01
Overview
This is a cultural stop, and the honest version of it is early, quiet and unstaged.
Lake Eyasi lies south-west of the Ngorongoro highlands. Around it live Hadzabe communities — among the last hunter-gatherers in East Africa — and Datoga pastoralists and blacksmiths.
Cultural visits here have a poor reputation in places, and deservedly: badly run ones are performances staged for a bus. A good one starts before dawn, joins a hunting party that was going out anyway, and is arranged so payment reaches the community rather than a middleman. That arrangement is worth asking about specifically.
What you see
- Hadzabe
- Datoga
- Baobabs
- The soda lake
What you actually see
A hunt, if there is one
Bow hunting with poisoned arrows for small game and birds. Nothing about it is quick or certain.
Blacksmithing at the Datoga forge
Bellows made from hide, and arrowheads finished in minutes.
The Rift wall from the west
A very different view of the escarpment from the one on the main road.
Onion farming
The lakeshore is intensively farmed — an unexpectedly modern counterpoint.
02
What a visit looks like
Out with a hunting party
On foot, fast, and not choreographed. You will cover ground and you may come back with nothing, which is the point.
Before dawn
The Datoga forge
Arrowheads and jewellery worked from scrap metal, using techniques that have not changed much.
Mid-morning
Birds and onion fields
The lake shrinks and swells hugely between seasons; in the wet it draws flamingo and pelican.
The lake
03
Where to stay
Lodge or tented camp near Lake Eyasi
A proper room, often with a long view at the end of the day.
The kind of place and the area are fixed by the route. The property itself is chosen for your dates and budget, and named in your quote.
04
Getting there
Getting there
About two hours by road from Karatu, down into the Rift floor.
Combine with
05
Trips that include Lake Eyasi
06
Best time to go
Best months · Year-round
The dry season
Short grass and animals close to water. The busiest months, and the clearest game viewing.
Calving on the southern plains
The herds are on the short-grass plains around Ndutu, with predators to match.
The green season
Rain, long grass and far fewer vehicles — and some camps close for the long rains.
07
Doing it properly
08
More places to go
Ngorongoro Crater
A collapsed volcano with a resident population, including black rhino.
Lake Manyara
Groundwater forest under the Rift wall, and a lot of birds.
Arusha
Where every northern safari begins, and a park most people skip.
