Intrepid East Africa Highlights: Days 8-10 Karatu, Datoga and Hadzabe Tribes, and Endoro Elephant Caves in Ngorongoro
This post is part of a series about Intrepid East Africa Highlights. Read more here.
Day 7 (continued): Arrival into Karatu
Ngorongoro Lodge and Campsite
We arrived at the Ngorongoro Lodge around 5 PM and there was another tour group who arrived shortly after us as well. We were escorted to a small grassy area where the staff served us welcome coffee and juice and proceeded with a 15 minute song and dance with loud music blaring from a portable speaker before giving us our room keys. While I genuinely believe the lodge has the best intentions, we were dusty, dirty, and extremely tired from being rocked back and forth for 8 hours in a bumpy car ride. All of us wanted to just shower and take a nap.
The room is big and comfortable. Water pressure was great and the bathroom was clean. The bed was comfortable as well but I thought it was a bit strange to spread a bunch of small flower petals over the bed that were quite difficult to remove before sleeping.
Dinner here at the lodge was decent. There were mix of fish, lamb, chicken, or beef for the meals, plenty of salad and vegetables, and an African dish or two as well.
Day 8: Datoga and Hadzabe Tribes near Lake Eyasi
Breakfast at the Ngorongoro Lodge was quite sparse, just toast, eggs, salad, and some coffee, juice, or tea but we were coming back to the lodge for lunch relatively soon so it didn’t matter as much.
This is the beginning of another dusty day off the paved roads to the Lake Eyasi area. Fortunately, we had our face masks ready. A separate tour company managed the activities within Karatu. The new tour leader met us the night before and joined us in the morning to start the tour. We then pick up an interpreter near the entrance to the village who spoke the Datonga and Hadzabe language as well as English to help translate.
I’m not sure what kind of financial arrangement this is but both tribes had members who spoke Swahili and Joseph or Ton could have been our translators as well. It felt like a job or profit creation scheme to have an extra guide and another translator and the reasons for this arrangement was unclear.
Datoga Tribe - The Blacksmiths
The Datoga tribe share some of the same cultural aspects such as jumping and chanting with the Maasai but they farm in addition to grazing cattle. A long time ago, the Datonga tribe was pushed out by the Maasai people from the Serengeti area into Ngorongoro and then to Lake Eyasi as the Maasai were driven out following the establishment of the national parks and conservation areas.
The tribe’s main strength is blacksmithing. They melt down scrap metal into thin bars which are then filed and chiseled into different style arrowheads to kill different types of animals. They also use tin, aluminum, and bronze to make jewelry for sale as souvenirs. Historically, they would use giraffe bones to create the arrowheads before they had access to scrap metals. The men of the village are responsible for blacksmith and cattle grazing while the women farm and take care of the family.
They are also polygamous and the dowery here is 5 cows. The last wife picks the next one so it’s like picking your friends and everyone helps take care of each other’s kids. The women asked our tour group how many cows we own and what we do for work. The translator said I worked in a factory controlling machines. I guess the culture and knowledge gap is just that big because they have very little concept of computers and office work. We visited one of the larger huts and a mother was cooking lunch while watching her kids.
The main buyers of these arrowheads are the Hadzabe bushmen who we will be visiting next in the same area. Many of the Datonga people speak the Hadzabe language in order to do trade.
Lake Eyasi Viewpoint
On the way to the Hadzabe tribe area, we stopped at a viewpoint to see Lake Eyasi. The main draw of this viewpoint was less about the views and more about the children playing around in the area. The kids were very genuine and wanted to hold our hands as we toured the area. They were curious about all of our electronics, from the phones and cameras to the smart watches and even jewelry. The kids also didn’t beg us for anything which was a nice change for once.
Joseph later told us that the kids here are with their parents from the villages who moved nearby to work at the farms and factories. The parents work all day so the kids are free to roam around and play after school.
Hadzabe Tribe - The Bushmen
These people were super facinating. I still can’t believe that in this current day and age, the bushman live in caves and eat whatever they hunt or forage. They stay in this naturally occurring baobab tree cave when it rains, otherwise they’re in the few smaller uncovered tents nearby built using twigs.
