After visiting Zanzibar back in 2016, it was time to add mainland Tanzania to the travel itinerary. Despite visiting Lake Natron and four National Parks as well as some of the country’s most important sites of human history, I still feel there’s a lot left to explore, particularly the lesser known southern parts. Read on for what I did manage to see, which includes incredible landscapes, amazing wildlife sightings from the ground and the air, and some of the most significant places in the development of our species.

The trip started at Kilimanjaro airport, landing with the backdrop of Africa’s tallest mountain around sunrise - as it happens though, the peak is better photographed from the Kenyan side. As they say, you go to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro (which I didn’t) and to Kenya to photograph it (which I did). More on that in another blog post…

Kikuletwa Springs

Hence, the first photos I took were of a little unknown gem east of Kilimanjaro: Kikuletwa Springs, a small hot spring which on the morning I visited was luckily also completely empty, resulting in the calm, clear, colorful waters you see below.

Take a look under water and see what I found…

Lake Natron & The Mountain of God

A 6h drive through mostly bumpy dirt roads brought us to Lake Natron by the late afternoon, where I spent 2 days. The area is full of incredible natural wonders to explore, which I did with my great guide Mohammad, and a local Maasai called Mwenga, who was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and friendly - and became a model for some of my photographs in the process.

Trifecta

The volcano, Lake Natron, and a flock of flamingos - the three most well known features of the area.

The Ol Doinyo Lengai

It's the only active volcano in the world that produces natrocarbonatite lava. This was instrumental in understanding the geology of earth, and makes for a unique landscape.

Mountain of God

Is the name the Maasai use for Ol Doinyo Lengai.

Sunrise Views

A very early hike up the East African Rift, of which the volcanoe is part of, rewards you with these views. The shores of Lake Natron on the left.

The area is also home to the beautiful Ngaresero Waterfalls - a small hike through the canyon rewards you with these views and an optional very wet exploration of a small cave under the waterfall.

Flamingo Lake with Special Features

The lake is the only regular breeding area in East Africa for the 2.5 million lesser flamingoes, and also home to Greater Flamingo and many other bird species such as Pelicans. Its high salt content and temperatures up to 60C make it inhospitable for many other animals, including predators, but supports the development of organisms these birds feed on. These organisms are also responsible for the lake’s reddish hues, best seen from space. Despite the lake’s massive size (a maximum of 57 kilometres x 22 kilometres), it is only up to 3m deep.

Human Traces

Glimpses of Human History

At Lake Natron, I also got a first sight at the incredible historic evidence of human development Tanzania is home to: The Engare Sero footprints, discovered in 2006 by the local people.

Paths

It is the largest human fossil footprint site that has ever been discovered in Africa, preserving over 400 human footprints in the ancient volcanic mudflow, dating from between 6,000 and 19,000 years ago.

Into the Spring

Lake Natron is fed by mineral-rich hot springs - the local Maasai know their locations, and about 1h from camp we found this one after wading through the knee deep mud for about 100m. The water here is literally bath tub hot.

Tanzania’s Wildlife Parks

Arusha was the starting point for the second part of my Tanzania trip, a wildlife photography journey with Andrew Goddard, organized by Guiding the Wild. We started the trip through the country’s parks in the north with Tarangire, followed by Lake Manyara and its national park, and the Ngorongoro crater and region, as well as the Serengeti.

Mount Meru

Tanzania's second tallest mountain seen from the Arusha Gran Melia hotel rooftop.

Tarangire

An afternoon game drive in the park.

Zzzz

Have you ever seen an elephant sleep? They lie down for 3-4h a day.

Lake Manyara

A walk on the lake followed by a visit to the thick rainforest of the Lake Manyara National Park, both together a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Hot Spring Flow

Similar to Lake Natron, this lake is also partially fed by hot springs, such as this one on its western shores.

In the Branches

The first - but not last - lion in a tree I saw. A sight Lake Manyara is famous for.

