Infinity, And Beyond

Linda Lou Burton posting from Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania– It was 4:40 when our lead vehicle left the pavement. The sign said Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge – that way. We got wiggly; energy sprouted out of our weariness; we were almost THERE, just a dusty road away. Two boys waved, we waved back; then just past that, our leader turned again; and stopped. Willy pulled beside. A small white building there, surely not our Lodge? What in the world? “This is a museum,” Willy said. “Ben wants you to learn about tanzanite. It’s a gem found in Tanzania.” WHAT? Everyone but me got out; grumbling about this No Warning stop. I was thinking of our Lodge, the infinity pool overlooking the lake, on the very tip edge of the escarpment a thousand feet above the Rift. I was thinking of lions that sleep in trees, and tuk-tuk rides on a banana farm; of lunch in a Swahili canteen. So many things to do in this unique and lovely place; just one night here; so little time. Ben walked to my window, in line with the glare in my eyes. “Lois and Mike have a reservation for a bike ride around the lake this afternoon,” I said in Mama Bear tone. “Oh, I canceled that,” was his reply. “You should go inside, there’s lots of pretty jewelry you can buy.”

It was 5:40 when we reached the Lodge, down the steps past the lily pool, into reception, the complimentary juice, the room assignments. “There’s entertainment by the pool at 6,” we were told. I looked at my watch. 6:05. Ben was handing off the keys. “Cottage 1 for you and Rick,” he said. “The closest! Downstairs!” Close, yes, but 16 rocky steps up hill, no rails. Our thatch-roofed rondavel was charming; twin beds-mosquito nets-a patio. Dark almost here; I changed my pants (remember why), grabbed my camera, headed for the pool. Cane got me down the 16 steps; I found a seat at the edge of the edge. Our entertainer was breathing fire. And so was I.

Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, https://www.serenahotels.com/lake-manyara

About Tanzanite: The Blue Gem. The world’s only source of tanzanite is located on a small patch of land at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. The myth is that a local Maasai saw a bolt of lightning come down from the sky and strike the ground turning all the rocks to a shimmering blue. The geological story is that about 585 million years ago as continents shifted, and the Great Rift Valley was created, minerals morphed together to create (what is now known as) tanzanite. The commercial story is that in 1967, when the first stone was “discovered” and determined not to be sapphire, Tiffany & Co christened it “tanzanite” and launched a marketing campaign proclaiming it “the new must-have.” Reasons: it is a thousand times rarer than diamonds, and it is a “single-generation” gemstone due to its limited supply – with the current mining rate, there are only 20 more years of tanzanite in the ground. Hurry up and invest! Tiffany says: Tanzanite can be found on only two places on earth – Tanzania, and Tiffany’s. The Tanzanian places to buy: The Tanzanite Experience, with stores all over – from Arusha to Serengeti to Zanzibar. And Lake Manyara.

The Tanzanite Experience https://www.tanzaniteexperience.com/tanzanite-knowledge/

A great Tanzanian MINING story, in 2020 a Tanzanian subsistence miner was awarded a government check for 7.74 billion Tanzanian shillings ($3.35 million) for the two largest tanzanite gemstones ever found. Each stone was about the size of a forearm; they were discovered by Saniniu Laizer in one of the tanzanite mines in the north of the country; the mines are surrounded by a wall to control cross-border smuggling of the gemstones.

Getting Our Bearings

Linda Lou Burton posting from Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania– I’ll call him Ben. That’s not his name, but a way of protecting the guilty, you see. “Ben” was our new guide, and “Ben” seems a fitting name because he never seemed to be where he should have been; nor was he able to get US to where we should have been, when we should have been there. Like this afternoon. There we sat, among the calla lilies and elegant service of the Arusha Coffee Lodge Garden Terrace, wondering what would happen next. ”Your new guide will be here soon,” was message one. “Someone will come to take you on a tour of the coffee plantation,” was message two, fifteen minutes later. What? “Someone will come to take you on a tour of Shanga” was the third message. I was so annoyed by then I asked “What is Shanga? And when does our guide arrive?” We were done with dessert by now, just sitting, and yawning. “Shanga is a workshop,” was the answer; no reference to our guide at all, or mention of what work went on in the workshop. And then, “Please come to the meeting room, just follow me.” Comfortable sofas, a fireplace, a huge map on the wall. But no guide. “Your guide will be here soon.” Eventually, he actually showed. He talked so long we began nodding off, as he quoted facts and figures about the geology ahead, pointing to the map; describing the Great Migration and the Great Serengeti and the greatness of Tanzania. Finally (finally!) we were escorted outside; our luggage now stashed in two new Globus 4x4s; our new drivers ready. Now into a GREEN 4×4; now with driver Willy. That’s his real name by the way; Willy was a gem.

Willy drove the last leg of our journey today; 75 miles from Arusha to our Lake Manyara Lodge. We traveled west on A104, through the Aidai Plains, in the basin of the Great Rift Valley. We turned northwest at Makuyuni, where we slowed to view a colorful, bustling market. Then through the village of Mto Wa Mbu, and the lush banana plantation, before climbing a thousand feet out of the valley to the edge of the escarpment, and our lodge.