The tribe is monogamous and the women seem to marry relatively young in their teens and have about 2-3 kids each. Because of their remote location, their kids don’t go to school and learn at a very young age to forage and use bows and arrows. The tribe trades honey and bush meat with the Datoga tribe for the arrowheads which they then attach to wooden sticks to make arrows. Their bows and arrows are very well made.
They speak their own language, the Hadza, and with fewer than 1,000 speakers, it is one of the more rare languages in East Africa. Even more interesting are the clicks in their language. There are a few different types of clicks and they use it often in the middle of their words as they speak. I learned about the clicks in a Lingustics class I took in college and it was really fascinating to hear it in person. The clicks are also present in many Southern African languages such as Zulu.
Part of the visit also involved teaching us to shoot with their bows and arrows. Interestingly, our birder also does archery so he hit the target with their bows and arrows quite a few times. After archery practice, we were then invited to dance with them in a circle holding their hands before saying our goodbyes.
While it seemed at first this tribe was very isolated, they still had plastic bottles of water and various plastic garbage tossed in the surrounding area. Joseph later said the tribe also trades bush meat with others in the surrounding area for daily necessities to supplement their life. The area did not even have cell phone coverage.
It seemed like the tribe hasn’t washed for a long time and that sanitation wasn’t really a thing. There was at least a few guys with eye and skin infections and it felt like the tribe could use a visit to a medical clinic as well. We shook many of their hands out of politeness and some even gave us animal skin hats to pose in the photos. We were really glad that Ton gave us all hand sanitizer afterwards.
After the tribe visits, we headed back to our lodge we showered and had lunch. The afternoon was free for us to relax, use the pool, or do an optional coffee tour. Joseph also suggested the Tanzanite Experience which was basically a visit to a fancy jewelry store that sold the local blue gems.
Tanzanite Experience
I opted to tag along to the Tanzanite Experience in Manyara since I wasn’t really interested in taking a swim. The store was definitely the nicest shop in town with different indoor and outdoor areas for souvenirs, coffee, and of course jewelry. I had the first proper coffee, a latte with oat milk, since I was in Nairobi and that was just amazing. The educational video was more of a sales pitch but it was interesting to hear that the gem was only recently discovered in the 60’s and brought to market by Tiffany & Co.
The stones themselves were not too expensive, with cuts around $300-500 USD for a 1-2 caret size. While the stones are only found a single area in Tanzania, there doesn’t seem to be much demand which means prices are still relatively low compared to diamonds.
Tingisha Culture Group
We had our last dinner at the Ngorongoro Lodge & Camp and was told there was one more surprise for us from the lodge. We were again directed to the grass and saw a bunch of musicians preparing to start their show. It turns out they were a cultural dance group who also did fire breathing and acrobatics as well. There were at least 20 young men and women from the local area performing. My favorite part was actually seeing everyone from the tour group get up to dance with them at the end.
It was already about 8:30 PM and our group was absolutely exhausted from the previous few days. Most of us have been waking up at 6 AM and were falling asleep by 9 PM when they performed. A few in our group actually left mid performance to go back to their room and rest and I don’t blame them. While I did enjoy the performance, we could have had dinner earlier to accommodate the shows.
I was part of a show choir group in high school and this definitely felt like an amateur youth group. Ton later confirmed that it was a youth culturel group in the area and the performances were fundraisers for the group to purchase costumes and supplement their activities. I gave quite a bit of tips knowing that these groups are usually pretty financially constrained. Groups like this often give the kids a community while keeping them out of trouble too.
Day 9: Endoro Elephant Caves Trek, Mama Africa Lunch, and Arusha
Endoro Elephant Cave Trek, Ngorongoro Conservation Area
A few of us decided to do the elephant cave hike and we knew going in that it was a 50/50 gamble whether we see elephants at the caves. These caves were created from elephants eating the mineral rich dirt mainly for calcium. The elephants come through the forested corridor from within the crater to this area for minerals to supplement their diet.
We had a different guide from the same tour company as the day before. She picked us up in a tuk-tuk which was an interesting cultural experience by itself riding the dirt roads up the mountain. We met our armed ranger at the entrance and picked a walking stick from their amazing library of sticks.
The cost is $80 USD per person through Intrepid and their Karatu partner, $18 USD of which goes to the park for the ranger. Our permits to enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area are still valid from the previous day because it is for the entire 24 hours after entry. We entered the crater at about 10:30 AM and our trek lasted from 8:30 AM to 10 AM. Part of me wonders where the rest of the money goes because a tuk-tuk and guide cannot be that expensive, especially when a few of us go together.
