Tanzania, The Home Stretch

(Navyn) I was a little worried about leaving Tanzania for last. I thought we might be too tired or too anxious to head home at the tail end of the trip. It is an important stop. This is the country where my forefathers are from and one that I have spent much time in trying to set up my first international business, yet in all these years neither Paul nor the girls have ever been here. Fortunately Tanzania didn’t disappoint.

Zanzibar

Zanzibar is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 30 miles off the coast of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The island looks like it belongs in the Caribbean, with gorgeous white sand beaches, turquoise waters and the tallest palm trees I’ve ever seen, yet tucked away are thousands of small tin shacks crowded together. The dhow fishing boats sail along the waterfront, as if we just time travelled to the 17^th century. Zanzibar is home to 800,000 people, half whom live below the poverty line on $300/year. The island is famous for its spices, specializing in cloves, cardamom, turmeric, lemongrass, nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper. In addition to spices, tourism is a major industry as people typically come here for a little relaxation after a safari on mainland Tanzania. The island is predominantly Muslim and was ruled by the Sultan of Oman for quite some time. Sadly, Zanzibar is also notoriously known for being the last open slave market in the world.

My grandmother and great grandmother were born in Zanzibar. When my dad (Papa) was a youngster, he used to take the ferry from Dar every four months at vacation time, with his mother and three siblings to visit his grandmother, aunt and cousins. The boat journey took around two hours and they would have a meal on the deck floor, which his mother had prepared. She would spread a small cloth and they would sit around it and share the food. His grandmother lived in historic Stone Town, which had houses built very close together separated only by a narrow alleyway. As kids they would run through these streets, playing hide and seek, marbles and other games, always causing trouble. His grandmother’s dinner table was rather large and my dad remembers sitting ON the table (no chairs) with his younger sister.

Papa took the girls to see his grandmother’s house, which was no longer standing and to his aunt’s house which has been beautifully maintained and is now home to the Spice Hotel. We toured the entire hotel ending on the top floor overlooking the city of Zanzibar. We walked the narrow streets while he told them stories of his youth which he remembered like it was yesterday. Every time we have visited here, Papa has taken me to the waterfront for sunset and to the local outdoor food market in Forodhani Park, where barbecues full of freshly caught fish and spicy kebabs of all kinds line the square. Thankfully there was even a Mr. Nutella food stall for Jolie who quickly became his best customer.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

En route home, we stopped in Dar es Salaam, the birthplace of my father. We walked through his old neighborhood to see his house as he told the girls stories of playing cricket and nagori in the small concrete alley adjacent to his house and how the kids in the neighborhood used to make paper boats and float them down the gutters in the rainy season. So many memories came flooding back.

My dad lost his father to tuberculosis when he was just a year old and his mother was pregnant with her fourth child. He was very lucky to have three uncles who came to the rescue and helped support the family and served as father figures to all the kids growing up. Papa told the girls stories of this home, which consisted of two rooms for the nine family members, the living room and the sleeping room. The four kids shared a set of bunk beds. He shared the top bunk with his brother, sleeping head to toe every night on a twin mattress. He also told them of the jaguar he used to take to school and the escalator he had in his tree house so you have to be sure to fact check Papa’s stories. He showed them his old school, where he was a stellar student, and the classrooms where he was both a math and geography teacher. What a perfect place to finish, learning about their roots and the ¼ Tanzanian in all of them.

Grumeti Reserve, bordering Serengeti National Park

After all of the extraordinary camps and safari drives we have done across six African countries I thought maybe we had seen it all. Nevertheless, on our first morning in Tanzania we decided to get up early, while the tse tse flies were still slumbering to survey our new surroundings. We drove to a water hole and parked the Land Cruiser to watch the zebras come down for an early morning drink. Ours was the only car there. We sat quietly, enjoying the solitude away from the far busier Kenyan Mara. Within minutes, eight majestic lions made their way to the water hole, convincing the skittish zebras to take a few steps back. Their reflections stared back at them as they lapped up the cool water. It seemed clear that the lions had recently eaten and took up their favorite activity of just lion around on one side of the pond. On the other, the zebras were joined by the wildebeests who were making their way towards us, dust flying, single file, as far as the eye could see. It was the most impressive display of animals we had seen. Thousands of apprehensive wildebeests, a dizzying number of zebras, hyenas scouting from afar, vultures circling overhead, a few warthogs and an entire pride of lions and us, all gathered together around the water hole, ready to start the day.

As the final day approached, Maya was getting more and more disappointed that after 53 days in the bush, we had still not seen a kill. I wasn’t sure she actually wanted to see such a thing bearing in mind her frequent fainting episodes in response to the slightest drop of blood or something dramatic, but she insisted nonetheless. Again, we headed out in the early morning, the savannah draped in a soft, warm, morning light, still sleepy eyed. The same pride of eight, two females and six males were still resting by the pond. As we have learned all to well, the females do all the work and the men lounge around and then are entitled to the food – before the females and cubs. (Typical behavior in humans too in many parts of the world but that discussion is for another day.) One of the females had been laying low in some sparse grasses, watching the wildebeests and zebras hesitantly taking their morning drink. She sat patiently for 30 minutes, just watching. Finally, when there were at least a hundred wildebeests and zebras in the water, she made her move. She took off with electrifying speed and singled out one wildebeest who quickly found himself trapped. He attempted to make a mad dash out of the water and was outrunning the lion who was quickly tiring. Fortunately for the lion, her female companion was on the other side of the pond waiting to take over. With fresh legs, and sheer power, the wildebeest didn’t stand a chance. We sat and watched in awe for over an hour. We identified body parts as they were being ripped apart and observed the fascinating family dynamics that played out just ten feet in front of us. You simply could not have scripted a grand finale like this to complete our safari adventures.

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I would like to thank our brilliant guide and science teacher Fausto, for sharing his incredible wealth of knowledge with our family. He taught us so much about so many things, from astronomy to geology to animals, plants, seasons, climates, ecosystems, energy, conservation, the list goes on, but most importantly, he challenged us to wonder and to be curious about the world around us. We were given the gift to explore and the even greater gift to have someone explain the how and why. His patience was extraordinary and the girls held onto his every word – even if it was exoskeleton. His wife Josie makes up the other half of www.africaboundsafaris.com, handling logistics and choosing a flawless, carefully planned itinerary. If anyone is inspired to go to Africa, I would highly recommend partnering with these two very special people.