Shores of Death

As the lake rises, its high salinity content makes the flora on the shores suffer, visible here on the road towards the Ngorongoro highlands.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area and its Crater

The highlands and their famous volcano, with the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera, were our next destination - a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Ngorongoro Crater

As the clouds cleared up in the afternoon, one of the rim viewpoints is a good spot to appreciate the magnitutde of the caldera and the landscape within, covering over 250 sqkm, including the seasonal salt lake in the center of the crater.

In the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, we encountered this Cheetah mother and her two cubs with a fresh kill near the Ndutu lake. One of the cubs happened to look for some shade under our vehicle for a while, with barely its tail sticking out beside the tire. The mother had a GPS tracker for ongoing research, due to the declining population in the area.

The Seat of Humanity

The Ngornogoro region is also home to Tanzania’s most treasured prehistoric sites, which played an essential role in understanding human evolution. I took some detours from the standard route to reach two such places.

Olduvai Gorge

One of the most important paleoanthropological sites on the globe, this place is home to several geological layers, visible here as different shades of brown in the ground. They revealed human artifacts from over 2m years ago all the way to homo sapiens around 17,000 years ago.

OH5

The site's most famous find is the skull of the holotype of Paranthropus boisei, a parallel species to the homo genus.

Laetoli

The second site - much more difficult to reach - is a small museum, hardly known (the visitor book page I signed showed about 50 visitors in the last 2 years), but at a location that is one of the most signficiant in prehistoric human development.

Importance

The site is home to the oldest known evidence of humans walking on two legs. Before the discovery of the Laetoli footprints, there was much debate as to which developed first in the human evolutionary time line: a larger brain or bipedalism. The discovery of these footprints settled the issue, proving that the Laetoli hominins were fully bipedal long before the evolution of the modern human brain. They were made by Australopithecus afarensis and are 3.7m years old.

The Footprints...

... are unfortunately not visible, only a cast was made for the museum. They are covered with earth and rocks to prevent erosion, the best method that was within the means of the archeologists working to preserve them.

What you can see...

... are prints from the same geological bed (and thus of the same age) made by other mammals, such as these ones by a small antelope.

Discovery

The site is still being researched today - our walking tour with the local ranger brought this little piece to light, a splinter from a tool made by archaeic homo sapiens, possibly around 300,000 years ago during the Middle Stone Age. No one can say where this artifact might be now...

The Serengeti from the Ground - and from Above

A collection of wildlife images from what is maybe the most famous National Park in Africa, covering almost 15,000 sqkm - it is aptly named after the Maasai word siringet, meaning "the place where the land runs on forever".

Built by Disney

We found the Lion King rock!

Spotty Rain

Although the rainy season had passed already, occasional showers swept through the savannah from time to time.

Rainbow

And luckily brought a rainbow over our camp with them.

Flashes

Stormy weather continued into the night.

Rare Sight

We were also lucky to spot this Rhino - a rare find in the central Serengeti, as even the local guides were excited. It's a sign of conservation success, as this individual had to move to establish a new territory due to the growing presence of Rhino in its original habitat.

While the Serengeti is impressive from the ground, an aerial view of its vast savannah and many animal herds take things to another level. After a - literally - bumpy start, we had a great balloon flight with Miracle Experience Balloon Safaris.

White Dots

A large herd of Zebra crossed by a second balloon flying this morning.

The Great Migration

Why we came to the Serengeti: The world’s longest animal migration, with 1.5 million wildebeest and 250,000 zebras following the rains in an 800km circular route every year. We caught it in full swing, with the largest herd we saw approaching 300,000 wildebeest according to our guides - it was an incredible sight difficult to capture in pictures.

Highway

A group of Wildebeest looking for shade under a lonely tree as the endless train of migrating herds passes by in this long exposure image.

Endless

The largest herd we saw covered the entire horizon - even a panorama like this struggles to capture it all.

Left Behind

However, not everyone makes it - it’s a long and dangerous journey.

My journey wasn’t as long and dangerous - hopefully still enjoyable to follow along.

Tanzania - National Parks and the Origins of Humanity