- From this Candelabra Tree to the giant Boababs to the many forms of Acacia, the trees of Africa are both striking and beautiful.
Out in Africa
Posted on September 29, 2008 by Ailbhe Phelan
Habari za leo. I’ve been back in London for a week and still feel upbeat from my first visit to Africa. I went to Tanzania with my better half and we spent 9 days travelling across from Arusha to the Serengeti followed by 5 days relaxing in Zanzibar. Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life and we have loads of photographs of animals, buildings and people to prove it (although I do regret not being quick enough to stop and photograph a small makeshift stall by the roadside, in the middle of nowhere, named “Barack Obama Store”!).
One of the many things that impressed me was the creativeness of the people. Hollowed out logs were hung from trees as hives for local bees, sisel plants lined the roadsides and were later used in basket weaving, stunning beaded jewellery was created by numerous groups of women’s co-ops, fascinating wood carved statues abounded and beautiful wooden bowls and platters were decorated with carved animals or simply oiled. None of which would have looked out of place in any of our city centre ‘designer’ stores. As for the fashion, well, did I feel dull compared to the highly decorated kanga’s favoured by the local ladies. (A kanga is a two piece length of material, one used as a headscarf, one as a skirt, usually in a light, printed cotton). Our first day on the road was a Sunday and the Tanzanian womenfolk were out in force looking fabulous as they made their way to church. Our Tanzanian guide Chamillus told us his mother had warned him never pick a lady on a Sunday “as you don’t get the true picture”!
The highlights of our trip were a sighting of leopard preparing to hunt by sitting up on his hind legs to get a better view of his prey (“never seen that before” said all the guides) and a 16km walk we did with two Maasai warriors, Mateyo and Kisanil. All the many Maasai we met were friendly, looked beautiful in all their decorations and were greatly amused by our very limited Swahili (we didn’t attempt speaking Maa – the maasai language – in fact, nearly all Tanzanians speak at least 3 languages which puts most of us here to shame). We came across the most elegant ladies with fabulous beaded necklaces and bangles and large dangling earring who were just doing their daily housework or carrying water. And the ‘morani’ (warriors) were even more brightly decorated with spears and knives thrown in as well.
I did get a chance to do some sketching, all in the fantastic campsites that we stayed at. The campsites were isolated in very beautiful locations. The ‘tents’ we had were walk-in affairs often with a thatched roof and canvas sides. The biggest surprise was the flushing toilets in each one! And a shower (even if that was dependant on someone filling up a bladder bag with warm water) so we couldn’t claim to be roughing it too much. Anyway here are a couple of the sketches and some of the photos. And I haven’t even mentioned our time in Zanzibar and the carved doorways. Another posting needed methinks…