Our 10th year Wedding Anniversary

A ten year wedding anniversary is a memorable occasion and ours turned out to be a holiday that I will never forget! It started with a trip on the old German boat, the Liemba, up Lake Tanganyika from Kipili to Lagosa.

The Liemba, or the Graf von Goetzen as she was originally named, is a 1,300-ton steamship. This historic ship was brought to Kigoma on the north of Lake Tanganyika, by the Germans during the First World War. She was transported in pieces by train from Dar es Salaam and assembled in Kigoma in 1914. Before her maiden voyage the Graf von Coetzen was bombed by a Belgian aircraft and when their defeat became apparent, the Germans decided to sink the ship in Lake Tanganyika to prevent it from falling into British hands. There she remained until 1924, when the British salvaged her. The ship was then renamed the Liemba, which according to Livingstone, was the local name for Lake Tanganyika. To this day she continues to carry passengers and cargo up and down Lake Tanganyika, from Kigoma in the north to Mpulungu on the south of the Lake in Zambia.

On Sunday 28 January we boarded the Liemba heading north for the village of Lagosa. As there is no dock in Kipili, one of our small, wooden boats took us from the island to where the ship had moored in the Kipili bay. Our boat was then lashed onto the Liemba and we passed our luggage through the 1.5m x 1.5m square hole in the side of the boat which acts as the entrance for goods and passengers alike. Once our bags were onboard we climbed through the hole ourselves and found that we were in the bowels of the boat.

This turned out to be the third class area of the boat. Here passengers do not pay for individual cabins, instead tables and benches were used as beds. The overhead luggage racks were overflowing with bags of clothes and food. Those passengers who were not so lucky found a quiet area in a corner and slept on their bags or on top of the sacks of fish, rice and maize meal that were being transported on the ship. The colourful scene included people selling biscuits, long life milk, sugar and bread, women changing their babies and of course, the deafening din of an out of tune, “over-volumed” radio. After paying for our VIP cabin, we were allowed upstairs to the top deck and shown to our room.

The VIP cabin is the only room on board the Liemba, which has its own en-suite bathroom with toilet, basin and shower (with hot water too). Thank goodness it also had a fan mounted to the ceiling, because this ensured that we had a relatively comfortable night’s sleep.

Enroute to Lagosa, which is on the northern most point of the Mahale Mountains National Park, we stopped at 5 small villages at allow passengers and goods to get onto and off the ship. Small fishing style boats, some with engines, come alongside the Liemba, and tied themselves to the ship and to one another. The goods were then passed from one boat to the next and then into the Liemba through the square hole. This sounds relatively easy and orderly, but when the lake is rough, it is anything but simple. Frightened children were hoisted from the small boats by their arms onto the Liemba, heavy bags of maize were pulled up through the boat’s entrance hole and chickens were thrown unceremoniously onboard. It was a spectacle that I will never forget.

This photograph shows the smaller fishing boats alongside the Liemba, waiting to transport passengers and cargo back to the mainland.

The small hole in the center of each side of the Liemba is the entrance and exit doorway onto and off the ship.

Another view of goods being loaded onto the ship.

Nor will I forget disembarking from the ship at Lagosa. The Lake was particularly rough at the time, with 1.5m swells tossing the fishing boats around like corks. As the Liemba came to a halt, 15 or 20 men from the fishing boats climbed onboard through the small hole, all trying to vie for business unloading goods and offering transport for passengers wanting to get off in Lagosa. After several minutes we were able to squeeze past and over bags and bodies until we found ourselves at the mouth of the hole. We then passed our bags down to someone on one of the small boats alongside the Liemba, and judged our decent into this boat as best we could with it bobbing up and down. Then we had to get onto the transfer boat that had been sent to collect us and take us south to Mahale Mountains national Park (2 and a half hours south by boat from Lagosa).

The transfer boat was at least 2m higher out of the water than the small boat that we were in and so we had to time the swells carefully so that when our boat was lifted upward by a swell and the transfer boat was carried down by another swell, we could catch hold of someone’s hands and have ourselves pulled up and onto the transfer boat. It was truly terrifying.

