A few days at Ngare Sero

The next leg of our trip, to the resort at Ngare Sero, marked the most disappointing part of our trip.  The place was not without its attractions.  The lodge is a former plantation founded by an officer in the German Army, which that conquered the area in the mid 1880's.  The main building of the lodge is the former mansion; it contains a few sleeping rooms as well as dining areas and sitting rooms for guests.

As we entered the lodge's grounds, we crossed this nice footbridge and passed a lake

 From the porch of the second floor or the main building. Mt. Kilimanjaro can be seen poking above the trees



Behind the main building is a large lawn, with a tower in the middle

The extensive grounds are lovely, including a large pool long enough for lap-swimming, a series of nature paths (although we found the supplied map of the grounds confusing), a large lake on which the grandchildren were able to enjoy a boat-ride.    The grounds are maintained as a conservancy, so monkeys can be seen flitting in the trees near where we ate; there were bird and exotic plants galore, including this interesting spiked vine. 

But there isn’t much to do when the weather is bad, and although their web site touts tours that the lodge can arrange, some of which were among our reasons for visiting, it turns out those need to be arranged in advance because they have only a limited number of cars and guides — and we ended up missing out.

We arrived in the mid-afternoon, and our bags went off to our rooms, two rooms at the end of line of adjoining rooms in back of main lodge and across the lawn.  We were given the wi-fi password that we could use for Internet connection from our rooms, and when I called into the reception to report that I could not find any available networks, I was promised prompt help.  Which, never arrived, because, in fact, the lodge’s wi-fi network was so weak that my phone or laptop could only pick it up within 25 for 50 feet of the main office.  Now, it is fine being basically off the grid, with connectivity available only in public areas (in fact, the limited connectivity throughout Tanzania is one reason I am blogging this trip only after getting home) but I did not appreciate the lack of candor about the limits on connectivity.

We enjoyed a swim in the afternoon of our arrival, and headed in for an early dinner.  Although the place touts itself as being child friendly, the fine print indicated that they want small children to be done with dining by 6:30, to ensure a more peaceful experience for the grownups.  I can understand that – our grandchildren can be obstreperous when dining out.  But actually getting the food that early turns out to be a problem.  We were assigned a particular dining area away from where most people were eating – and it was a nice location, an outdoor space covered with tenting material

and near the trees where the black-and-white colobus monkeys could often bee seen during the breakfast period. 






There was also a dining area down closer to the lake; we had a lunch there during our stay, and it was my impression that the lodge was making an effort to cycle all of the guests through that eating area.  It had a more romantic feel in the evenings with lighting by small bulbs







Meals were well prepared; they were consistently served buffet style– rather than putting the array of dishes on our table, they would be arranged on a table nearby, to which we would go up to fill our plates. 


There would generally be a pureed soup, followed by main courses, and a dessert.

We tried to make arrangements for a game drive in Arusha National Park, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the following day, but it appeared that the lodge did not have enough driving capacity to match us up with somebody until the following day (our second and final full day at the lodge), so we resolved to find other things to do for our first full day at Ngare Sero.

We awoke to the sounds of howler monkeys (as well as calls to prayer from a neighboring mosque) and headed to our eating area for breakfast – there was a nice enough buffet of fruits salad, ypougurt and other cold items along with bread;

and then we had a choice or orders including omelettes, pancakes and eggs and bacon/sausage sides.  For our day’s activities, we began with a boat ride, looking at herons as well as a cormorant and an eagle perched on branches and trees along the shoreline

There were horses being let out to play and graze on the lodge’s lawn




They got rough enough with each other that we were worried about walking too close across the lawn

On a walk along a road at the edge of the lodge’s grounds we spotted Sykes monkeys in the trees (too far in to be caught on camera)


After lunch, the grandchildren went in for their afternoon naps, and Nancy and I took a walk through a neighboring village with Jackson, a guide who works for the lodge.    The village is called Nshupu, and is populated by Wameru tribe (Wa is people in Swahili, and Meru is the mountain that could be seen rising in the mist behind the village. 

Most of the houses lack their own water supply.  Rather, large water tanks are scAttered thrOugh the area, filled by tankers that come through from time to time





The complex of houses behind this wall – a set of buildings belonging to an extended family —  has its own common water tank



These bare walls are a common sight in the area, and indeed everywhere we went in Tanzania and Zanzibar



Individuals do not generally have access to anything like a construction loan.  Instead, you build some of a prospective building when you have the funds to do so –then those walls wait until you have enough cash to build some more walls, or to add a roof, and so on.  It make take many years from the building of the first wall until a building is complete. 

We saw a variety of houses in the village, some substantial, some very basic, maybe even without glass in the windows.  Each house has a cow, or some goats; and maybe chickens.  Corn and bananas are the main crops grown, along with some beans.

The houses were often behind walls or fences, featuring some agricultural plantings as well as a cow or two













Here is a public water fountain




And here, a woman coming with an empty plastic judge to fill at the fountain

This sign marks the edge of the Ngare Sero forest conservancy, banning the cutting of  wood or leaving plastic. The fine for violations is 300,000 Tanzanian shillings – at about$150 US, this ois a month’s salary.

This is a sign for a local primary school up the road




This is a local Catholic Church



It sounded like choir practice inside.  Mainland Tanzania is overwhelmingly Christian; we also passed some Lutheran churches nearby (including one fairly large complex), and we saw a sign for a Seventh Day Adventist church.

We spent time walking around the Nshupu Secondary School.  Admission is by a competitive national exam; we had the impressions that a very small fraction of students from areas like this make it to that level of education.  There is no tuition fee but you have to buy books

Swahili is overwhelmingly the language of Tanzania, along with various local language (such as Maa for the Maasai).  But at the secondary level, English is expected as the language of advancement

The school is also used as a community gathering place; no central or “downtown” area for the 

This house’s residents are wealthy enough to worry about theft by intruders.  

we didn’t see many protections like this outside towns
   
This is an illegal brick yard

We had a nice dinner and went to sleep looking forward to our game viewing in Arusha National Park the next day – actually, both a game drive and a ranger-led game walk.   But it rained hard that night, and the rain continued into the next morning.  We were told that the drive and walk could not be done in the rain.  Because we would be using open safari vehicles?  I don’t know, but other places manage to do game drives in the rain.  We hoped that it might clear up, but by late morning it was clear that rain was going to continue off and on all day, and that our chance to visit Arusha National Park together had been lost (Nancy and I were due to fly out the next morning right after breakfast.  But Sam and Nafisa and their family had an evening flight home the following day, so they were able to have a great day in the park together, Abe and Soraya’s first chance to see animals in the wild!)

And here is where Ngare Sero’s limitations as a resort become most painfully obvious.  It was raining enough of the time that we couldn’t go swimming.  The lodge has a large game and reading room but the only games were a couple of sets of boards stones with no explanations of rules, and the light was much too dim to allow comfortable reading. 

So we spent much of the sitting on the porches, giving the children a chance to run around on the lawns when the rain wasn’t too hard.  ice to be together, to be sure, and in a pretty location, but it was an awfully espensive place to be lolling around on porches.  It pretty much felt like a wasted vacation day.

Happily, thing were about to improve the next day! We were off to the Ngorongoro Crater, the vacation's highlight!