Karatu

June 24

Just before sunrise from our cabin before breakfast. 6:29

Elephant strolling in front of our cabin.

Our early morning guide wishing us a good safari.

About 10 minutes before sunrise, our last morning at Burungi Lodge, looking toward the lake from the dining veranda, we see the same elephant that strolled past our room! 6:37

His early morning itch needs attention.

Another sunrise photo, this time with our elephant! 6:49

We travel from morning to early afternoon on the road to Karatu, making several stops. Here our group heads to yet another baobab tree. This time we're going to measure the circumference with our bodies! 7:22

Arms extending using our whole group including trip leaders and drivers...(this is about 1/2 the group)...

...(and the other half of group)...we have to do this twice to encircle the entire tree!

Group inspecting baobab tree. 7:29

Allen demontrates how hunters would climb trees to get honey.

Linda "climbs" the pegs used by the honey hunters. They always put in new pegs as the tree slowly expels the older pegs.

Honey combs that had been removed from the tree.

Rugs for sale along the side of the road. 8am.

Along the road we see traditional Masai dwellings. 8:16

Cattle and Masai herders. 8:56

We also see more modern homes. 9am.

We arrive in the town of Mto Wa Mbu and stop at a food market. Our local guide Angel sends each couple in our group to look for certain produce items.

We start our search. We're only given the Swahili name of the item. Linda and Emerson are tasked with finding and purchasing embe with 2000 Tanzanian shillings.

We encounter a woman selling embe and learn that it's mangos! She wanted more than the 2000 shillings but eventually took what we had.

More of the market.

Red bananas! 9:41

We stop at a spice vendor in the market.

What is this spice?

After our market experience we head to a grass hut to learn about banana beer. 10:05

Banana beer

Mike samples the beer. The cup was passed around and we all had a sip.

We also learn about banana wine. 10:08

Linda gets a turn at tasting the wine...not bad!

Starting to help early. A view along the street.

We visit a middle class household. When a couple have children they are known by the name of their first child. There first child is Frank so this is the home of Mama Frank and Papa Frank.

Looking back toward the kitchen area at Mama Frank's. 10:34

We're given a tour of the home. This is the daughter's room. She's attending a boarding school but was home today.

Mama Frank and daughter.

In the kitchen.

We walk outside to where we will have lunch. 11:30

We enjoy a look at their outdoor kitchen where lunch is being prepared for us. Allen and Debbie here with Mama Frank.

Mama Frank doing final meal prep. 11:39

Food table.

Another view of the food. 11:30

Angel tells us what we're having for lunch.

We partake of this lovely buffet lunch.

Yum.

Sitting down together. 12:11

Back on the road to our next destination. 12:46

Sunflowers are a cash crop that we see often on our drives. 12:55

Allen does a little dance when we arrive at Tloma Lodge.

Our place for the next three nights, the Tloma Lodge in Karatu has probably the nicest accomodations of our entire trip!

Our room had 3 canopy beds! 1:53

We slept in this one.

Our bathroom.

Our patio.

Peter, our local Karatu guide, takes us on a short walk from our lodge to the nearby village. 4:05

Eucalyptus tree.

Kingoeuphobia (sp) bushmill poison plant.

Bottlebrush tree.

Avocado and papaya trees.

Quinine tree.

Baby coffee plants.

Guava tree.

A short distance from our hotel we visit a small coffee plantation (30 acres??) The coffee plants are growing under quinine trees.

We meet the young family. 4:22

Peter explains about coffee grown here.

Crushing the hulls to get to the beans. The beans are hard enough that they are not damaged.

Emerson and Pat have a turn at crushing the hulls to get to the beans. The beans are hard enough that they are not damaged.

Separating the beans.

Emerson is pretty good at this!

Peter explains about the time it takes to grow a coffee plant.

Coffee roasting. 4:44

Beans

Coffee transferred to cooling tray.

