On a photo safari in Africa 

/Part One/
(During the latest COVID-19 wave)
Where? Tanzania

In two captivating photo reports Dora I will take you on a tour of „winter“ Africa.
During the Bulgarian summer of 2021, for another wave of COVID-19.

***

Photo Safari in Africa: The Flight to Tanzania

And so we head to Africa on a photo safari.
From Amsterdam, we're heading to Tanzania. The plane is packed. There isn't a single empty seat.

We land in Arusha. Almost everyone disembarks, as the city is a major hub for adventurers heading to the Serengeti. Very few of us remain for Dar es Salaam.

So we go down to the capital with no more than 40 passengers.

We take our luggage, visas, and line up. Tanzanian authorities check our PSRs, and just in case, they give us another quick test. Naturally, it's not free, and only when the result comes out can you enter the city. We spent at least an hour at the airport.

Dora's Travels: From Maasai Mara to Serengeti

Here I interrupt Dora's smooth narration and ask her which reserves she has visited in Africa, because I have seen many of her pictures from the black continent.

Oh, we first arrived in Kenya in 2016! We started from the equator and went south through Lake Nakuru to the Maasai Mara. The Maasai Mara and the Serengeti are practically one continuous territory, but the former is in Kenya and the latter in Tanzania. The Great Migration… I didn't see it in its classic form – wildebeest crossing the Mara River – but I did see the huge herds that had gathered on the banks of the river.

After Tanzania - Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire. In the latter, I saw baobabs for the first time.

These are all developed tourist destinations.

And why did we set off for Africa again?!
We had planned Russia…

But since the Russians were not issuing visas, and we had a plan to go to Kamchatka to film bears catching salmon, we decided to go to this reserve. The tourist flow here has kind of died down.

The park is wild, authentic. The experience is very personal.

***

Dar es Salaam: The Gateway to True African Adventure

After the listed trials and tribulations, we are finally in Dar es Salaam.

The name is in Swahili. In translation, it means a calm area or a settlement of the conquered, the humble. And it is the largest and richest city in Tanzania. With about 4.5 million inhabitants.
The city is located on the east coast of Africa, on the shore of the Indian Ocean. It is the most significant port in Tanzania and one of the largest ports on the east coast of Africa. Although Dar es Salaam ceded its official capital status to Dodoma in 1993, it remains the seat of government.

We set off from Bulgaria with two men whom we had met online in the most irresponsible way. The only thing that connected us was the desire to take beautiful photos of nature and animals in Africa.

We decided we would have a private photo safari, and one of them took on the responsibility of organizing it. This isn't an easy task, but since he has traveled extensively in Africa and has contacts, he took on this responsibility. It's important for the tour operator to be vetted and reliable.

Our goal was to observe predators. In the northern reserves I've been to, herbivores, mainly antelopes and buffalo, are predominant.

The main goal there is: you go to photograph the Migration. It's stunning. But you rarely see predators. You don't see them in action. Whereas in this reserve, not only do you see them, you observe what they are doing.

Ruaha National Park: In Search of Predators in the Wild Savannah

And so we decided that we would go to Ruaha National Park.

Its location is South Africa. And in terms of area, it's almost as big as the Serengeti. But it's not as popular. Wilder and less visited – if we encounter one jeep with other tourists in a day, it's practically crowded. And now with this virus, it's even more secluded.

As history: created by Germans in 1910 and expanded by the British, its scope has recently been increased once again because Usangu Reserve was incorporated. It now covers over 20,000 square kilometers. One of East Africa’s most important conservation areas. Add to that the fact that only a portion of it is utilized, and Ruaha becomes incredibly appealing to those who, like me, are constantly on the lookout for truly wild places.

Is this „exploration“ of the wild worth it?!

Survival in the Camp: Icy Water, Impalas, and Night Patrols

The living conditions were not good at all. Imagine a camp on the verge of destitution... There is a kitchen here, but the camp management is not responsible for food. We hired a cook and sourced provisions from the nearest town, Iringa. It wasn't „gourmet,“ but we didn't starve. We mainly stuck to potatoes and rice because the chickens and the strange fish on offer didn't inspire confidence after the second day. And we weren't wrong.

The camp has round plywood bungalows. A chair and a table. Two beds with mosquito nets. The room is already crammed. And a bathroom with a toilet...

There is no hot water. We knew that even from Bulgaria, but we decided that this is Africa – winter or not, a black barrel on the roof of the bungalow would provide lukewarm water for a bath. It turned out to be ICE COLD. There is no barrel. You can only rinse yourself off… Taking a shower is out of the question unless you're a walrus.

Sanitation is on the verge of collapse.

Just imagine: a week without a shower…
Every evening, an armed ranger accompanied us from the bungalow where we ate to the ones where we slept, to protect us from predators, because the camp has no fence and you're right in the savanna.

In Tanzania, it's typical for there to be no fences, or rather, no enclosures, around the camps. The two ladies were housed at the end, and impalas grazed near the bungalow every evening. It's unwise to go outside at night. We were immediately told that there had been two cases of people killed in this park by lion attacks. If you're in a shelter, tent, or bungalow, they don't attack you.

One of the incidents was: the person got hot and stuck his legs out of the tent. At night, the lion arrived and simply grabbed him, dragging him away from the camp...
The second night we found a huge cockroach, or „something like it,“ that looked a lot like this one, and I bravely crossed the campsite yard to find a man to destroy it... My terror of cockroaches is greater than the idea of a lion eating me...

With a camera under the African sun

It's cool in the morning. Still, there's something like winter there too.

But we would wake up at 5:30 and meet the sunrise at 6:15.

The misery is worth it. And all the troubles.
We didn't go back to the camp for food. When we go out in the morning – we are out all day – a dry packet for lunch is completely sufficient.

We stayed in specially made shelters in the park with exceptionally clean toilets, unlike our pathetic facilities. There was no point in returning for just one meal, after all, we had come to the wilderness to take photos and see the beauty of Africa in reality.

Lunch is not of utmost importance, but the animals are having their midday rest. We are accommodating their habits.

The second advantage of not going home for lunch is that the park is huge, so you get to cover more ground within it, see more nature, and encounter more wildlife.

I present Dora's photo story. She takes thousands of photos to choose just one. Her precision is legendary.
Every one of her photographs has a story. They show some event, some action. And when you look at them with her, she tells you a story.

I listen to her narrative and look at the photos she pre-selected. And I enjoy the beauty.

We deliberately stop at the most interesting shot.

End of Part 1! To be continued.

See more Author Dora here