Lake Eyasi, Tanzania:
on the road to Lake Eyasi
On the day following my visit to Tarangire National Park, I went to remote Lake Eyasi.
Lake Eyasi is a seasonal, shallow salt water lake just south of the Ngorongoro Crater. Its shores are populated by the Hadzabe people who mainly live as hunter-gatherers. Tourists can visit the area and join the locals in hunting with bow and arrow. I generally feel very conflicted with this kind of tourism because I don’t think that people or their way of life should become a tourist destination. My tour operators advised me to visit the area in any case since the landscape was unique and I could go on a game drive instead of visiting the locals. However, when I went there with my guide, I was told that there is nothing to do except meeting the Hadzabe and the Datooga people. Even though that was against my original wishes, I followed the tour plan and took photos as instructed. Since I was really sick from food poisoning that day, I did not feel like discussing the issue. During the time at Lake Eyasi, we were accompanied by a local guide who was in charge of managing tourists visiting the area.
I would have prefered to spend the day in a national park, even though it was interesting to see the Datooga blacksmith at work. I also really liked my accomodation with many beautiful birds in the garden and a comfortable bed – the last for a number of days since my journey now brought me into the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park where I would stay in a tiny tent on public camping sites.
Matt Travels 
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