Tanzania: The Vehicle

(This is the second post about our self-drive trip to Tanzania. The next post will be about the roads.)

Once we finally arrived in Tanzania, Mark and I were excited to see what the African counterpart of our truck and camper would look like.

Based just outside of Arusha in northern Tanzania, Paul and Erika Sweet of Shaw Safaris outfit Land Rovers with everything you need to camp and travel through the country. They offered us an itinerary of the multitude of parks there, and even made reservations for us to stay in "special" campsites out in the bush. We would still be driving and camping on our own, but we had their guidance to keep us from wandering aimlessly around Tanzania wondering where all the animals were.

Here's a look at the vehicle and it's contents:

In the back compartment there was a cooler and boxes containing food, pots, pans, plates/cups/bowls/flatware, utensils, cleaning supplies, water for washing, tools for basic road repairs and even a hand pump shower for cleaning up after long dusty days on the road.

Here's the rig fully unloaded for dinner. The table tucked up in the rack over the back door between the car and the tent.

The roof top tent unfolded into a nice penthouse suite.

I think Mark liked this job.

The tent doubled for shade on the sunny days.

The "picnic box" with all the plates, mugs, cups etc.

Our one burner stove, complete with tea kettle.

Each vehicle is equipped with a cell phone with a dual sim card (to double the chances of having service.) One of the biggest surprises for us was the cell phone coverage in Tanzania; with few exceptions, we had coverage in most of the areas we traveled. If we ran into trouble or had a question, there were pre-programmed numbers loaded into the phone that we could call night or day.

The interior was stripped down to the essentials. There was a radio but it was unnecessary; you couldn't have heard it anyway between the diesel engine and the pounding on the corrugated roads. The seats were surprisingly comfortable, which was a good thing having spent at least 7 hours a day sitting on them. Note the orange thing on the seat: a highly important item, it was a waterproof toilet paper holder we took to calling Lou Rawls (after the English phrase for toilet paper, loo rolls)

There was also a GPS mounted on the dash that helped guide us. This proved to be a saving grace, as the printed maps we had were not always up to date. We found roads there tend to get re-routed, added or sometimes disappear altogether after the rainy season. The roads themselves are sometimes only tracks across the savannah which might be the main route, or they could be a safari driver's off road exploration that peters out to nothing after a few kilometers. It was an education to say the least.

For security, there were two locking compartments hidden in the vehicle. We stored our passports, extra cash and other important papers in these for safe keeping.

The lone self-drive vehicle in a picnic area parking lot full of tour group vehicles, Tarangire National Park.

Since we were to be traveling through some remote places, the car was equipped with a high-lift jack, regular jack, tire repair kit and air compressor in case of a flat (or two—it also came with two spare tires.) The roads are rough, to say the least, and we saw multiple safari tour vehicles at the side of the road changing flat tires, their clients fanning themselves impatiently inside. We also had an accessory battery that ran the fridge, and served as a backup to the main. We had a box full of extra fluids (brake, steering, oil) and even a spare generator and air filter, along with a very complete set of tools to work on the vehicle. We also had along some recovery items to help pull ourselves out of mud/sand/ditches or anything else we may have gotten ourselves into.

All these things were extra insurance in a country where you might be able to make a phone call, but help would be perhaps a day or more away. We were fortunate not to have any major problems thanks to brand new tires and cautious driving.

Shaw supplied us with a starter food box, which was really helpful. It contained enough food for a couple days of meals plus basics that we probably would have forgotten to buy: salt, pepper, coffee, tea, milk, sugar, oil and spices. They also supplied a 10L bottle of drinking water to start us off. Drinking water was very important as the local water would have made us sick and, although we were there during the southern hemisphere's winter, it was still pretty warm during the day. There was a 52 liter refrigerator in the back as well, which plugged into the car's electrical. It was nice to have a cold drink at the end of a long day on the dusty road.

