safari njema

On Sunday afternoon, April 11, I left Moshi to go on safari. First we picked up my travel companions, 18-year-old Rachael from England and 19-year-old Boldwin from Holland, who are volunteering at an orphanage outside of Moshi. From there we drove out, through the dark and endless countryside, to Mto wa Mbu (“River of Mosquitoes”), the village outside of Lake Manyara National Park After a walk through the village and a drink (Safari beer for me, since I was on Safari) at a local bar, we had a late dinner and then went to bed in our clean and basic ensuite room at Fig Resort. We woke up early Monday morning for an early morning game drive in the park. En route to the hot springs we saw plenty of baboons, some giraffes, zebras, impalas, and buffalos. But really we were looking for elephants and some of the famous tree-climbing lions. We stopped to eat our boxed breakfast at the hot springs, and then continued deeper into the park, in search of lions. And then we got stuck in a muddy ditch.

At first I stayed in the car, reading a little, not sure what I could do to help and afraid to get out of the car lest a wild animal suddenly appear. But eventually we all got out to try and help but it was futile. The left rear wheel kept spinning and going deeper into the mud, and the 4-wheel drive wasn’t working right so the other wheels with traction and power couldn’t pull it out. Finally another car appeared. They had a jack that we were able to use to lift the car up and then throw rocks in the hole under the tire. With the help of the rocks and 7 people pushing we were able to get the car out of the hole. And into another one. So then again we jacked up the car, threw rocks under the wheel, and pushed it out, for good this time. By then it was about time for lunch, and the car had to go to the garage to get its 4WD checked out, so we headed back to the gate. En route, we came across a large herd of elephants on both sides of the road. After marveling at them for a bit, we continued on. On the final stretch of road through the jungle, there was a single large male elephant, walking towards us and blocking any way forward. We ended up having to back down the road about a kilometer before the elephant went off into the trees, allowing us to pass. In the late afternoon (after my first hot shower since I’ve been in Tanzania, since I’m never patient enough for the hot water at my house) we went back for another drive, stopping by the hippo pool. Unfortunately they were a bit far out and submerged, so we couldn’t see them very well, though there were also lots of pelicans which was cool.

Monday night we stayed at the same hotel, and then Tuesday morning after breakfast we headed west to the Serengeti. We drove through Ngorongoro Conservation Area (but not the crater) en route, where giraffes and zebras and buffalo and cattle and Maasai all peacefully co-exist. The conservation area was originally part of Serengeti National Park, but except for staff and researchers, people aren’t allowed to live in national parks, so the Maasai protested their displacement and got the status of the area changed. They can live in the Ngorongoro area so long as they don’t upset the balance of the ecosystem.

On the other side of Ngorongoro we passed into the Serengeti, a wild open prairie that made me think of what the Great Plains must have been like to Lewis & Clark and the travelers on the Oregon Trail. Considering how much trouble our LandCruiser had on roads more worn than those of the Oregon Trail, I can only marvel at the journey by Conestoga wagon.

Along the dusty and straight main road to the Serengeti gate, we saw two pairs of lions mating in the distance. We also got to see the wildebeest migration crossing the road. The line of wildebeests extended to the horizon in either direction, spotted occasionally by some zebras or antelopes. Zebras and wildebeests often live and travel together because the zebras cut down the grass so its easier for the wildebeests to eat, and the wildebeests are better at detecting predators (with their noses – their site is pretty bad). We stopped at the gate for boxed lunch and bathrooms, and to check out the view of the plain from the top of the hill. We then spent the afternoon driving around en route to the campsite, seeing plenty of gazelles and elephants and giraffes, but nothing really new or exciting. At the campsite we set up tent, had dinner, played cards, and chatted with some other travelers around a campfire before bed. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was terrifying because of the animal sounds around us, and in retrospect I don’t know how or why I walked all the way to the squat toilet rather than just squatting outside my tent.

Wednesday morning we woke up early for an early morning game drive. We weren’t the first ones out but then everyone in front of us stopped to take pictures of some buffalo, which were old news to us, so we took the lead. We ended up on a muddy road through the plain. I thought I saw the footprints of a big cat on the road, so I think our driver may have been following those. But then we got stuck. Another car came slipping and sliding down the road and we warned them not to continue so they turned around and drove out through the grass. They probably couldn’t have helped us out anyway because they didn’t have any traction themselves. We weren’t completely stuck either. Eventually we followed their lead and drove onto the grass to get out. But then right as we were about to get back on the road, we got stuck in the mud in the grass. So we got out and we tore up some grass to put under the wheels and we pushed and we got nowhere. Eventually another car came with a chain, and they pulled us out. And told us to go see a leopard in a tree. So we went and saw the leopards in the trees and some lions in a tree and finally got back to camp for a late breakfast.

