Flush with colorful culture and vivid wildlife, Tanzania has an eye on the future but a deep history

The sun drops like a rock over the vast Serengeti Plain in northern Tanzania.

After a long day of spotting elephants, giraffes, zebras — and even a leopard eating a wildebeest high up in an Acacia tree, darkness was upon us.

There are no streetlights in Serengeti National Park. Signs are few and far between. But our drivers, P.J. and Ima with Lendimi African Safaris, were making good time to our tent camp.

Suddenly, Ima, at the wheel of the Land Cruiser in front of us, hit the brakes. His headlights lit up a massive cow elephant and two tiny calves. And boy, was she mad.

He ears were flapping and she was swinging her trunk up and down.

“No flash! No flash!” warned our driver, P.J., knowing that everyone had their phones in their laps. Sure enough though, the flash from someone’s iPhone further illuminated the tense scene.

That’s when another momma elephant burst from the bushes right in front our our truck, also flapping her ears and making it clear she was protecting her calves.

Both drivers turned off their headlights and shut off their engines. We waited quietly until the massive elephants walked away from the road with their calves and into the bushes.

It was just another day in Serengeti National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We started the day on a “game drive” south of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. We were loaded up in two Toyota Land Cruisers.

I think the Toyota Land Cruiser is the national car of Tanzania. In the towns and villages that surround the park, there are many types of scooters, cars and buses. But all of the safari outfitters use Land Cruisers, with a host of custom modifications.

“These Land Cruisers were imported from Australia and Japan,” said P.J. “Then they went to custom fabricators here in Tanzania to be outfitted.”

Custom modifications include a pop-up roof for better wildlife viewing, beefed-up suspension, heavy-duty bars on the front and back bumpers, oversized windows and a stretched wheelbase to accommodate six seats in back. Further, there’s a power inverter for charging stations and a refrigerator for cold drinks. The trucks are stick-shift, burn diesel and feature both high and low four-wheel-drive transmissions. There’s no sound system, no electric windows and no air conditioning.

“Land Rovers have a smoother ride,” said P.J. “But they break down more often. And there are plenty of spare parts for the Land Cruisers.”

Our first stop of the day was at the southern gate of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This region includes the unique Ngorongoro Crater, a 100-square-mile area formed more than two million years ago when a volcano collapsed on itself. The road along the crater rim is more than 7,000 feet high and was shrouded in fog.

Just inside the gate, we stopped to check out a group (or “troop”) of baboons in a tree and along the road. It was the first of countless close encounters with the wildlife, including lions, wildebeest, gazelles and an incredible array of birds.

The animals in the region represent the big hook to get people to visit the region. More than 500,000 people from around the world visit the Serengeti Plain each year, including the Ngorongoro Crater. But the geology, the history and the culture of the region add much more to the story.

Just within the last 150 years, present-day Tanzania was part of German East Africa, part of Germany’s imperial empire starting in the 1880s. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the area was renamed “Tanganyika” and was administered by Great Britain in various forms from 1916 until 1961. After that, Tanzania gained its independence.

The region’s history, however, goes back more than a million years to the birth of humankind, based on research in the Olduvai Gorge. This area, just outside the Ngorongoro Crater, is where Mary Leakey and her husband Louis Leakey discovered ancient bone fragments, as well as stone tools. The Olduvai Gorge Museum offers visitors a good look at Leakey’s research and a roadmap of human development.

The extensive excavation and research done in the Olduvai Gorge paints a picture of the earliest humans as nomadic hunter-gatherers on the Serengeti Plain. Nearby, the Hadzabe tribe continues as a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers.

Since the Hadzabe communicate in a “clicking” language, our guides made an arrangement to pick up an interpreter before visiting.

Musha, our interpreter, lived with the Hadzabe for several years and learned the language. He explained that the Hadzabe hunt baboons, birds, wildebeest, zebras and other animals. They hunt with bows and arrows, trading for metal arrow tips with neighboring tribes. The tribe also harvests honey, with which it barters for other essentials.

The more iconic tribe members associated with the region are the Maasai, characterized by their colorful capes and ever-present spear carried by male members. The Maasai also are nomadic but are shepherds of their grazing stock instead of hunter-gatherers.

Maasai villages are characterized by their small mud huts built in a circle around a common grazing pen for their herds.

Almost everyone has kicked their cameras to the side in favor of smartphones for snapshots, videos and selfies.

Smartphones have come a long way, but it’s frustrating to try and capture the vastness of the endless Serengeti Plain. It’s also tough to get a good shot of the endless streams of wildebeest, on their annual “Great Migration” to the north in search of better food. P.J. and Ima stopped several times as the herds crossed the road.

While smartphones have their limits, I got some pretty good shots right from the truck. That was helpful, since we couldn’t get out and roam freely in the park.

On any packing list, along with vaccination recommendations (Typhoid, hepatitis A/B), bug dope and sun screen, outfitters always recommend a good pair of binoculars. Sulli Gibson is a tour manager for the St. Paul Island Tour in the Pribilofs. As a naturalist and a bird lover, Gibson is a fan of the best optics.

“It’s worth spending a little money on glass so you can really enjoy them in my opinion. $300 seems to be a sweet spot for binoculars,” wrote Gibson.

Gibson is a fan of Nikon’s M5s or M7s. “If you want to stick to $200 or less I would look at Vortex’s offerings in that range,” he wrote.

Your camera and your binoculars are helpful for zooming in on the animals which dominate the Serengeti.

But open your eyes to Tanzania’s people right in front of you. Particularly in rural areas, many villagers have no access to refrigeration or electricity. That means they go to the market every day and they must haul water.

Tanzania still is a young country that struggled under European colonialism, then war with its neighbors. Still, the country is regarded as politically stable and peaceful, compared with its neighbors in East Africa: Somalia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The country has an eye on the future, with energy and infrastructure projects to bring electricity to more citizens. By virtue of its deep heritage, stretching back literally to the dawn of human history, Tanzanians know where they come from — and are very much at home in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Getting there: Arusha is the international gateway for most safaris. Qatar Airways provides one-stop service from Seattle to Mt. Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha. Since the layover in Doha is more than eight hours, Qatar Air provides hotel accommodations between flights. Qatar Air also is a partner with Alaska Airlines for mileage points.