The trek itself was relatively easy with a little elevation change and about 30-45 minutes each way. We stopped along the way to look at elephant markings on trees, lines of safari ants moving through the trails, and even some plant species used for herbal medicine or toilet paper. When we arrived at the cave, we didn’t see any elephants. There were some fresh droppings on the trails near the caves that indicated the elephants were probably around the night before. We saw a lone baboon pondering about life near the caves.
I wondered if there was any other way to know if elephants would be present before we do the trek because it feels like a scam if there aren’t any. The few holes are interesting to look at but not really worth $80 USD without the elephants. We weren’t allowed to venture into the holes because the ranger claimed the elephants can show up at any time and become aggressive. I saw a few photos online before the trek and would have loved to see a few elephant butts.
Endoro Elephant Caves with elephants (found on Google)
There was a waterfall along the way that was an extension of the trail as well but I opted to stay behind because I was feeling a bit tired. Our armed ranger took the rest of the group while I stayed behind on the main trail with our guide and chatted about life.
The guide was a native from Arusha who worked for a few tour companies in the area as administrative assistants before recently joining this current one. The current company was looking specifically for women guides and she was recommended as a reliable and trustworthy person by her previous boss and colleagues. A college education was unaffordable for most people in Tanzania and prospects are grim even after graduation because well paying jobs require connections or bribes. She went through vocational training for a year for tourism and her previous jobs were apprenticeships. A certified guide for safaris is a totally different career path than a regular guide and requires a college education, extra training in animal spotting, a union membership, and certification exams.
The rest of the group came back in about 15 minutes and we were on our way back to the entrance. Our guide offered to take us coffee tasting and shop for ebony wood carvings as well. We skipped the coffee tasting and stopped by the wood shop. Prices were all negotiable and most of the ebony is scavenged from dead trees from the Serengeti area. The shop owner was a man from Mozambique who brought his own style of carving. While the prices for the carving wasn’t bad, they are very heavy and I did not want to carry them around the rest of Africa.
The other optional tour was to do a village visit, taste banana beer and wine, visit the local markets, and also stop by the same wood carving shop and coffee plantation for $25 USD.
Africa Mama Lunch in the Villages
On the way to Arusha, we stopped by one of the villages on the way to have local lunch prepared by the women in the village. There are many makeshift restaurants like this in the area where women set up shop to supplement their husbands’ income by cooking for tourists. Joseph told us that Intrepid rotates between a few of these to help out more than just a single family. We passed by many of these restaurants with safari trucks waiting outside and it seems like a popular option along the way to or from Arusha and for visiting Lake Manyara.
Our restaurant was in Mto Wa Mbu called Africa Mama and we were served an amazing spread of East African curries, veggies, and rice over open plates. Beers and sodas are extra but bottled water was included as part of the meal. The food was quite a bit better than most of the meals we’ve had previously and definitely an interesting experience.
What really threw me off was the plastic bottle in the stove. Everyone was given a bottle of water with the meal and one of the dishes tasted a bit smokey like burnt plastic. I wonder if they actually used the plastic for fire. In most of East Africa, garbage collection is expensive and recycling is nonexistent. In most of the rural areas, they burn their trash in the backyard for disposal. It really isn’t healthy to burn it and then consume it in food, especially for a Western audience.
Ending the Trip in Arusha
It was another 2 hour drive over paved roads to Arusha and we stopped in a small shopping mall for a bathroom break and ATMs to withdraw money for tips for the drivers and Joseph. There wasn’t much to see along the way as it was mostly villages, farmland, and trucks carrying goods. Arusha itself didn’t feel like much of a city, just a very large village.
Our last night was in Njiro Legacy and one of the better stays on this trip. My room had air conditioning, the pool area was clean and relaxing, and most importantly it was clean and well managed.
We arrive around 4 PM and had some time to lounge by the pool. Our drivers left to go back to Karatu after dropping us off. Everyone went to the pool to relax and I purchased a bottle of Tanzanian white wine to share. It was only about $15 for the entire bottle and pretty enjoyable.
Dinner was served next to the pool after sunset with made to order or buffet options but everyone chose the buffet. We took turns buying and sharing wine and gave a big thanks to Joseph along with our generous tips. He requested reviews from us to help him and Intrepid with improving the trip. We were given opportunities to say a little something and there was a lot of bittersweet moments that night.