We arrived at Greystoke just after lunch and immediately fell in love with our beautiful room. Each of the 6 guest rooms is built on the lakeshore, among the trees of the Mahale Mountains forest. The enormous bed and upstairs private lounge area, look onto the lake and are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the glorious sunsets that are so typical of Lake Tanganyika.

The dining and lounge area at Greystoke as seen from the Lake.

A view of our room.

Here you can see Chris sitting on the upstairs lounge of our room. The view from here was awesome.

Mahale Mountains National Park is quite simply one of the most beautiful national parks that we have been to in Africa. It has crystal clear waters, deserted sandy beaches and a backdrop of forested peaks inhabited by the greatest number of primate species of any Tanzanian National Park, including chimpanzees, red tailed monkeys, red colobus, black and white colobus, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys and olive baboons. The eastern side of the Mahale peaks support savannah and woodland species such as elephant, lion, African hunting dog, roan antelope, buffalo, zebra and giraffe. This makes Mahale a truly special and unique National Park.

A view of the northern coastline at dusk.

Us in the Mahale Mountains forest.

The main tourist attraction of this National Park is of course the opportunity to track a wild chimpanzee community (M group) that has been habituated by Japanese researchers since 1965. The group currently consists of 53 chimps.

After tea we went out for a quick walk into the forest to look for red tailed monkeys, vervet monkeys and olive baboons. As red tailed monkeys are usually found in central and west Africa this was a first for us. We were certainly not disappointed and had some lovely clear views of 3 groups of red tailed monkeys throwing themselves from branch to branch and tree to tree, eager to see who we were.

Our first sighting of a red tailed monkey.

We were lead on our daily walks into the forest by our guide, Seif and his father, Mohamed. Mohamed has worked with the Japanese researchers for over 40 years and this is his last year before he retires. Luckily he has passed on his knowledge of the individual chimpanzees and the trees and plants that they use for medicine and food, onto his son, Seif. It was fascinating listening to Seif as he pointed out various leaves used by the chimps to cure stomach ailments, diarrhea and worms. He also pointed out plants that are used by the local villagers for eye problems, ear ache, diarrhea, fever and to stop or induce labour. Seif plans to write a book about the various medicinal uses of the many different species of plant found at Mahale which I am sure will be very interesting to read.

Our guides: Seif and his father, Mohamed.

In July 2006, 13 chimps died due to human flu and because of this there are strict regulations while viewing these animals. Only 6 visitors are allowed to be with the chimps at any one time, each group may only view the chimps for a maximum of 1 hour per day, everyone has to wear a mask and if anyone is unwell they are not allowed to view the chimps. We were also asked to try to keep at least 10m away from the chimps. If a chimp approached us we were told that we would have to back away slowly until we were 10m away.

Every day we walked into the Mahale Mountains forest to find the M group of chimps. Our 2 one-hour sessions with these extraordinary animals were unforgettable. We were able to see them “fishing” for ants using a small twig as a “rod” which they pocked into a hole in a tree. The ants would then climb onto the twig and the clever chimps would pull it out of hole quickly and eat the ants off the twig.

Here we see two of the older males engrossed in their morning ant “fishing”.

We also watched them grooming one another, something that takes hours. This is such a tender, loving action and helps create the strong bonds between the members of the group.

These chimps are REALLY thorough about their grooming.

Ladies, this female chimp has the right idea!

As we were leaving our group of chimps on the last day, one of the male chimps, Darwin, walked right past us on the path that we were on. We all stepped off the path as best we could so that he could come past us. He was so close that we could have touched his back and I found myself holding my breath, not wanting to disturb him in any way. It was a moment that I will remember forever.

Below are some of our memories.

Emily, the 5-year old infant stole all our hearts.

This is Darwin.

And here he is after having walked past us.

The other clients in camp at the same time made the stay even more enjoyable. We met a wonderful aussie honeymoon couple, a pair of American dentists, both armed with wonderful senses of humour and” Woody Allen” His real name was Harvey, but resembled Woody in looks and outlook on life. Coupled with his second wife, Lisa, a lawyer who would have made a fortune as a comedian, they were a pleasure to spend time with.

Our group from left to right: Mohamed, Larry, Richard, me, Chris and Lisa.

Our afternoons were spent kayaking, snorkeling and relaxing. It was heaven.

Sam and Sally (on their honeymoon) enjoying the boat trip to a snorkeling spot.