RTW Leg 107
Dawn +30 minutes 
HTKJ-FZNP  530 nm.
Kilimanjaro - Beni.   Arusha, Ngorongo Crater, Olduvai Gorge, Serengeti, Lake Victoria, Ruwenzori Mountains, Western Rift Valley. ETE: 2.5 Hours.
Terminal Departure and Non Terminal Arrival (Terrain NOTAMS)

NARRATIVE

Today we fly west over the parks of Tanzania, across Lake Victoria, over the Ruwenzori and the Western Rift Valley, arriving in the troubled Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).   During this flight we will fly low enough to spot wildlife but high enough to clear most terrain until we reach the Ruwenzori where you must climb to 17,000 or face the consequences.

Tanzania (from the Lonely Planet):

Although a Tanzanian gorge recently yielded a few bits of our old mate, Homo erectus, little is known about the country's really early history. Recorded history begins around 1800, when the Masai warrior tribes were migrating from Kenya to Tanzania. While the country's coastal area had long witnessed maritime squabbles between Portuguese and Arabic traders, it wasn't until the middle of the 18th century that Arab traders and slaves dared venture into Masai territory in the country's wild interior. European explorers began arriving in earnest in the mid-19th century, the most famous being Stanley and Livingstone. The famous phrase 'Dr Livingstone, I presume', stems from the duo's meeting at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.

As the 20th century loomed, Germany got busy colonising Tanganyika—as the mainland was then known—by building railways and going commerce crazy. If not for the pesky little tsetse fly, the area could have become one vast grazing paddock for the fatherland. But losing the war didn't help the German cause much either, and the League of Nations soon mandated the territory to the British. The Brits had already grabbed the offshore island of Zanzibar, which for centuries had been the domain of Arab traders.

Nationalist organisations sprang up after WWII, but it wasn't until Julius Nyerere founded the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in 1954 that they became effective. Tanganyika won independence in 1961 with Nyerere as the country's first president. Zanzibar was stuck with its British stiff upper lip for another two years, after which the mainland forged a union comprising Zanzibar and the nearby island of Pemba. Thus Tanzania was born.

But unity and a charismatic first president weren't enough to overcome the country's basic lack of resources. Nyerere's secret ingredient was radical socialism, a brave concept considering the communist paranoia of potential aid donors such as the USA. Under the leader's Chinese-backed reforms, the economy was nationalised, as were great swathes of rental properties, and the better-off were taxed heavily in an attempt to redistribute wealth. The early 1960s saw Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda linked in an unlikely economic threesome, sharing a common airline, telecommunication facilities, transportation and customs. Their currencies became freely convertible and there was free and easy movement across borders. But predictable political differences brought such cosiness to a halt in 1977, leaving the Tanzanians worse off than ever.

Many factors have contributed to the woes of modern Tanzania, and not all have been self-inflicted—it is, after all, one of the world's poorest countries. Even the incorporation of Zanzibar, once one of Africa's richest countries, has only created new problems. Adopting a multi-party political system doesn't seem to have helped much either. Zanzibar and the neighbouring island of Pemba have experienced violent unrest and political scare-mongering ever since an election stalemate on Zanzibar divided the islands. Meanwhile, the mainland—under President Benjamin Mkapa—has had to cope with a flood of Rwandan refugees fleeing fighting in their homeland. In late 1996 the Mkapa government issued a statement backed by the United Nations declaring that Rwandan refugees were to leave Tanzania. Amid reports of excessive force and rape, thousands still remain in Tanzania. In August 1998, terrorists bombed the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, killing over 250 people and injuring more than 5000.

Such tensions have not helped a country already destabilised by long-standing tribal friction, particularly among the Chagga (Mt Kilimanjaro region). It's unlikely Tanzania will dissolve into the tribal conflicts which have haunted neighbouring Rwanda and Kenya over the last few years—certainly not if Mkapa, who was re-elected president in October 2000, has anything to say about it—but political paralysis and deep rifts between minorities look set to stay with Tanzania for a long time yet.

