“Something, or something awful or something wonderful was certain to happen on every day in this part of Africa. Every morning when you woke it was as exciting as though you were going to compete in a downhill ski race or drive a bobsled on a fast run. Something, you knew, would happen, and probably before eleven o’clock.”
Ernest Hemingway, True at First Light ( 1999:19)
A muddy morning in Arusha. Elevation makes Arusha cooler than other areas of Tanzania. While July and August are generally dry months, it can rain anytime, as we learned.
Where Maps Meet Mountains: The Heart of the East African Wild
At nine o’clock, Mr. Nixon nosed the "Toyota-in-Khaki" (TIK) onto a street of packed earth. We were electric with anticipation, fueled partly by the sheer scale of the landscape. On a map, Arusha sits as the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town—roughly 200 miles south of the equator and 200 miles inland from the Indian Ocean. Within a 100-mile radius lie over a dozen national parks and game reserves, stretching across the Tanzanian border into the wilds of Kenya.
You can see all of this if you look down at a map.
Arusha is half-way between Cairo and Cape Town. Image courtesy of Google Earth.
If you look up from Arusha’s streets, you’ll likely find a cinder cone peering back. Maybe two. Mt Meru is the fifth tallest mountain in Africa, ringing in at just under 15,000 feet. Sixty miles to the northwest is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a bubbling blowhole that has erupted three times in the last century. Forty miles to the northeast, Mt Kilimanjaro rises more than 19,000 feet and is the grand old man of them all. Arusha is spread like a stained tablecloth in this volcano alley. Deep rumbles beneath suggest that the crafting of this landscape is a work-in-progress.
Echoes of Hemingway: Chasing Papa Through the Dust of Arusha
Mr. Nixon navigated potholes that ranged from "teeth-rattlin’" to truck-swallowing. TIK’s stiff suspension took the hits, lurching us about as ubiquitous motorbikes buzzed around like flies. Under fat, lolling clouds, Arusha was slowly waking.
Image courtesy of Google Earth.
Our excitement was tempered by the raw reality of the land—a reality “Papa” Hemingway knew intimately. Hemingway’s 1953 safari nearly ended in the flames of two successive plane crashes; he famously read his own obituaries with glee while recovering in Entebbe.* Twenty years prior, he spent his last night of luxury in Arusha before heading west toward Lake Manyara. On that trip, he contracted amoebic dysentery so severe it caused a prolapse. He had to wash his own innards and push them back in while waiting to be airlifted to the hospital.** This agony likely prompted the setting for his fictional “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”
Beyond the Big Five: Giants, Microbes, and Something Wonderful
I knew going in that this was a hard land. We instinctively fear the carnivores—the lions and hyenas—or the “jumbo” threats like buffalo and elephant. But the true stalkers are microscopic: the parasites of malaria, the bacteria of cholera, and the viruses of HIV.
TIK rumbled past Hemingway’s eleven o’clock without difficulty.
Zebu cattle accompanied by a stick-wielding herder.
As the clutter of Arusha faded, the country opened into broad, mellow shades of ochre and gold. Clusters of thorny acacias clung to the hills, overlooking mud-holes baked cracked by the sun. Lanky Maasai herders, wearing sandals cut from old tires, guided cattle toward water. They remained indifferent to our passage, eyes fixed on the horizon.
We rumbled along in silence until Vicki shouted, “A zebra!”
She pointed toward a break in the brush. It took a moment for Mr. Nixon and me to catch the flash of a black-and-white flank. It was something wonderful indeed.
“We have us a spotter,” Mr. Nixon chuckled.
The country opened up, broad and mellow with earthen shades.
*See Philip Young’s Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration (1966: 267).
**See Keith Ferrell, Ernest Hemingway: The Search for Courage (1984:158-159).
Check out a lake that Hemingway believed to be the prettiest in Africa. See our post here: “Lake Manyara: A Good Park for a Safari Start.”
If you are a traveler, church leader, or educator who is interested in educational travel, let me hear from you. I partner with faith-based groups to deliver outdoor academic experiences. Leaders receive the same perks that other agencies offer, at competitive prices and without the self-serving interests.
Right now we’re building the passenger roster for an Israel excursion scheduled for March 17-28, 2020. Seats will be open until Thanksgiving. For a list of trips go to the link here or contact us at BibleLandExplorer@gmail.com.