Day 10: The Goodbyes
As we met for breakfast one last time, we said bye to everyone who was departing in the morning. The breakfast spread was pretty good and had many protein, vegetables, and pastries.
My Precision Air flight departed from Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO) near Moshi so it was about an hour drive from Arusha. The morning Arusha flights to Zanzibar were completely sold out by the time I looked for flights. I woke up around 6:30 AM to have breakfast and left by 7:30 AM to arrive 8:30 AM in time for my flight at 9:50 AM.
The Intrepid Zanzibar crew also left around 7:30 AM but their drive to Arusha Airport (ARK) was much closer. The remaining few returning to Nairobi with Joseph departed around 8 AM for their 6 hour drive back to Kenya.
I was a little stressed because there weren’t any reasonably priced airport transfers from Arusha to Kilimanjaro Airport. All the online options were about $80 USD which felt too much for an hour drive. The hotel wanted $50 for the transfer and then I realized that Bolt operated in Arusha. The scheduled rides were only about $20 USD. The annoying thing was that my driver accepted the ride but wanted an extra $10 USD in the morning for an airport fee when he arrived to pick me up. I realized this might be a scam but had no other choice so I agreed on the condition that he provides me a receipt from the airport. He ended up driving off with the money and no receipt which I expected but I was able to get a partial refund from Bolt for the cash payment. Had the price been $30 USD from the start, I would have agreed but this just felt wrong.
I had other issues with my Precision Air flight as well. About a week before the flight, I received an email that my flight was cancelled and I was automatically rebooked on a much later flight departing around 8 PM. I couldn’t reach their support team by phone because it was weekdays during work hours when we were on the safari. Their website change options were disabled for my booking for some reason. I sent an email to request the change and had to follow up a few times to get it switched to their morning flight. I also had to notify my hotel in Zanzibar to change my airport pickup time. I realized then that it really pays to go through travel agents for trips in Africa because flights get cancelled, overbooked, or delayed all the time.
Closing Thoughts
I enjoyed the trip very much and very much recommend it for a combined Masai Mara and Serengeti tour. I feel that I have seen everything I wanted to see and do in the region so I don’t need to come back again.
All the animals we we saw during our trip, courtesy of the bird guy on our trip.
The Positives:
The price for the group tour was very fair and covered everything I wanted to see for Masai Mara and Serengeti in the 10 day trip (which is really just 8 full days) - the big 5, ugly 5, villages, and much more. Realistically, 25% of the cost of the tour goes to park fees, 35% goes to the accommodations, with the rest split between the trucks, drivers, group leader, fuel, food, and company profits. I can’t see how a tour could be better organized for less cost or more comfort at this price point for the same itinerary. While the trip is not cheap, Kenya and Tanzania are not budget destinations either.
Joseph was an amazing group leader who took care of all the logistics for the entire group. As an avid planner and solo traveler myself, it felt amazing to turn off my brain and entrust the planning and scheduling to someone else. When tours ran off schedule or unexpected things happened, Joseph took charge and made adjustments or found alternatives.
Our drivers were also amazing and had the same early starts and late nights as us. We felt safe at every point during the trip, especially in the parks around the animals. Driving 4x4 on dirt roads all day is exhausting, especially when navigating rocks, potholes, mud, all while trying to spot animals. I could not have imagined doing the driving myself.
The village visits were super cool. Despite how different we are on the surface, everyone needs a community and wants the best for their family and future. Money is always an important motivator and it shows even in the tribes. The wealthier men have more wives to have more kids who can look after more cattle, basically a form of tribal capitalism and a means to increase cattle production. The villages we visited were also pretty genuine and the villagers actually live in them day to day. It wasn’t just an exhibit built for tourists to take photos like most of the “bombas” around Kenya and Tanzania.
Most importantly, I enjoyed the company of everyone in our tour group. A major part of Intrepid’s brand appeal seems to be doing a cultural and sightseeing tour that also benefits the local community and the mission attracts a lot of kind-hearted and open-minded people.