A tower marking the midpoint on the  Cairo-to-Cape Town highway  in Arusha town

Arusha

Arusha town (first waypoint) is an important business center and the regional capital of the Arusha administrative district. Only 13 miles from Arusha town is Arusha National Park (Site where John Wayne classic ‘Hatari’ was filmed). This park is remarkable for its range of habitats—a miniature volcanic crater, highland rain forest, acacia woodland and a string of crater lakes (The Momella Lakes). In addition, on clear day there are spectacular views of both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. Arusha National Park offers many beautiful panoramic views.

 It was in Ausha in 1967 that  Julius Nyerere  outlined  his political program committed to the creation of an egalitarian socialist society based on cooperative agriculture in Tanzania.

"...there are more important things in life than the amassing of riches, and that if the pursuit of wealth clashes with things like human dignity and social equality, then the latter will be given priority." ( Julius Nyerere, President, Tanzania from The Arusha Declaration , 1967)

RTW Route Note:  From Arusha the route proceeds west to the edge of Lake Manyara and then to Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge

Ngorongoro  

Located within the crater highlands of northern Tanzania, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area forms part of what is known as the Serengeti-Ngorongoro-Masai Mara ecosystem. Its eastern boundary is formed by the western wall of the Great Rift Valley, while its western boundary adjoins the world-famous Serengeti National Park. To the east lie Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, and Mount Meru, and to the west Lake Victoria.

 Some 20 million years ago, the eastern side of Africa started to crack and rift, causing the land between the rifts to subside. This resulted in the earth's crust gradually thinning and softening, allowing molten materials to thrust to the surface and form lava beds and, later, volcanoes. Within the Ngorongoro area, the oldest volcanoes were formed along the Eyasi Rift, which now forms the towering cliffs at Lake Eyasi. In the north, the rift separates the Doinyo Gol mountains from the Salei Plains, but much of the early rift is now obscured by lava.

It is believed that Ngorongoro once rivaled Kilimanjaro in size. The lava that filled the volcano formed a solid "lid," which subsequently collapsed when the molten rock subsided, forming the caldera that we see today. Both Olmoti and Empakaai collapsed in a similar manner, but are not as immense as Ngorongoro. Two volcanoes of more recent origin, Kerimasi and Ol Doinyo Lengai, were formed along the Gregory Rift and lie to the northeast of the Empakaai caldera. Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai's "mountain of God," is still active—its most recent eruption took place in 1983.

The vast quantities of ash produced by the volcanoes have had two principal benefits: fertile soils for crop production outside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the maintenance of the rich savanna grasslands that support the largest ungulate herds in the world.  The views from 1968ft tall Ngorongoro Crater may not impress from the top, but once you've wound your way down through the jam-packed jungle you'll be won over. It's been compared to Noah's Ark and the Garden of Eden—and has the added advantage of actually existing. Noah might be a bit a disappointed by dwindling animal numbers these days, but he'd have no trouble finding lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and many of the plains herbivores such as wildebeest, Thomson's gazelle, zebra and reedbuck, as well as thousands of flamingo wading in the shallows of Lake Magadi, the soda lake on the floor of the crater. Local Masai tribespeople have grazing rights here, and you may well come across them tending their cattle.

Olduvai Gorge, a feature of the E African Rift Valley in Tanzania. Erosional processes have exposed geological strata in the gorge dating to the lower Pleistocene epoch, about 1.8 million to 600,000 years ago. The site was made famous by the numerous hominid fossils excavated by Louis  Leakey  and his wife, Mary  Leakey , as well as by later researchers. Examples of at least three species of hominids have been found at Olduvai, including Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus.  In addition, the two earliest stone tool traditions, Oldowan and Acheulian have been found along with fossil remains. Both the fossils and the tools have been important lines of evidence in understanding human evolution. Recent research in Olduvai has centered on excavated camp sites addressing problems involving the social and dietary adaptations of early hominids.

