Lake Eyasi

It is only a two hour drive to Mang'ola, Lake Eyasi 's primary town, from the main Ngorongoro Crater/Serengeti road (or a three day hike down the rift escarpment! See Active Safari), albeit on an extremely rough track, but once at the lake you realize you have entered a very different world. I had to camp when I first visited the lake, which was only eight years ago. Comfortable accommodations are recent additions and the evidence that more and more people are including a stop here on their safari. The Datoga and Hadzabe people are the primary reasons for coming to Eyasi. In light of what a safari costs, visitors can't stay much longer than is needed to make the requisite visits with these people, who are accommodating these days about all the scrutiny because they receive gifts of meal. However, I have always found Lake Eyasi special. Like Lake Natron , it exudes a palpable sense of the planet's longevity. If you have the time, you can keep your costs in check by camping (there are two good options), and enjoy the Eyasi area for its simple pleasures, such as a cold drink in Mang'ola's bar, sunset on the lake shore, a look at its green onion industry, its bands of cheering children. It is safe to go on foot everywhere. The last time I was there my fellow campers included archeology students from the University of Dar es Salaam in the area to study the rock paintings the Hadza protect as their cultural heritage.

For more about the Datoga and Hadza please see Culture.

The Hadza face a new threat from a controversial idea to lease their ancestral lands in the Yaeda Valley to an Arab hunting company from the Gulf. For a related article on Arabs and hunting please go to www.safaritalk.net. See Features-Articles-Killing the Killing Fields of Loliondo by Ted Botha.