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Lake Tanganyika
Sunday, August 29 These fisherman can catch 20 lb fish from these kayaks with a hand line (see photo below). |
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Lake Tanganyika
Sunday, August 29 These fisherman can catch 20 lb fish from these kayaks with a hand line (see photo below). |
| After eating breakfast and packing our stuff, we bid farewell to Diana's sister and her family (they decided not to join us for the last part of our safari), to our drivers Mohamed and Abraham, and to our guide Charles. Charles flew back to Arusha with Diana's sister after we left. One of the drivers took a duffel full of our souvenirs with him so that we could pick them up on our way back through Arusha at the end of the trip. |
| We took a charter flight on a small six-passenger Cessna to Mahale. Since there were only five of us including the pilot, we had no trouble fitting our bags and dealing with the weight, despite the fact that we were over our "official" weight limit of 33lbs of luggage per person. We had to land in Mwanza to refuel after about a 90 minute flight skirting Lake Victoria. As we took off from Mwanza, we saw the broken shell of a jetliner that had crashed there a while ago. This didn't instill a lot of confidence in Tanzanian air travel, but all the flights went fine. |
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We landed on a small airstrip right next to Lake Tanganyika. We hadn't
flown over any roads in quite a long time. The airstrip had been made by
hand since there was no way to bring in road building equipment.
Emma, one of the co-managers of the camp we were staying at, met us at the plane. We hopped aboard a small outboard motor boat while our gear was loaded, and headed out to the dhow which was anchored about 50 yards off shore. A dhow is a traditional Arabian wooden boat - ours was about 30 feet long with a flat wooden deck and a nice awning covering the rear 3/4s. A few foam cushions were laid out along the front under the awning providing a comfortable place to sit or take a snooze. |
| The dhow had a little engine trouble at first, but the boat driver and
his companion seemed to be capable mechanics. They jumped down into the
hold with their tool box and after about 15 minutes managed to repair
the engine. If you're as remote as we were, I suppose you have to learn
to be fairly self-sufficient. It was so pleasant out on the lake, lying
on the dhow cushions, that we weren't at all in a hurry.
As we traveled up the lake, we came upon some fisherman in small wooden kayaks. They had been fairly successful, and one offered to sell us a large lake perch. Emma did a little negotiating and we had dinner for the evening. |
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| Once we were underway, we decided we were hungry and Emma provided food and drinks. The chef had prepared lasagna sandwiches, which as weird as it sounds, actually tasted quite good. |
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We passed a small fishing village on the lake not far from
the airstrip. They had hundreds of fish laid out on mats on the beech to
dry. Emma said that the fisherman go out at night in their boats with
lanterns to catch many of the fish.
As we got closer to the camp where we were staying, we saw about a dozen chimps on the beech. Apparently, this is quite rare since the chimps don't like to be so exposed. |
| We arrived at the camp in mid afternoon and, after taking a quick
tour, took a nice swim in the lake. The sandy beach extended deep into
the water, and the water temperature was very pleasant - I'd estimate in
the high seventies. We were the only ones at the camp except for Emma,
Ben, and the half dozen other camp staff.
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| They were always at our beckon
call to provide drinks, snacks, hot water for showers or whatever.
Sitting on the beach and looking out onto the water, it felt like we
were on a deserted tropical island, but without the salty smell I
normally associate with the ocean. Very relaxing.
We met Ben, the other co-manager of the camp, at dinner and talked about the plans for the next day. |