Last but not least, Shaw supplies coverage with Flying Doctors for emergency evacuation in case of serious injury. This was the most important factor in getting our mother's permission to go on this trip. (We would have gone anyway, but I think it made them feel better about it.)

Back after two weeks, the car (and us) dirtier but no worse for wear.

Mark got so fond of the car he named it "Plucky" as in, "this plucky little car can drive over/through/around anything!" It powered through some incredibly rough roads that would have torn our US truck/camper rig to pieces. Mark actually teared up when we had to leave it to go home; given time, I think he would have tried to arrange a shipping container and haul it back with us (much to the chagrin of Paul, the owner/outfitter/chief mechanic.)


It was the perfect vehicle for Tanzania's rough roads and varied terrain. Although Mark might be in mourning now, it was best to leave Plucky there. We just might need it again when we go back to explore more of the stunning parks in Tanzania.

"Plucky" waits for us near Ol Doinyo Lengai, an active volcano near Lake Natron in northern Tanzania.

(If you are interested in doing this yourself and want more information about what Shaw has to offer, feel free to email them at: info@shawsafaris.com)

Tanzania: The Itinerary

(This is the first installment in a series about our self-drive safari in Tanzania. The next post details the vehicle.)

We considered a lot of options when planning our trip to Africa. We wanted to drive ourselves and camp along the way, but never having been before we weren't sure where to begin. We looked at Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, checking into different outfitters in each country. We compared rates, parks, political upheaval, and the US Department of State travel alerts (don't believe everything you read there by the way—they tend to overly exaggerate situations.)

After months of indecision, we finally realized we were hesitating because there were just too many unknowns for us. We've done extensive traveling around the US and Canada, but experience here doesn't always translate to the third world. We needed help planning our route from someone who lived in the country and had driven the roads, camped in the parks, knew the customs and bureaucracy of the place. In the end, we went to the company we trusted the most, people we had met personally and talked with at the Overland Expo several years in a row: Shaw Safaris Ltd.

Shaw helped us come up with an itinerary for the trip. We relied on them to suggest a route that would show us the most diverse areas we could visit in the two weeks we had to spend there. With their help we came up with a Northern Circuit plan that would take us in a big loop, visiting everything from great plains to huge lakes to desert climates. Here's a look at our general route:

After flying into Mt. Kilimanjaro International Airport and spending a night in the Twiga Lodge (Shaw Safari headquarters near Arusha) we were to stop first at Arusha National Park, three minutes from their front gate. There we intended to get used to the vehicle, the animals and the general "being in Africa" feeling while recovering from our jet lag. If we had any questions or ran into any problems with the vehicle, we would be able to call or even drive back and talk it over. (This was not to be, as it turned out, courtesy of a cancelled flight out of SFO.)

After that we would continue on to Tarangire National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Lake Natron,  and Lake Manyara before returning to the lodge for a night before heading home.

Twiga Lodge, Shaw Safari headquarters.

Paul and Erika Sweet of Shaw not only came up with the itinerary, but gave us general driving times and a description of the road conditions, along with information about the parks. One of the major obstacles of a self-drive safari is having to navigate the parks' myriad of gate entry fees and regulations without the benefit of a hired guide. Each park has very particular rules about how, when and for how long you are allowed to be within its borders. As you can imagine, thousands of people pass through the parks every week and the vast majority of them are traveling with large safari companies that take care of all the paperwork for them. We would be functioning as our own "guide" so would be dealing directly with the somewhat bureaucratic systems ourselves.

(One thing we learned early on was that, while it takes a literal act of Congress to get the rules changed at the National Parks here in the United States, third world countries are governed more by individual gatekeepers. And those gatekeepers can decide to change the rules however and whenever they want. It was nice to have Shaw a phone call away when the bureaucracy got the best of us. More on that later.)

The cars await, Twiga Lodge.

