First day at Entamanu Camp on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater

View at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater from Entamamu Camp

Nancy and I said goodbye to the rest of the family as we headed to the airport for our morning flight to Lake Manyara.  We were back in the world of the bush plane; several small plans lined up and took off from Arusha’s airport to various tiny airports, while the mountain loomed overhead in the distance. 

Planes at Arusha Airport

Our plane was big enough for perhaps fifteen passengers, but the only passenger besides us on our plane was a guide who was returning to his camp in the Serengeti — the next stop after ours – after a week at home in his company’s main office.  When he heard where we were going, he told us we would be in good hands

We could see the vastness of Lake Manyara as we approached it from the air

Lake Manyara from the air

We were picked up the Lake Manyara airport; we had another two hours of driving before we would reach our lodge.  The main crops in the area, our driver told us, were corn, soy and sunflowers; 75 %  of it was corn.  But not fishing, despite the proximity of Lake Manyara.  This side of Lake Manyara was within the conservation area, so fishing was only allowed on other side of the like. 

We passed through Karatu town, the last town before the crater and its conservation area, and then we were at the entrance to the park,





where our driver had to show his paperwork and wait for the stamp that would allow him to take us into the park and then to our lodge.  He warned us that it might take us awhile; he suggested that we wait inside a small museum, and he urged us to accompany him to the museum because the baboons in the parking lot were not shy about grabbing things from unwary tourists.  The museum had a nice model of the crater, and a larger model situating the crater within its surrounding areas

We had lots of time to read the placards more than once; apparently the computers were down and it took over a half hour for our driver to get the needed stamp.



After we entered the park, we began to see the land getting higher ahead of us – our driver explained that these were the Ngorongoro highlands, with the crater on the other side

Finally we left the paved road and began to follow a bumpy road that would become more familiar to us over the next couple of days.  It was the entrance to the Entamanu Camp

After a half hour more, we reached our camp.  I thought to myself, great, we have made it by early afternoon, so we would have time to get into the crater and start seeing animals!  Well, not quite.  No game drive until the following day – and our contract was quite specific: we were to have one and only one game drive.  Instead, we were told, after lunch you can rest until 4 PM, and then you can go for a walk to have a Masai experience.  I confess I thought we had already had a very nice Masai experience, at Africa Amini Life, and I was feeling a tad reluctant.  But Nancy wanted to do it and that is what we did

After a nice lunch – the dessert was grilled pineapple slices, making me determined to try that dish again at home – we had a chance to look around our new home.  Our lodging was a stand-alone tent sitting on a wooden platform,

 featuring a bathroom with his and her sinks

and a verandah that looked toward the crater’s rim. 

We were connected to the main eating and gathering area, as well as to other tents, by a series of paths

here is the verandah of the common area

also no view over the rim into the crater.  In fact, our lodgings were at least a kilometer back from the crater rim, and none of the current generation of lodgings are along the rim, consistent with the modern conservation approach. (from inside the crater the following day, we were able to see one of the two legacy lodges that sit right on the edge of the rim).

Walking to the outskirts of the complex, I found a number of concrete buildings under construction, some of them looking to be nearly ready for occupancy.

We began our walk for the afternoon with our Maasai guide, Kikiya, as well as Emanuel, an armed park ranger, who was with us just in the rare case that we might encounter a dangerous animal.  It turned out that we were to enjoy a nature walk before reaching a Maasai village. 

First, he introduced to a medicinal plant called the Sodom apple.  The spines on back of the leaf are dangerous for eyes; the leaf has to be held at a distance. 

The juice of the fruits stops bleeding, and dries out a wound

The leaves are used for washing dishes, and the stem as a toothbrush

The next plant, the hackweed, has a minty flavor.  It is an invasive plant from the hemp family, and is used for treating sunburn

   

This hole is for the nest of the fungus termite.





