Tarangire National Park to Lake Natron

 Today we were driving from Tarangire to Lake Natron. Before we left Tarangire we did a game drive. Now, yesterday afternoon someone had seen a leopard not too far from our lodge but by the time we got there it had disappeared into the undergrowth. Anyway this morning we went looking for it again in the same area. We joined a couple of other cars and with the aid of binoculars could see a part of its body but no head. Alladin then decided that if we drove back on ourselves down a smaller less used track we might get a better view….and after a little bit of searching we eventually found it. This is when it pays to have a good guide who really knows the park as we were the only car to do this.

Other notable sightings this morning were a lion up a tree and a Southern Ground Hornbill.

We left the park gate by around 11 and drove about an hour to Mto wa Mbu where we stopped for lunch and fuel. This was where the tarmac road ended for us.

It was now a further 4 hour drive to Lake Natron. The road was pretty rough but the scenery was great. We made a couple of stops, one at a view point and one at a crater called Shoma ya Mungu (locally loosely translated as home of god). At the crater there were a group of Massai women selling trinkets. I am not really a fan of this type of thing but I did feel sorry for them as they must hardly get any passing trade, we had seen very few other cars on we left Mto wa Mbu. In the end one women called Maria approached me so after some bartering, I did buy 3 bracelets from her. This served a dual purpose, as I felt I had supported the local community and it also stopped all the other women pestering me as I just showed them the bracelets I had already bought.

Once we got to Lake Natron we had to stop at the local village. Alladin had to go and pay a fee at the village office. This was also where we had to book and pay for any local activities we wanted to do. Pete and I had already told Alladin that we wanted to go down to the lake to see the flamingoes and we also wanted to do the hike to the waterfall.

Alladin came back from the office with a guy called Elias who would be our guide the following day. Elias offered us various options with regard to visiting the lake but in the end we decided we would do a drive further around the lake as this was where there were more flamingoes rather than a hike that took you to a closer part of the lake that only had a small number of flamingoes.

Having made our arrangements for tomorrow we drove a further 9 kilometres around the lake to Africa Safari Lake Natron where we would be staying for the next 2 nights.

As usual we were given a welcome talk and a glass of fruit juice and then shown to our tent. This turned out to be a “small house” but with canvas sides, with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and kitchenette.

Our view from our terrace looked out over Lake Natron.

The lodge also had a swimming pool and large bar/restaurant area.

We had a lovely shower before dinner (one of the best showers I have had in Tanzania). Dinner here was buffet style and of average quality but was all fine. However we did have to eat in the dark!! The manager told us that they were having a problem with lake flies who were attracted to the light once it got dark. So for this reason dinner would start at 6pm so that they didn’t need to put the lights on. However having sat down in the restaurant at 6 the food wasn’t actually ready until 6.30pm by which time it was already starting to get dark. So by the time we had finished our soup we need to use a torch to be able to see see what we were selecting from the buffet and to see what we were eating!! All part of being in Africa.😀