Incredible Lake Natron & Ol Doinyo Lengai

All members !

Please be careful some of members on forums are not real travellers they are just act as traveller to fishing people from the forums to their business , i found it in many tread !!!!!

@KatCurry: I hope you're not referring to one of the messages above???

drftr

@Cindy: I've sent you an email so we can continue developing our plans.

@all other readers: Please keep responding as we decided we have to be more flexible in our plans because of a bad cold.

drftr

How is the state, I am currently in Dar and interested in joining you.
(I start traveling arround Tansania for about 2 Month)

Hi maurazi,

Yesterday I sent an email to cindyonwalking and told her we're ready to go but could wait a few days if that meant there's more people to share with. When would you be able to leave Arusha? Concerning the route it would be most likely we skip Olmoti and head to Empakaai straight away. This would be open for discussion though. I've sent you a message with my email address.

drftr

We decided doing Lake Natron and Ol Doinyo Lengai self-organized mostly using public transport from Arusha. Although we really loved to include Empakaai Crater we think paying over $200 for a day of hiking with a local guide, eating local food and basic camping shouldn't cost anywhere near $200 - especially not in Africa. If some kind of organization wants to be rich ASAP that's fine for us, but it won't be BECAUSE of us...

:-(

drftr

Hey there,

I'm also planning to go to Lake Natron and Ol Doinyo Lengai and organized it myself. Would love to here how you did it.

Thanks
Matt

In Arusha you can buy a bus ticket to Engaresero. The costs are 17.000 and nothing else. Can't remember the name of the bus company bit it's just off the bus station on the other side of a T-junction. Ask your guesthouse or so for the name. Touts on the bus station tried to make me buy a ticket for as much as 35.000 so be warned.

You'll pass through 2 gates that are not recognized by the government but you'll have to pay $10 at both gates anyway as otherwise the bus will not leave and even unload your luggage. We tried ignoring them for 30 minutes but they didn't give a shit. At the third and only official gate you'll have to pay $15. Give my best regards (from the Dutch and American guys) to Arnoldi who's the guard at the post. He's a very friendly chap and you're most likely to spend some time with him while waiting for the bus going back to Arusha. Oh, please remember to keep the gate tickets as otherwise you'll have to pay again!

We stayed at the wonderful Maasai Giraffe Camp, run by Lepara and (Belgian) Ingrid. We decided not to climb Ol Doinyo Lengai as the guide wanted $80 as apparently it can be very dangerous. While we were there there were stormy winds so we weren't very keen on finding out how that would work 2 kilometers up.

Lake Natron is fantastic, especially if you take the time to walk partly around the lake clockwise. After maximum an hours hike or so you'll see some hills and if you climb the ones closest to the shore you can actually see thousands of flamingoes top-down which is especially rewarding once a couple of them decide to fly off. You'll have to cross the salty and often wet crusts for this but I'm sure you can find a way without sinking into the mud ankle-deep.

Hope this helps...

drftr