That termite does not build high mounds, which are needed in lowlands for ventilation, and for protection form aardvarks; there is no need here for protection from aardvarks which are not found in the highlands

Next, he noted wild asparagus (asparagus africanus),  growing intermingled with whistling thorn acacia

When I recited for Lowassa some of the characteristics of the whistling thorn acacia that we has been given at Amini African life, Kikiya expressed some interest that I knew this already. One thing I forgot in my listing, though, was that mentioned that tea from the whistling thorn acacia provides strength for recovering mom after childbirth, so Kikiya filled that one in

The next plant mentioned was bushman tea

It is rubbed on warriors to conceal body odor from wild animals; “warrior perfume” it is called.  The yellow flowers attract wild bees for honeymaking

Here was a giraffe footprint

in fact, we would see giraffe near the entrance of our lodging over the next couple of days

Here is a photograph looking to the west, toward the Serengeti, with a lake on right, and the Olduvai Gorge in the middle –

We would be heading that way in a couple of days.

As we continued, Kikiya gave us a long account of the origins of the Maasai people, and of the stages for growing boys who would begin herding small goats near village; once they reached manhood they would undergo a circumcision ceremony; it would be shameful for their families if thet were to cry out in pain during the cutting.  The ability to withstand the pain I considered to be a sign of the maturity and fortitude required for to be a warrior.  After men pass through the warrior stage, they either watch over cattle or sit in houses; their time is past.  The division of labor has women building houses as well as taking care of them.

And with that, we arrived at the final destination for our walk – a traditional Maasai boma, or village, the semi-permanent home for a group of Maasai families (we were told that they live in another area during part of the year). 

Caveat – Nancy and I both felt that the place had something of an artificial feel to it, much more so than the Maasai experience we had at Africa Amini Life, and later investigation gave me some reason to understand that this village is a bit artificial.  As I understand it, in retrospect Nomad Tanzania, the operator of Entamanu, may own the land on which the village is constructed, and may have recruited Maasai from other village to come live here as something of a cultural demonstration site.

This caveat aside: 

We passed through an acacia-lined outer wall (seen behind this hut),

as well as a corral inside where flocks sleep every night

 

We were greeted at the entrance to the boma area by a party of men and women

who began to perform the dance of greeting, followed by a contest of jumping up and down in which we guests were invited to participate.   OK, I’m s sucker for such things, and I promptly provided that white men can’t jump – or, at least, white guys approaching 70 can’t jump

Next came a demonstration of the old Boy Scouts trick of rubbing two sticks together to generate enough friction to make a fire.

Finally, and most interesting, the chance to enter one of the Maasai huts to see the inside of a typical dwelling.  Unfortunately, they chose one of the smaller ones so it was a real squeeze and duck for me to get inside, but I made it.  I;ll say this -- if this boma really is a wholly owned project of Nomad Tanzania, they ought to allow their guests to go into the larger huts!

Inside, there is a fire place in middle,

a small central skylight

an area for small goats to keep them safe

        and two sleeping areas, each covered by calfskin: one for children, one for parents

On the way back to camp in a safari vehicle, we spotted lions sitting in near the far end of a field as we drove by.

as well as a giraffe in the gathering dusk.    We heard back at camp that the front car saw a cape buffalo as well, but we did not.  We were ready for the game drive the following day, and we hoped to see game much closer!
Dinner back at Entamanu was a communal meal with all the guests at a single table.  Conversation toward the end or the meal was dominated by an account by Mohammed, the camp’s chief of staff, of his rise from dishwasher to chief of all Nomad camps, a job that he said he decided to yield in favor fo becoming the leader of a single camp, this one.  He is a Tutsi (albeit a Muslim, which I think is highly unusual for that group) who grew up in Rwanda: a brother got him this job, fulfilling the obligations of extended family (his nephew was the driver who took us two days later to Nomad’s Serengeti mobile camp).  And he spoke of a guest whom he encountered early in his career with Nomad who encouraged him to push for his own advancement, and provided financial support for his education along the way. 

He told chilling stories of the 1994 genocide, in which intermarriage between Hutu and Tutsi was sundered by Hutu killing Tutsi, even within their own families.  He was grateful for the relative peacefulness within Tanzania, and full of praise for the mutual tolerance toward religious groups of all stripes within Tanzania – the secret of the nation’s success, as he sees it —even if, as we understand, increasing political dictatorship means that dissenting voices are often suppressed.