the crater long ago. The crater is huge about 20 miles across. The park is a veritable Garden Of Eden and I will let the pictures do the talking.

We were in a bush covered rest room when noises behind us alerted Nat to look backward and this and the next picture was the sight we saw. The elephant came with a stately gait and we beat a backward retreat step by step to our van. It gave the van a stare, let out loud hoot and sauntered away.
Pride of lions about to attack the herd of
wildebeest in the background
Final view of Nogorongoro
That night we relived our experience of the most fantastic place we had visited. If there was a Garden of Eden on earth this was it and we were privileged to visit it.
Early next morning we were off to Serengeti .We first drove to Olduvai gorge where the one of the oldest remains of the ancestors of man was discovered by Leakey. Then on to Naabi hill-a rocky out crop famous for its tigers. We did not see any tigers - they must have been sleeping. A long drive through the Serengeti plains made memorable by the sight of massive wildebeest migration. Soon there was a thunder storm and the plains were a sheet of water. The old Volkwagon van leaked water through the roof and we were soaked. Our luggage was drenched. Zak was apologetic when we asked if had any tarpaulins. “No rains at this time boss- very unusual”- said Zak in his Tazanian drawl. Unusual or not it again rained before we left Serengeti and our departure was delayed by a day.

Panoramic view of Olduvai
Olduvai gorge
Oldest foot print
With Masai family (no body else volunteered for this picture)

Rains in Serengeti
Wilde beest migration in Serengeti plains
Seronora lodge -Serengeti

Topeks
A view of Serengeti plains
Sunset over Srengeti plains
The pictures above give an idea of the vastness of the Serengeti plains. The migration of the wildebeest across the plains was sight to see. It was annual feature coinciding with the rainy season and the animals did not recognize any political barriers.
The Seronara lodge was in the middle of no where (so to say). It was built to blend with natural rock formation called ‘Kopchi’. At night and in early morning the corridors outside the rooms had animals especially gazelles. The rain continued next day and there were rivulets on the road ,some quite deep .So we had to wait another day before leaving. We went round to see the flooded pathways. The pictures below shows the extent of flooding.
Effect of rain in Serengeti
The food after a day became difficult to stomach what with ostrich eggs and meat without any vegetables. Murugu asked the chef what meat he was serving. Pat came the reply- ‘Dead animal. What do you think?’ Murugu subsisted on bread and butter till we left. Having nothing to do we wandered around the plains when the rains abated we came across a camp of tents occupied mainly by foreigners who were observing wild animals. We came across a young German girl doing her doctoral research in Cambridge. She was watching the mating habits of foxes! We invited her to Seronora lodge for dinner. Murugu insisted that we dress up decently. Both the girl’s and our evening was made of steak of dead animals and was downed with bottles of Dodoma wine! 
After an extra day in Serengeti, we left the next morning for Maniyara Game reserve. We had to cross the flooded crossing and after Nat waded to check the depth. The trawler in the picture below pulled across.
We decided to cut short our stay in Maniyara so that our trek up Kilimanjaro would not be affected very much. We ran out out of fuel for our van about an hour away from Arusha. After a long wait Murugu was able to clamber up a lorry, go to Arusha, find our contact and come back with fuel. The result was that we reached Maniyara lodge late in the evening. We got stranded in a lovely place with a fantastic view of Kilimanjaro.
Rescued at last
There were Masai tribes in the distance staring at us. We were later on told by our contact in Arusha that it was dangerous place to get stranded. In retrospect the look of terror on our driver Zak’s face should have warned us. We reached Maniyara lodge late in the evening. Next morning we had a fantastic view from the lodge located on the edge of the rift valley of the Maniyara lake. We had an early start the next day after breakfast and drove round the Maniyara game reserve
.
Maniyara was a small game reserve on the banks of Maniyara lake. It would have been lovely to walk round but as we had lost nearly two days we drove around. Herds of elephants and hippos lounging in the water were a sight to see.
In the afternoon we drove to Marangu village on the foothills of Kilimanjaro. We stayed in Kibo hotel, a small clean place. We relaxed in the evening and prepared for an early morning climb up by the Marengu route. This route was an easy climb with sleeping huts at each halt.
We had originally planned to climb to Horombo huts with night halts at Mandara huts and Horombo huts and then climb down. Our lost time on the way meant that we had to stop at Mandara huts and return.
Entrance -Marangu route
We decided to lighten our backpacks by not carrying beer. We were told there would be plenty of beer in Mandara hut. So up we went with great excitement. The vegetation was tropical to start with and higher up we had high grass land. As we went only to Mandara there was vegetation though thinning a bit at the end. It took us about seven hours and we reached in the afternoon. The gradient was not very steep but we soon ran out of water and Murugu suffered from cramps. It rained off and on. Those days no proper trekking shoes were available in India and we had to use hunter canvas shoes. You developed blisters after a long trek. First disappointment was no beer as the German party before us had depleted stocks. We had to make do with the sweet passion fruit drinks which made us even thirstier.