Shaking the coffee in the cooling tray.

She is sewing bags for the beans. The beans are first sealed into a plastic bag.

Mike turns the roaster.

Linda A and Patricia grind some beans.

Pressing the coffee.

Serving the coffee.

Stingless bees.

Peter and the bees.

Bee hives on the home and general video of the entire area.

The home.

Stingless honey bees.

The bees honey is quite prized.

Peter and the cena spectabilus tree.

Walking back to our hotel we stopped at a carving shop. This young man is in mid production of a difficult carving.

Wood carver shows us ebony wood...

...then blood wood...

...and finally rose wood.

The final version of similar piece we saw the young carver was working on.

Masterpiece up close.

Walking back to our lodge after the woodshop, Emerson, Allen and local youth get into playing ball. 5:35

Evening meal.

June 25

Heading out for the day. 7:10am

On the road to Ngorongoro conservation area.

A display of early hominids found inside the Ngorongoro Conservation area.

A display of the conservation bounderies. Inside the conservation area is Ngorongoro crater which is the collapsed caldera of an ancient volcano.

You don't want to mess with the baboons.

Emerson and Linda on rim of caldera. 8:06

Looking down into the caldera.

A park ranger checks us before we can enter.

Going down into the caldera we pass some zebras going the other way. 9:18

Cape buffalo. 9:30

More zebras and wildebeests. 9:36

Lots of wildebeast and zebra. The wildebeasts in the caldera do not migrate.

More wildebeasts. In the Serengeti we will hear the sounds they make from inside our tent.

Wildebeests and zebras. 9:40

We have a nice snack.

Group photo.

Speke's weavers seen near the lake. 10:45

Waiting for us to drop something, we're asked to be careful not to inadvertantley feed them.

The lake. 11am

This was the only mobile food stand we saw while driving around the caldera. (We had our own food so we skipped this!)

Kim checks our perimeter along the lake (note hippos in the water). Kim was a part of the Meiu tribe.

Hippos out of the water.

Zebras. 11:11

A Kori Bustard.

A pair of Kori Bustards. 11:58.

Kori Bustard on Allen's Birds of East Africa app. (Must have been a cool morning - Allen's wearing gloves!)

A grey crowned crane. You can see why Allen thinks it should be called a gold crowned crane.

A grey crowned crane flying.

And one landing next to a hippo.

There are lions.

Caldera prairie. 1:56

Cape buffalo. 2:10

You looking at me!

Emerson (who has a fondness for them) did get to see some pink flamingoes, though at a bit of a distance.

Baboons. 2:32

We head up and out of the caldera...7

...and we're back on the rim as we leave this amazing region. 2:58

On the way back to our hotel we stop at the (last Sunday of the month) Karatu flea market. 4pm

They sell everything here, even solar panels.

Just an amazing crowd of locals.

Colorful shopping bags for sale.

Lots of cattle, goats and sheep for sale...

...as well as used clothing.

Fresh meat.

Cooking meat over an open fire.

Pidgeon peas.

We head back to our vehicles after this very interesting stop. 4:27

Happy hour. 6:36

June 26

As we head out the next morning, we see that it is harvest season and they are collecting corn stalks for their cattle.

On the road we pass fields where some harvesting has been done. 7:58

More fields. 8:01

We pass a World Vision water station. 8:50

We are on our way to visit two villages - The first is a village of the Hadzabe tribe. Then second is the Datoga tribe.

Fields ready for onions.

Our local guide is from the Datoka tribe. Before we arrive at the village we stop for a bit and he shows us sorgum. 8:57

More about sorgum.

We arrive at Hadzabe village. 9:12

The Hadzabe have been pushed around by other tribes but now have their own territory set aside by the government. The total population is around 1200 to 1500 with 400 or so living traditionally. We visit a traditional group. Our guide tells us he always has to check ahead on the tribe's location before bringing tourists to see them. The reason is they are contantly on the move to where the best game and foraging food is located.