RTW Route Note:  Course change at Lake Manyara heading 315 will take us over the Serengeti to Musoma and then across Lake Victoria to Masaka Uganda on the western shore.

Serengeti  (from the Serengeti National Park Site)

It was 1913 and great stretches of Africa were still unknown to the white man when Stewart Edward White, an American hunter, set out from Nairobi. Pushing south, he recorded: "We walked for miles over burnt out country... Then I saw the green trees of the river, walked two miles more and found myself in paradise." He had found Serengeti. In the years since White's excursion under "the high noble arc of the cloudless African sky," Serengeti has come to symbolize paradise to many of us. The Maasai, who had grazed their cattle on the vast grassy plains for millennia had always thought so. To them it was Siringitu—"the place where the land moves on forever." 

The Serengeti region encompasses the Serengeti National Park itself, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Over 90,000 tourists visit the Park each year.  Two World Heritage Sites and two Biosphere Reserves have been established within the 30,000 km² region. It's unique ecosystem has inspired writers from Ernest Hemingway to Peter Mattheissen, filmakers like Hugo von Lawick and Alan Root as well as numerous photographers and scientists.  The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth. The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Early man himself made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge about two million years ago. Some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.

It is the “great migration” for which Serengeti is perhaps most famous. Over a million wildebeest and about 200,000 zebras flow south from the northern hills to the southern plains for the short rains every October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June. So strong is the ancient instinct to move that no drought, gorge or crocodile infested river can hold them back.  The Wildebeest travel through a variety of parks, reserves and protected areas and through a variety of habitat.

 "I have lived in the Serengeti for more than 20 years, but flying over the long lines of migrating wildebeest or watching them gather before a river crossing, still takes my breath away and makes my heart pound. Nowhere in the world can we watch such a spectacular scene, nowhere do we have such a large number and diversity of large mammals."
Dr. Markus Borner, Representative of the Frankfurt Zoological Society

 

Welcome to the Serengeti.
Lota Melamari
Director General
Tanazania National Parks

Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria was 'discovered' in 1858 by the British explorer John Speke, after months of braving dense forests and tropical diseases in his search for the source of the Nile. But now the Lake is in poor health, and the livelihood of the communities round it is threatened.  The lake is situated between the Western and Eastern Rift Valleys along the great plateau. It is 3,720 feet above sea level (1,134 m) and reaches a depth of 270 feet (82 m). Within the lake, one can find many archipelagos as well as numerous reefs just below the surface. Lake Victoria is known for its abundance of fish, which are exported by local fisherman. There are over 200 species of fish, which all make a major contribution to the economy.  If he could see Lake Victoria today, John Speke would probably stare in shock and disbelief. The once clear, life-filled lake is murky, smelly, and choking with algae. The ecological health of Lake Victoria has been affected profoundly as a result of a rapidly growing population, clearance of natural vegetation along the shores, a booming fish-export industry, the disappearance of several fish species native to the lake, prolific growth of algae, and dumping of untreated effluent by several industries. Much of the damage is vast and irreversible. Traditional lifestyles of lakeshore communities have been disrupted and are crumbling. There is a consensus among scientists that if an accelerated push to save the lake is not made soon, this much-needed body of water will cease to sustain life.

RTW Route Note:  From Masaka  the route proceeds west Kasese where you must begin your climb to 17000 feet.  The Ruwenzori mountains are often obsured by clouds in this area so start your climb early if the visability is poor.

Ruwenzori Range

Lying slightly north of the Equator, the Ruwenzori Range has a maximum breadth of 30 miles (50 km) and extends south-north for 80 miles (130 km) between Lake Edward and Lake Albert. The Ruwenzori Range falls steeply westward to the Western Rift Valley, while its descent to the east is more gradual, leading to the uplands of the western part of Uganda. Unlike most African snow peaks, the Ruwenzori is not of volcanic origin but is a gigantic horst of six separate glaciated masses, reaching a high point in Mount Stanley at Margheerita Peak. (16,795 feet [5,119 m]). The Ruwenzori Range's largest mountains are separated by passes and deeply cut river valleys that all eventually drain into the Semliki River. Glaciers and small lakes occur in the upper valleys. The permanent snow line stands at about 14,800 feet (4,511 m) on the east and 15,900 feet (4,846 m) on the west. The mountain summits are often hidden in cloud cover, created periodically by moist airstreams from the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Queen Elizabeth (Ruwenzori) National Park (established 1952) is located east of Lake Edward and south of the Ruwenzori Range in southwestern Uganda.