The Neutral:
I wished the food was a bit more exciting. After eating carbs and cold chicken for lunch, and mildly flavored stewed or grilled proteins with rice for dinner, it got pretty repetitive. There is so much good food in East Africa I found earlier in Nairobi or later in Zanzibar. Even with fruits for breakfast, Africa has more than just bananas and watermelon. Every region has their own specialty and I wish they had a way to let us experience that as well. I do think most Intrepid clients are probably not adventurous eaters so they served very safe options that didn’t offend anyone.
I was genuinely confused about their plastic policy because single use bottles aren’t allowed on Intrepid trips. We diligently refilled our reusable bottles but all the accommodations provided them except the Serengeti camp. All the soaps and shampoos came in small single use plastic containers as well. I had brought my own for the trip so I left them untouched. While it was convenient to have the lodges and camps provide single use amenities, I wish that Intrepid with their purchasing power had pushed them to not distribute water bottles and switch to larger soap and shampoo dispensers too.
The Negatives:
There are some really early starts in this trip. Fortunately, there isn’t much to do in the safari areas so most of us slept early. I do wish some days we had some extra time to unwind in the evenings and sleep in.
Most of the accommodations felt subpar. I believe all the lodging are African owned and operated which also meant that they lacked a bit of international standards in terms of operation, service, cleanliness, and comfort. While all the staff are generally very warm and helpful, their service felt stiff and scripted, and perhaps a bit unnecessary at times too. The check-ins all involve a welcome drink and a long briefing when we just needed to know how the hot water works. The dinner service always involved reading the menu out loud while we were all very hungry and ready to eat. Despite the buffet food cooked and everyone ready to go, we can’t start eating until the exact scheduled time. While I really appreciated some of the singing and dancing in the evenings, I felt that most of us were exhausted and can appreciate some extra sleep. I realized at the end of the trip that I probably should have booked the “comfort” style trips instead but very few tour operators offer that for this itinerary simply because of the long overland travel distances between Kenya and Tanzania.
Unfortunately, a big part of being in Africa is also being complicit in some form of corruption, bribery, and paying large sums of money for services that simply shouldn’t cost as much. Despite the crazy fees we pay in park fees, the roads inside and outside the parks are terrible. Almost all the tourist activities are monopolies where existing vendors are protected from competition through regulation by politicians with bribes or partial ownership. There is little incentive to provide better service, make the system more efficient, or lower cost. While Intrepid tries to support the little guys, the majority of the trip cost goes to paying the big guys too.
As an American who is used to tipping, the absurd amount of tips and tipping situations stressed me out too. Everyone who had a hand in the journey expected some amount of tip and it was confusing to figure out how much to give each time. In most group tours, the guide or someone in the group would establish a tipping kitty and let everyone know how much is given where at the end of the trip. Unfortunately for us, there seemed to be some hesitation in the group for tipping as a general practice so the kitty was never established. Since the tip was in cash, it created a lot of headaches with breaking large bills, withdrawing from ATMs, and converting currencies as well.
We also collectively had a savior complex while in Africa because their income is very low and every little bit helps. I truly believe that Africa needs to save itself from corrupt politicians and we tourists can’t save everyone.
What about Intrepid East Africa Safari & Coast? Is Zanzibar worth it?
There is a slightly different itinerary from Intrepid called East Africa Safari & Coast that spends 3 extra days in Zanzibar after the 10 day highlights for about $800 USD extra. I chose to explore Zanzibar without Intrepid since flights, accommodations, and transport were relatively easy to find, and Intrepid’s Zanzibar itinerary wasn’t guided either. In hindsight, I probably should have booked with Intrepid because it would be nice to hang out with people from the tour group too and the cost is pretty reasonable. I also wouldn’t have to deal with the flight problems myself.
Intrepid tries to book the early flights so there’s a full day in Stonetown for a walking tour. The group stayed at Mizingani Sea Front for 1 night and Mnarani Beach Cottages for 2 nights with the optional snorkeling excursion at Mnemba Atoll provided by Zanzibar Watersports.
I booked a stay at Emerson Spice for 2 nights and loved their rooftop sunset dinner. They also host music nights Wednesdays and Fridays and I was lucky to attend one of the traditional Taraab performances in the Secret Garden at the hotel as well.
The 10 days tour is exhausting so definitely go for a more relaxing trip if you do go to Zanzibar. Book your flights early because the morning flights out of Arusha do sell out.
This post is part of a series about Intrepid East Africa Highlights. Read more here.