Our guide shows how a local bush becomes a toothbrush.

Glenn chewing on a toothbrush.

Linda gets to chew her own toothbrush.

Approaching a baobab tree.

Allen and Debbie at the cavity of the tree.

We start our visit with the Hadzabe. They use a click language. We will learn how and why the tribe utilizes this tree hollow.

The three Hadzabe tribesman inside the tree with us. 9:25

We exit to head to where the chief will explain more about the tribe.

"Tire" sandals. Yep, these are made from vehicle tires! Chief Joseph was also wearing "Tire" sandles.

The chief greets us. The guys are cooking a porcupine they caught that morning. 9:30

Around the campfire. The chief talks about cooking porcupine, arrow making, and Glen and Debbie inspect a necklace made of porcupine quills.

Around the campfire. 9:30

Around the campfire Debbie asks "where are the women?".

Around the campfire the leader makes animal sounds including baboon. There are different arrows for each animal they hunt.

Each arrow is prepared for the particular animal it is to be used on. Mike Farley photo

Around the campfire.

Linda gets a sliver of the porcupine. It was kind of sweet and tasted good.

We introduce ourselves to each other. Some of the tribesmen have very descriptive names! Then the chief explains the different uses for different animals. Very animated, friendly and funny chief! You couldn't help but really like these guys.

Group circle. 9:51

Emerson steps up to repeat phrases and apparently does a good job.

Fire starting demonstration. A boy, about 10 years old, helps with this. We're told the tribe doesn't keep track of their ages and don't celebrate birthdays!

Spearhead. 10am.

Hadzabe with bow and arrows getting ready to shoot.

Warriors shooting.

Group photo. 10:08

Emerson and Linda with Hadzabe. 10:09

Camiphora Africana (mosquito tree). 10:20

Repellent on arm.

Skin softener from the tree sap.

Pat successfully knocks bottle with bow and arrow!! 10:29

Hadzabe woman doing some beadwork. 10:37

Chief's wife. The women were somewhat subdued. Our guides tell us this may be due to smoking marijuana, a favorite passtime for this tribe of people.

Close up of recent fire shows an economic use of the wood.

We are treated to a demonstration of their dance and song. A cute toddler points to our group and beckons us to join in the dance!

We get a chance to check our their dwellings, both outside ... 10:53

...and in.

As we get ready to leave this village our group sees a young Hadzabe having a new experience!

Turns out he is using binoculars for the first time! 10:56

We cross a river on our way to visit the next tribe.

Introductions to Datoga tribe. 11:36

Female Datoga attire. 11:36

Male Datoga attire.

Bracelets made by this tribe. They are skilled craftsmen, and today we will learn about that.

We head into the structure where metalwork is done.

The Datoga do a lot of metal working. Here they are melting some brass. They use bellows made of goat skins to fan the fire.

Forming a nail into a spear point, also added the barbs needed for arrowhead used to hunt baboons. He converted the nail to a spear point in just a few minutes.

Arrowhead made from a nail. They trade these with the Hadzabe tribe.

Our group taking it all in.

Demonstration of bending a bracelet.

Bracelet. 11:49

More activity inside this factory.

Forming a nail into a spear point. He converted the nail to a spear point in just a few minutes.

Shopping. 11:59

We head over to see the rest of the village.

Datoga women. 12:07

Datoga women and OAT gals.

Inside a Datoga home used as a kitchen. 12:09

Grinding maize flour.

Linda takes a turn.

Where cooking is done.

Back at our lodge for lunch, we enjoy dessert. 2:43

After lunch and a rest, we go to neaby village to visit a still. The bootlegger has to be careful that the government doesn't catch him.

Bootlegger and his family. His hope is to earn enough with his regular farming and bootlegging to send his children to school so they can enjoy productive lives without resorting to this kind of side work. 4:09