Another important item Shaw helped us plan was budgeting. Tanzania is progressive in many ways in terms of an African nation, but most of the country still runs on a cash basis. A few of the larger parks took credit cards, but almost everything else had to be paid for in either US dollars or Tanzania shillings (TSh). Strange as it may seem, Tanzania accepts—and sometimes insists on— US currency (in fact, the US bills had to be new—2006 or newer—to combat counterfeiting.) There were ATMs in the larger cities that dispensed the local currency, but since we weren't going to be near many cities we had to carefully plot out how much each stop would cost us; fuel, park fees, food and water, even gifts for our worried relatives back home had to be calculated into the equation. We couldn't get any more US currency once we got there (without taking out a cash advance on a credit card at a major bank) and we had to ensure we had enough TSh to cover all the fuel stops (the fuel stations only accepted TSh.)

We ended up making a spreadsheet with columns for both currencies listing park fees, visas, gifts and estimated food and fuel costs, then throwing a few hundred dollars in on top of it all as extra insurance. The known expenses (like particular park fees) were tucked into separate envelopes and labeled clearly so we didn't spend it somewhere and come up short later. The spreadsheet turned out to be very helpful to have along; Tanzania time is 10 hours ahead of California, and after 24 hours of traveling we were addlebrained.

This all seems very complicated, and it did take some careful planning, but it wasn't really all that hard. I can't imagine doing it all on our own on our first international trip; having Shaw give us an outline of the park and trip expenses saved us hours and hours of picking through websites and researching the area.

Canyon de Chelly and The Navajo Nation (Part II)

(This post is a continuation of the trip described here)

Canyon de Chelly National Monument might not be as spectacular as the Grand Canyon, and it probably doesn't have the extensive cliff dwellings of  Mesa Verde National Park. But it does have it's own charm; our friend Peter, who has lived in the area for years, described it as an "intimate" canyon. I think that's pretty accurate and in fact, a large part of it's attraction.

The river has carved a
curving path through the canyon.

Cattle grazing at the water's edge, Canyon de Chelly

The park is actually made up of multiple canyons, all converging near the entrance and Visitor's Center. It's unusual in that people still live within the monument, farming and raising livestock as they have done for centuries. Since it's privately owned land, there is very limited access to the canyon floor itself; there is only one trail you can take to the bottom without hiring an authorized guide. There is no entrance fee, but of course if you hire a guide there will be a charge.

Map courtesy of www.nationalparktravel.com

The park is shaped in a rough "V" pattern and has two main roads flanking the sides: North Rim Drive overlooking the Canyon del Muerto and South Rim Drive that looks down on the Canyon de Chelly. The most popular is South Rim; it's the one with the famous Spider Rock formation featured on all the brochures and websites. Consequently, the North Rim Drive is much less crowded. That coupled with the fact that it has the best light for morning photography made it the perfect choice to start our tour.

There are four overlooks on the North Rim. We drove out to the farthest one and made our way back to the park entrance. As it turned out we ended up tailing a school bus full of kids out on a field trip from a local elementary school. Ordinarily it would have been annoying, but it was actually interesting to hang back and listen to the teachers explain what we were looking at, and why each area was important to their history as descendants of the canyon's inhabitants. Besides, watching a bunch of fidgety kids--some excited, some bored to tears--was pretty entertaining, especially since we weren't the ones in charge of keeping them from falling over the edge.

The Massacre Cave Overlook was a bit gruesome; it's situated in (possibly) the very spot Spanish soldiers stood shooting at Navajo people who were hiding in a cliffside cave. The Spanish claimed to have killed 90 warriors and 25 women and children, but according to Navajo accounts most of the men were away hunting at the time, so the actual victims were mostly women, children and old men.

A curve in Canyon del Muerto, Massacre Overlook

From Mummy Cave Overlook you can view the largest ancient Puebloan village preserved within the monument. Over 70 rooms are built into the cliffside on a rock shelf; when it was excavated in the 1920's two mummified bodies were found, well preserved by the dry climate and sheltered space.