Ruwenzori (Mountains of the Moon).  From the article "Imperial Naming and the Sources of the Nile", forthcoming in Nomina Africana.

The question of the source of the Nile has a long and complex history tied up with the origins of Western civilisation, and it is in this weighty context that Henry Morton Stanley judged his discovery of the Ruwenzori during the Emin Pascha expedition of 1888-89. Stanley seized  the momentous historic opportunity by devoting an extraordinary amount of time and effort in securing the mountains' status as the ultimate source of the Nile. To this end he made a detailed survey of the geographic features connected with the range, measured altitudes and calculated gradients, charted the course of rivers, and explored the placement of the catchment areas and watersheds. In establishing a fluvial connection between the Nile and the Ruwenzori, Stanley was grandly conscious that he had unlocked the secret that had intrigued the civilisations of Egypt, Greece and Rome for centuries; and that this monumental discovery  would  "win [him] immortal renown".  For Stanley,  the Ruwenzori are thus altogether the most significant place in the entire continent of Africa: they are "the very mountains before whose shrine Alexander and Caesar would have worshipped".

The name Ruwenzori, which Stanley coined for the mountains, was however far too local and insignificant to establish the mountains as Africa's most important geographic location. Stanley had to invest the mountains with an altogether more important and historically weighty name: the Ruwenzori were presumed to be Ptolemy's fabled Mountains of the Moon "whose snows feed the lakes, sources of the Nile." Ptolemy, a Alexandrian second century AD cartographer conventionally known as the ‘father' of geography, compiled maps of the "Old World" which included a fair share of hearsay and speculation, but had a profound influence on Europe's knowledge about African geography. The Ruwenzori are thus not only the point of origin for the famous Nile, but, as Ptolemy's Mountains of the Moon, they are also connected to the origin of Western geography.

Even before Stanley's discovery in 1888, the intriguing notion of snowy mountains in the centre of tropical Africa had become the subject of intense European public interest.  After the earlier discoveries of Mts Kilimanjaro and Kenya were made public in 1850, these geographic curiosities became a popular topic of debate in colonial and geographic circles. It was however H. Rider Haggard's best-selling King Solomon's Mines (1885) which created a broad popular interest in the paradoxical  notion of tropical snow. In Haggard's romance, two snowy peaks, suggestively named Sheba's Breasts, rise out of the Suliman Mountains.  Sheba's Breasts do however have a surprising similarity to Stanley's conical pair of peaks, the Gordon-Bennet and McKinnon mountains (see image). These peaks have no basis in geographic fact and would seem to have been inspired by Haggard's romance, rather than the actual topography of the Ruwenzori. This supposition seems credible since King Solomon's Mines appeared in 1885, whereas In Darkest Africa was only published in 1890. Stanley did already have a vague view of one of the mountains in an earlier expedition, an account published as Through the Dark Continent in 1879, but he only refers to one peak (The Gordon-Bennet Mount) and fails to recognise the presence of permanent snow.  It is thus probable that Stanley's geographical description was influenced by a work of fiction.

RTW Route Note:  Once past the crest of the Ruwenzori range you  should begin your descent to Beni.  If the visibility is good you will see the Semliki river below which lies in the western rift valley and connects Lake Edward to Lake Albert which in turn drains into the Albert Nile.  The low plateau west of the Semliki marks the boundry between the Nile and Congo river basins.

Flight planning and narrative by
Jeff Williams (Alias JT_Dub)
RTW Pilot #020

ADDITIONAL SCENERY AND ADD-ONS.
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