Day 27: 24 August 2002 4:00 pm
The group erect their tents on precarious terraces on the side of a mountain. Let's hope no one sleep walks in the night.
After our "tourist trap" Maasai experience of two days ago, we leapt at the chance of doing an early morning Maasai village walk with an excellent guide named Lotti for Tsh 3000.
The village was wealthier than the one we had seen before and we could tell this from the superior construction of the huts. In some places, proper planks of wood had been used, and in some respects this made the village seem less authentic than the one we had seen in Ngorongoro.
Village Chief's wife
The village housed one extended family, the head of which was 80 years old with 10 wives and 50 children. The wealthier the man, the more wives he has; each subsequent wife costs 10 cattle.
Our guide told us that the Maasai originated from Ethiopia over 100 years ago, when they trekked up to Kenya and Tanzania, searching for pasture for their cattle. Their diet consists of milk and blood and occasionally meat during ceremonies and family gatherings. A man can become a Maasai warrior at the age of 15, when he is circumcised and learns how to survive in the bush. Maasai warriors can no longer kill lion before they are allowed to marry - it has been outlawed by the Government to preserve the lion population.
The heavy earrings and beaded jewellery are not symbolic - just for decoration. This is the same as the face markings, where cuts are made on each cheek and forehead and dirt rubbed into them to leave scars.
We were shown inside two huts that again had separate cooking, sleeping and goat areas. Milk is kept fresh for up to four days, without the aid of a fridge, in gourds hollowed out of the fruit of the sausage tree. It was fascinating and informative. I now understand why the Maasai wear blankets as it is so flipping cold and the wind whips across the plains.
After purchasing my bright red Maasai blanket for Tsh 4000, we left Arusha for the Usambara Mountains, part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, in north eastern Tanzania. After reaching Lushoto, it was a further 11km on a treacherous single lane track up the mountain to View Point camp site and what a view greeted us. Terraces for tents have been carved out of the mountainside overlooking a spectacular panorama. Clouds cascaded and flowed over the mountain tops into the valley. In fact the other truck have gone directly to Dar Es Salaam today, because their truck is slightly larger and would not be able to negotiate the narrow track - hooray!
The camp site was primitive and after three days on safari we really needed a bit of normality. I guess that's the trade off for the spectacular setting. The long drops with a view were filthy and the shower is just a tap above your head with water carried up in jerry cans on the heads of local women. I definitely wasn't planning to have a shower here and washing clothes would be impossible. We had accumulated a stock of dirty clothes from the safari and Tom has so few spare clothes that we were desperate to do some laundry. I'm not sure I can ever remember being this dirty before in my life, but we will have to wait until Zanzibar.
Positives: Panoramic views over the valley framed by cascading clouds over the tops of the mountains.
Negatives: So dirty, but a primitive campsite with no chance of doing any laundry.