Attention getters this afternoon – good paved highways, properly striped and maintained; hillsides covered with heavy duty power lines and communications towers; large black water tanks; brightly painted Jesus vans; and trucks, trucks, trucks. Oh yes, a baboon hiking down the highway to grab a banana, according to Willy. Tanzania has a very different vibe.

Next Post: Infinity, and Beyond

It Wasn’t Exactly A Bus

Linda Lou Burton posting from Arusha, Tanzania– Confusion. Inside Namanga’s Border Control Office, confusion reigned in signs and lines; blurred. Somebody pushed me out of one line into another, pulled me maybe. I had everything in hand: passport, Tanzanian visa, Yellow Fever Card, COVID documents. Cane in the other hand, leaning, wobbly. At the first window a man took my passport and simply walked away with it! Another push, someone grabbed my arm, another line. The gang was split, everyone confused, different lines; I was pushed again, to the front of a line, the counter. Another man, smiling at me. “You look confused,” he said. “Are you enjoying your visit?” “And you look very handsome,” I replied, “and not confused at all. So maybe you can tell me what is going on.” This made him laugh. I can’t tell you what happened next, but somehow everything I needed was stamped, signed, recorded, and my passport back in my possession. I staggered out of the room, a young man took my arm, oh yes, our driver, the one taking us to Arusha, on the big bus. “I need a restroom first,” I said. He led me around the corner to a room with open door;  three stalls, one stall with a hole-in-the-floor design; the next with a toilet but no door; the third with a door but a toilet with no seat. No paper anywhere. I chose the stall with the door; walked out with a wet spot on the back side of my pants. The driver led me towards our new vehicle; not a spacious bus, but a minivan! While we were inside our luggage was moved from the 4x4s; luggage for nine people now in a van, barely space for nine to sit! Mike and Lois were standing there; we scrambled into the front seats. “First come!” we said, unwilling to politely stuff ourselves in the back row. Mike took the front seat and busied himself on his phone. Lois and I crowded together; our luggage and backpacks squashed between our knees and the driver’s seatback. “My pants are wet” I whispered. We started laughing then; the restroom, the crowd, the confusion; the Hukana Matata sign across the dash. “No worries!” we laughed. The door of the van was open; two laughing women visible; a crowd gathered; arms reached inside with beaded goods, “Ten Dollar! Ten Dollar! Ten Dollar!” We stopped laughing; shook our heads, NO, please NO. NO. NO. Otis and Venita arrived; Otis attempted to negotiate a trade as Venita urged him to get in the van, NOW! Ed and Maureen and Judy arrived; slipped past the insistent vendoring crowd. Where was Rick? Where was Abdi? Still inside. Rick had his visa on his phone, but he didn’t take the paper copy in. Abdi helped; persuading the stick-by-the-rules governmental staff to print it from the phone; persuading them not to charge Rick $6 per page for the six pages it took, slowly, slowly (pole, pole). Then finally, everyone inside; goodbye to Abdi; the door of our “not exactly a bus” was closed. We headed for Arusha.

Arusha, Tanzania has a population of more than 400,000; another 300,000+ in the area surrounding. On the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley, it is near Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara National Park, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Meru in the Arusha National Park. At an elevation of 4,600 feet, Arusha’s climate is relatively cool and dry. Colleges and universities located here include the National College of Tourism, about which we will hear more this week. We reached our lunch stop and driver-vehicle switching place at noon; the Arusha Coffee Lodge, on a working coffee plantation. Here’s this 70-mile leg of today’s journey.

Next Post: Getting Our Bearings

Garden Luncheon, Arusha Coffee Lodge https://www.elewanacollection.com/arusha-coffee-lodge/dining

Going to Namanga

Linda Lou Burton posting from Namanga, Kenya– ”You’ll have a nice big bus from the border to Arusha,” Abdi informed us at breakfast. “You all get to ride together.” We cheered, and headed out, past the Simba lion that guarded the door of the dining room, across the timbered bridge and past the sign that warned of monkey bites; ready to ride. The Lodge at Lake Manyara was our destination today, Tanzania! To a person we were glad to be leaving Amboseli’s dust for the promise of the beautiful blue waters of a lake. That, however was almost 200 miles away, 5 hours as the crow flies, but we were not flying. We had many hurtles ahead; many stops; many waits. Many changes of vehicle, and personnel. From our Amboseli Lodge our two Globus drivers, Amos, and the one I’d never even met, would take us to Namanga, the last leg of our journey in Kenya.

Namanga is a border town, split between Kenya and Tanzania; about 100 miles south of Nairobi and 70 miles north of Arusha; its population is somewhere upwards of 10,000. Tourism supports the town – anyone from Nairobi going to Mt Kilimanjaro passes through the Namanga border crossing. Hills and mountains surround the town – Mt Kili is visible from there; so is Ol Doinyo Orok mountain, also called the Black Mountain, sacred to the Maasai; stretching to the north are the Maparasha Hills. The economy of Namanga also includes the import-export business; trucks haul goods back and forth non-stop between the two countries. Namanga’s main population is Maasai, Kikuyu second; other ethnicity groups include Kama, Somali, Borana, a mixed population.

So how did it go? What did we see between our 7:15 departure and 9:30 when we walked into the Namanga One Stop Border Post? Our route was C103 west after departing Amboseli NP, unpaved and dusty red for 50 miles. Take a look.

Next Post: It Wasn’t Exactly A Bus