With the evening the weather turned chilly. We had an early dinner and with torch lights we sat round cursing the lack of beer. Nat suddenly jumped up shouting ‘Eureka. I got it. Where is that Raja?’ We walked to Raja’s cabin.
Nat- ‘Take that bottle out’
Raja looking furious like an African hunter facing a tiger denied having anything. Nat did not give up and threatened to search Raja’s backpack. Raja gave up and handed over a bottle of 12 year old Black Dog. This warmed us and carries us through till we slept.
Next morning we trekked down to Marangu village. Coming down was more difficult due to slippery slopes and our raw feet. We limped back to Kibo hotel. Hot baths, beer and lunch revived us. We wandered about the village and returned before dark as it was not very safe. After a few beers we found Murugu missing. Zac our guide looked very pale and kept muttering ’very unsafe’. We found Murugu in the village Art gallery admiring local art by candle light. We had to drag him back!
We had a bagful of Tanzanian currency at the end of the trip. We had contacted Musa and he sent over his nephew Idi to take it back. This was Idi’s first plane trip and he was delighted. We had a delightful evening made great by the hotel cook making some Indian dishes. The Dodoma wine and Tanzanian beer and local folk songs sung by Idi and others made it very lovely.
.
Next morning we packed up, and were driven to the Kilimanjaro International airport for our flight to Nairobi at night. We had our final view of the fantastic of Kilimanjaro with snow on the peak.We told ourselves one day we will be back and climb it. It never happened.

Kibo hotel
Bye , bye Kili
We bid goodbye to Zak, our guide and driver for the last few days. We had a long wait at the airport and spent our time reminiscing about our experiences. Idi left in the afternoon for Dar with the bag of Tanzanian money. It was a good thing as we found that it was not possible to change the money and also we were prohibited from taking Tanzanian money out. Murugu went round investigating the conversion rates with unofficial dealers and what others in our position did. Unfortunately one of was a custom official in mufti who passed on information to the security that we were trying to carry Tanzanian money out.
When the flight was announced for Nairobi, the security staff, all armed with AK rifles, duly warned us that carrying Tanzanian money out side was an offense and asked us to come clean. When we said we had nothing they did not believe us. One by one we were searched in the security room and as luck would have it I was the last. The guard decided that I was the one with the money! After an initial search the guard looked at my pocket and said I had a nice pen. I was carrying a gold Cross pen. I should have taken the broad hint but I was much younger and very angry and did not respond. What followed was complete stripping and internal examination. My friends were worried as the flight threatened to take off. At last in total disgust the security allowed me to go and I rushed partly dressed to the aircraft. Nat’s comment- “You stupid fool. Why did you not give him the pen.”
We were in Nairobi for three days .There is nothing much to write about Nairobi after the Tanzanian experience. Nairobi was a small town with a lot of British looks and people around. After 6pm it was unsafe to go out and most apartments and houses with were barricaded with iron grills. The only place I would mention is a restaurant on the outskirts called “Carnivore”, which served all sorts of meats. Surprisingly it had only one vegetable dish and that was the Kerela AVIAL!
We flew back to Madras and I was in the surgeon’s hands in a few days time. I recovered and was back to normal and was able to resume trekking with my friends with out any problems.
Raja Ramakrishnan
April 2008
Just terrific! The photographs are stunning, and the write-up, absolutely charming. I'm amazed at your memory for details - after so many years.
Kamini.
Posted by: Kamini | April 20, 2008 at 08:53 AM
I love it, so glad you did it!! Am also impressed by your memory!!
Posted by: | April 21, 2008 at 11:10 PM
This is a very remarkable post. You have recorded in such detail a trip that you made more than 20 years ago. What a memory!
The photographs were taken in a day when digital would probably have only meant fingers or numbers. Fantastic - the lions and the elephants, the giraffes, and you alone with the M'sai tribe - all of them. And those at Nogorongoro.
I am only sorry that you had to undergo that terrible experience at the airport.
Posted by: Raji | April 23, 2008 at 06:49 AM
Raja, you have wonderful memory power to write about your 20 year old trek. The pictures do speak for themselves and add glamour to your article.
Posted by: Maiji | April 23, 2008 at 07:22 AM
Very nice, appa! Just did a quick run through of all the pictures, and they are really breathtaking. Now I have to read slowly!
Tell mummy that all these days of hard labour in front of the computer have paid off!
Do you think you can split it up into several posts, one for each day or each part of the trip?
Ambika
Posted by: Ambika | April 28, 2008 at 08:29 AM
Oh WOW, this write-up and the photographs brought back such memories! I've been to all these places as a child and teenager, since we lived in Tanzania for 10 years. It's so thrilling to see photos of places that are so familiar from our own photos - just change the people in them and that would be it :) It was just lovely reading it all.
Posted by: shammi | May 13, 2008 at 08:42 AM
Thanks Shami for your appreciative comments
Raja Ramakrishnan
Posted by: Raja Ramakrishnan | May 13, 2008 at 09:30 AM
Thanks Shami for your appreciative comments
Raja Ramakrishnan
Posted by: | May 13, 2008 at 09:32 AM
R.R; Your travelogue on your visit to Tanzania is like a painting of the country, in fact as good as the photographs.Your description of being drenched in The Volkswagon is hilarious. Wasn't Tanzania at one time a German Colony? Did you notice any signs of it? All said your posting created a feeling of what I would describe as immediacy. Sampath
Posted by: B.T.Sampath | May 27, 2008 at 08:55 PM
Thanks BTS.Your comments much appreciated.
Did you read Goldilocks and the Bares part 1 and 2.All the picts are also there.
Regards
RR
Posted by: Raja Ramakrishnan | May 30, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Raja Uncle,
That was a lovely description of your trip to Kenya and Tanzania. Wonderful photos as well. I remember Papa coming back from that trip with a T-shirt that said "I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro... Have you?" You probably had one of your own.
I read your stories from time to time. They bring memories of home and everyone that I miss.
Much love, Kartik
Posted by: Kartik Natarajan | February 03, 2009 at 02:50 PM
Thanks Kartik.I am touched.My love to Lata,Abhimanyu and Samyukhta
Raja
Posted by: Raja Ramakrishnan | February 03, 2009 at 11:38 PM