Mummy Cave

Water running down the canyon walls leave a beautiful pattern

Antelope House Overlook has a great view of some ruins, but more impressively, pictographs and massive red cliff walls. The short hike out to the overlook was interesting as well, giving us a closer look at the surrounding vegetation and sandstone that make up the area.

Antelope House Ruins. If you look closely you can see pictographs above the ruins on the left.

The Ledge Ruin Overlook is not quite as impressive, but gave another perspective as it nears the confluence of the two canyons.

The canyons converge near the Ledge Ruin Overlook

A lone kiva sits in a small cave.

There are more stops along the South Rim and it's much more popular, thus more crowded. We decided to head all the way to the end of the road and work our way back, hoping to get a good photo of Spider Rock before the crowds arrived there.

Spider Rock: this red sandstone monolith is pretty impressive. It stands over 800 feet tall, towering over a bend in the river. Navajo legend has it that Spider Woman chose the top of this rock as home and one of her many functions in Navajo lore is to keep children in line; they are told if they don't behave she will carry them away to be eaten. The top of the formation is said to be colored white from the children's bones. Just goes to show there have been desperate parents in every culture, all through the ages.

Spider Rock, with a sprinkling of children's bones on top. Or possibly bird poop.

The short trail out to the Spider Rock overlook is lined with wildflowers

White House Ruins Overlook and Trail: this is the only trail leading into the canyon that doesn't require a guide. The trail follows switchbacks for a 600 foot elevation change down to the valley floor, where you can view the White House ruins nestled at the cliff bottom. It's called the White House not for it's governmental function, but for a white plastered room discovered in the upper tier of the collection. The hike is beautiful; it gives you a close up view of the many layers of rock that make up the canyon and even leads you through a couple of tunnels burrowed through the sandstone. At the bottom, you cross a bridge over the river, skirting a farmer's field (that was being planted the day we were there.) The ruins are behind a cyclone fence to keep people from doing what people tend to do; they are also guarded by a line of vendors hawking handmade jewelry, stone carvings and other offerings.

The White House Ruins

Sign on the gate protecting the White House ruins.

Faint petroglyphs carved into the cliff face above the ruins

The White House trail zig zags down into the canyon

Mark makes his way through one of the tunnels on the trail.

The trail follows crevices along the cliff face.

Flowers stand out against the red sandstone cliff base.

The bridge

A farmer plows his field in the shadow of the canyon wall.

Although I was a bit annoyed at first by the constant presence of vendors in the park, I must say they were not as bad as in some other areas of the world we've traveled (Jamaica comes to mind, where I was under a constant barrage from women grabbing my hair offering to braid it.) They might call out to you, but for the most part the vendors wait for a show of interest before trying to sell their wares. With unemployment being so high on the reservation, the sale of these items is often the only income available to some of the people.

A thunderstorm was gathering as we made our way back up the trail.

The wave patterns in this sandstone monolith stand out against the darkening sky.

We stopped at most of the overlooks along the canyon, but after a while they all start to look the same. We had tried to line up a guided canyon tour before we left for our trip, but when that fell through--coupled with the windy weather and a brewing thunderstorm--we decided we were satisfied with what we were able to see from the road and trail. If we pass through again we will definitely hire a guide to get a more personal perspective of the canyon. (Note: There is an office in the Cottonwood campground that can arrange for a guide; it's my understanding that you can hire a guide with a vehicle, or have them accompany you in your own vehicle.)

Overall, I liked the park very much. It was nothing like any of the National Parks or Monuments we have visited before, but once we adjusted our expectations it was an enjoyable experience. I admire what the Navajo Nation has undertaken; trying to share a beautiful natural feature and preserve a way of life while maintaining a bit of privacy is a tricky undertaking.

"The Road Home" Canyon de Chelly