After breakfast we drove to a hippo pool that was much cooler than the one in Manyara, because we were closer and there were more of them and we could look down at them in the pool. So we watched the hippos for a bit and then drove around and saw some gazelles and giraffes but nothing too exciting. In the late afternoon after lunch we drove out to the Maasai Kopjes, searching for lions. No luck of course, though the landscape was very “Lion King” and I had the soundtrack playing in my head the whole time. We also saw some ostriches. We stayed at the same campsite another night. This time there may have been lions in the area at night. Luckily I didn’t have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Thursday morning after breakfast and packing up our tents we went on another game drive around the Simba Kopjes en route to the gate. Of course there were no lions hiding out there. Boldwin was getting tired of looking for lions and wanted to see the wildebeest migration. He didn’t seem to remember that we had seen it on our way in and would see it again on the other side of the gate whether we wanted to or not. Finally, on our way to the gate, right off the main road, we found a pride of lions lying in the bushes. Actually, someone else found them, but we found their cars. Eventually the other cars left so our driver decided to drive on the grass a bit to scare the lions. We got the male lion to come out and move from the back on the bushes to the front by the road. Then the driver opened his door and got the lion to jump at us and growl (though remain at a safe distance). Rather than pressing the photo button on my camera when this happened, my reflex was to press the power button. Oh well. Eventually we saw enough of the lions and continued on to the gate for lunch. On the other side of the gate, on our way to Ngorongoro, we saw the wildebeests again, as predicted. At one point, in the boundaries of Ngorongoro, we drove off onto a side road to get a closer look, before continuing on to our campsite on the rim of the crater.

It was cold and rainy on the rim of the crater, though fortunately the rain did not start until after dinner. I wore layers and drank lots of tea. The two other groups there that night had been at the same campsite in Serengeti the night before. After dinner we played Danish Trivial Pursuit with them until I was too tired and cold. My comprehension and pronunciation of the Danish clues was not as bad as I had expected. Luckily only one person actually knew Danish (the Dane who brought the game), so he translated everything.

In the morning we woke up early, had breakfast and packed up, before heading into the crater. Of the three parks I would most recommended Ngorongoro Crater because you see lots of different animals and all of them pretty close. The only animal not in the crater is giraffe, because there are no acacia trees, but they live outside the crater in the conservation area so you can still see them. We saw a lake full of flamingoes, some zebras and wildebeests, and some old male buffalo and lions. Then, near a herd of wildebeests, there were a bunch of cars stopped, and there were two female lions hiding in the bushes, looking for breakfast. Unfortunately for us and the lions, the wildebeests smelled the threat and moved away. But then the lions decided to walk out into the road, right up against the cars, which was incredibly exciting.

Eventually they moved on and so did we. In the middle of a herd of wildebeests and zebras that was blocking the road, we all decided we had to pee. So I squatted behind the car while a zebra watched. After this pit stop we drove on. In the distance we spotted four rhinos and we think a baby rhino, but it was a little too far to be completely sure. Eventually we drove off to the picnic area for lunch. I spotted a water tank so I figured we must be close to the picnic area; I started looking around carefully to see what the amenities might be. Instead of a picnic site I saw an old male lion hiding in the bushes not far from the road. This lion was especially exciting because I found it, not some other car or even someone else in my car. When we stopped to look at it we noticed there was an old female even closer to the road on the other side. So we watched them for a bit but they didn’t do much and then we continued down the hill to the other side of the water tank where the picnic area was. We had to eat in the car so that the eagles didn’t steal our lunch. Then we went back to the lions, who were now on the same side of the road. As we watched they moved right next to each other right by the road and were very cute. So we watched them for awhile and took pictures and my camera which had been acting up all week, saying the batteries were dead when they weren’t, finally gave up. But conveniently those were the last animals we saw. After looking at the lions for a bit we headed out of the crater, out of the park, and back to Moshi in time for dinner.

building a brand

The past week has been spent in an intensive market research and branding seminar with consultants from KIT, the Royal Tropical Institute of the Netherlands. The workshop started slow, with lectures on market research. I found the initial classroom aspects a bit dull; it didn't help that I was suffering from a renewed bout of homesickness. The first afternoon we went to Arusha to interview consumers in supermarkets. Unfortunately due to the holiday many of the supermarkets were closed by the time we got there. Seeking coffee drinkers who spoke English comfortably, I ended up at Africafe where I enjoyed a decent but expensive latte, complete with rosetta, and stared longingly at their majestic La Marzocco GB5. Energized by my latte, I enjoyed the chance to interview coffee drinkers. The major finding of our combined research, in the stores, on the streets, and in the cafe, was that almost all coffee drinkers in Tanzania drink Africafe instant coffee. It's quick and easy and tastes good (I personally disagree with the last point, but apparently it's good for instant at least). This definitely poses a challenge for KNCU because the ground coffee market is just a small section of the small coffee market. But as we learnt in our focus group blind taste test on Tuesday, we have a superior product that both coffee people and Africafe drinkers prefer, and which retailers and institutions are interested in purchasing. The market may be small but there's definitely interest in our product. I think there's a lot of potential for KNCU Gold, rebranded as Union Coffee. The trick will be promoting our product to get people to try it in the first place, and then maybe even convincing them that making coffee from roast and ground beans is almost as quick and easy as instant, and tastes so much better.

The workshop definitely got more interesting by Day 4, when we finally started working on branding, developing a brand key, brainstorming names, exploring the 5 Ps - price, product, placement, promotion, pack, thinking about slogan and promise and logo. After plodding through research and theory, we had finally reached the action portion of our week. Ideas were shared, designs made, things happened. What the follow-up will be is to be determined. We lost about half the workshop participants after the first day, but I think the people who remained throughout the week are pretty dedicated and hard working and have what it takes to see this project through, provided they continue to get enough support from the managers and board of KNCU to make things happen.

In other news, I leave tomorrow on safari to Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater. I'm off in search of lions and elephants.