The road to Kilimanjaro

The beauty and drama of Mother Nature in Tanzania is riveting and intoxicating. The crimson shades and verdant plains, the color of ripe lime juxtapose so beautifully against the pastoral landscape.  The rolling hills, golden savannahs. Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru shimmer ethereally.

Soaring above the rippling tea and coffee plantations and low hills of northeastern Tanzania, these mountains offer challenging treks with extraordinary views extending hundreds of miles. Here, one will truly appreciate the sunrise from the roof of Africa.

Experience the beautiful Legendary Coffee Lodge, visit the Maasai villagers and market, indulge as you shop for local arts, crafts and tanzanite in the nearby Cultural Heritage Center and witness the extraordinary wildlife of the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater. The warm but rarely extreme, equatorial climate of the savannah grasslands and the invigorating, cool climate of the highlands attract an unparalleled diversity of wildlife.

My dear friend, Lifestyle Asia associate publisher Cheryl Tiu, and I recently discovered that a trip to the Tanzanian wilderness is an ode to eternity and timeless travel; it is an answered prayer on anyone’s bucket list.

“Tailor-made luxury adventures can be arranged to suit your preference by Asia to Africa Safaris, a company that has been competently extending this experiential travel service for over a decade now,” says general manager Robert Henares, who manages their office in Manila.  Filipino ex-investment bankers Jose “Lit” Cortes and Victor “Binky” Dizon own Asia’s first and only African specialist.  Asia to Africa Safaris offers the most gratifying safari experience as they represent over 160 camps all over Africa.

It has been said that if you have only one day in your life to visit an African game park, that day ought to be spent in Ngorongoro crater. This masterpiece of Mother Nature — a perfect caldera — is a place of sublime beauty and a repository of Africa’s finest wildlife reminiscent of Noah’s Ark.  The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is just a short drive from The Legendary Coffee Lodge. As you drive further and reach the edge of the crater at an altitude of 2,300 meters, you will be  rewarded with a breathtaking panorama — countless animals live in the caldera, which has a diameter of 19 kilometers. Zebras, buffalo, antelopes, lions, black rhinos, hippos, elephants are nomadic residents of the place.

The road to Kilimanjaro is a celebration of creation’s finest gifts. As we admire the grand spectacle of the African landscape, Mt. Kilimanjaro stands out mightily as its most magnificent treasure. It awakens the senses and stirs up the soul with its commanding height that soars high above. People around the world instantly recognize the mountain, yet its familiarity and grandeur, wonders and secrets have yet to be fully discovered.

A microcosm of earth, Kilimanjaro contains an excellent example of ecosystems, representing virtually every environment on the planet. Glacier, snowfield, desert, alpine, moorland, savannah and tropical jungle are among those found on the mountain making the descent from summit to base analogous to traveling from the Arctic to the equator in a space of a few kilometers.  It is a well known fact that Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa at 5,895 meters. But few people are aware that the lowest point in Africa can be found at the bottom of Lake Tanganyika, which is 1,470-meter deep.

The premier address to stay is at the Legendary Coffee Lodge in Arusha, just 40 kms. from the Kilimanjaro airport. It is a sanctuary of luxury and coffee where one can rest and prepare for the challenging safaris that one will embark on.  Take this opportunity to take an in-depth look at coffee farming in East Africa  as you embark on a full tour of the coffee estates and processing plants nearby.

Our newfound friend Florida Elkummay from the Legendary Lodge showed us the charming jogging trails and its environs. The cool breeze rustled the flowers and leaves in the verdant foliage and the various birds flew from one treetop to another, chirping their harmonious chorus. This charming call of nature is what we live to hear.

After the five-kilometer run, we embarked on a Polaris vehicle tour, an open-air safari transport through the coffee plantations. The distant mountain range was covered with dreamy clouds and one could only imagine what lay behind. Just like many things in life, just because you cannot see it does not mean it does not exist.

Back at the lodge, we prepared for a home-cooked Tanzanian meal lovingly prepared for us. We savored an exotic and delightful dish of ugali, which is meat, spicy beans, tomato, onion, lemon juice and pepper spices. They taught us how to cook and eat this delicacy with a porridge-type maize dish that you roll in to a ball and dip in the black bean concoction laced with dynamite chili. The flavors burst in your mouth as they are complemented with red wine of the finest kind. I thanked the good Lord for traveling mercies with  precious friends and remembered what my late dad Ting Dayrit  often said: “It’s not just where or how you travel but with whom that spells that much-coveted difference.”

A charming lunch with Amanda Mitchell of Nomad Tanzania at the 120-year-old farmhouse of the Legendary Lodge was a lovely welcome. In Tanzania, Asia to Africa Safaris represents Nomad Tanzania, which has several amazing safari camps. We learned that way back in the 1980s, there were 700,000 wildebeests and today they have multiplied by the millions. This is made possible because of the wonderful eco preservation practices of the Serengeti region.

In this area where coffee and tanzanite are world famous, it is easy to fall in love with the environs and the warm and friendly people. Welcome to the real Africa, where man and animals live in harmony, in respect for each other’s environment and boundaries. This is nirvana, the ultimate pinnacle of peace and love, joy and tranquility where man and animals salute nature and all its blessings and divinations.

From Arusha, one can take a jumper flight to the Serengeti for the surreal safari experience. One can stay for as short as five days in a safari camp or as long as one wishes to. We agreed that nature has its own clock and when out here, you will have to patiently wait for the challenging and breathtaking scenes that will unfold inevitably. Thanks to the expertise of the people behind Nomad Tanzania’s Serengeti Mobile Camp and Lamai Serengeti Camp, guests will learn extensively about bush behaviors  as they come up close and personal with the wilderness.

On the way to Serengeti, our heart skipped many beats. In fact, it seemed to reverberate in unison with the plane propellers getting louder and louder as we gravitated closer towards the Serengeti mobile camp. We had set a date with Mother Nature, to see the wildebeest’s migration and witnessing it proved that it is truly nature’s most spectacular show. Nature’s clock is altogether different from the time we know. For one thing, you cannot command the animals to come out when you want. They will inevitably appear according to their timetable. 

The Serengeti plains have remained the same way for over two million years, proving that man has indeed played his significant role as steward of the environment, co-creator of this paradise.

Tanzania is the land of safari superlative, the quintessential African experience. I am lured by these challenges that traveling to the most exotic habitats on earth offer. Here, one feels united with God and His art of sublime nature.

These are the adventures we love to live for, the kind of travel I wish to remember and be remembered for.

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Customized itineraries for Asia to Africa Safaris can be arranged by its office in Manila. Call 812-2728 or visit www.atoasafaris.com or e-mail enquiry@atoasafaris.com.

Qatar Airways, voted Airline of the year 2012 by Skytrax industry audit, has best connection from Manila to Tanzania. For inquiries, visit www.qatarairways.com.

E-mail the author at miladay.star@gmail.com.