Paradise Thy Name is Kigoma

A zebra photographed by Oren when it showed up in our backyard at the cottage at Jakobsen's beach Kigoma, Tanzania. No zoom lens needed.


I fear this entry may sound more like a travel brochure than a blog post, but I assure you, no one is paying me for what I am writing.  I am just offering my humble opinions.

I am prefacing this post in this way because we just got home from an amazing vacation in Tanzania where we spent New Year's Eve.  We actually left Burundi on Tuesday Dec. 27th and returned on January 2nd.  We left in the morning on Tuesday, shortly after our housesitters arrived, (some friends of a neighbor who were visiting Buja.)  It was interesting talking to them as we left.  They live in Kigali and flew down to Bujumbura.  When we asked why they did not drive (since they needed a car) they bristled and said that they heard that Burundi was far too politically insecure to drive a car through.  I think they were shocked to hear that we make the trip back and forth to Kigali every month.  I think generally people in Rwanda, especially expats, have a lot of misinformation about the dangers of Burundi which seem to be exaggerated considerably by Rwandese.

Once they were settled in (and oriented to our dogs) we got into our very packed car (full of groceries and other things we would cook for the week, as well as beach wear and other toys) and headed out the gate.  We met our Danish friends Naja and Thomas on our road in their World Relief LandCruiser, also fully loaded with their two kids and an equal amount of food and vacation accessories.  They were going with us to our vacation spot, which was very good since we had never driven there before and had heard that finding it can be a bit of a trick.

We headed South along the Lake toward the town called Nyanza Lac before heading east into Tanzania.  The road is OK on the Burundi side except for a 25 kilometer stretch of dirt road right before the Tanzanian border.  There is also a bit of a trap here for the inexperienced.  At the beginning of the dirt road in the town Mabanda is where one does all the customs and immigration paperwork and gets passports stamped.  At the end of the 25 kilometers is the border policeman who checks the passports to make sure they are stamped.  But finding the office in Mabanda is a bit tricky and there is NO indication anywhere that indicates this is the process.  Thomas and Naja told us they got caught by this the first time they went to Kigoma.

The border on the Tanzania side was not very complicated and on both sides it is evident that this is a very remote crossing point.  From the border the drive to Kigoma is another hour or so (4 hours of driving all together not counting borders) on a new road.  The Tanzanian countryside here looks a lot like Burundi with rolling hills and mountains.

When we got to Kigoma town we changed some money and bought a few supplies then headed to the Jakobsen Guest House.  This is actually quite an exclusive place.  The Jakobsen's are missionaries who have lived in Tanzanian for many decades and took advantage of a brief opportunity in the eighties when Ex-pats were allowed to buy land in the country.  They basically bought an area of land that forms a large Peninsula falling into Lake Tanganyika.  At this point the Lake is enormous and one can barely see the mountain ranges of Congo on the other side.  The Jacobsen's built a guesthouse as well as a cottage on the land and make it available to missionaries and others who wish to book it.  There are only a few spaces available at a time which means that when you are here, you virtually have the place to yourself.

The cottage has no electricity but it does have a fridge that runs on kerosene, a gas stove, and 3 solar panels that charge batteries for electric lights and an outlet for cell phones, etc. (There is no internet or cell service in this place though.)

The entire place feels like one is on Gillligan's Island.  There are several beautiful secluded beaches, as well as a high plain of savannah above.  There are fantastic boulders and cliffs everywhere and the place has some interesting wild life including monitor lizards, monkeys, zebras, bush bucks as well as innumerable tropical fish.

The cottage is located above the lake and has a very nice verandah that overlooks the lake.  We basically shared the cottage with Naja and Thomas' family.  There were 2 bedrooms in the cottage and a small annex behind that had another bedroom.  They slept in the annex and we did all of our meals together.

There was no restaurant so we cooked all of our own meals.  There was however, some house staff, a young woman who came and did all or our dishes and shopping for fresh stuff (like fish) when we wanted it.

There was something about the beach and the cabin that reminded me a great deal of summers I had spent in Martha's Vineyard, Massachussetts, as far as its pristine quietness, lush forests, and beaches surrounded by low cliffs.  What was most surprising though was the water in the Lake.  When we arrived there was a chop and one could even body surf, but much of the day it was quite still, and much to my surprise CRYSTAL CLEAR!  I have never seen a body of water this clear since a childhood trip to a Greek Island in the Mediterranean Sea.  But this water was so clear it was like swimming in a pool.

In fact, it was perfect for snorkeling and this proved to be fascinating when one went out below the rocky cliffs.  It was the fresh water equivalent of a coral reef, completely teeming with gorgeous tropical fish.  These weren't quite as colorful as marine fish, but they were close.  Some were stripped and others spotted, some with neon blue spots, others with yellow.  I know Lake Tanganyika is known for its variety of tropical fish (particularly cichlids).  I really enjoyed snorkeling there around the boulders and although there are supposedly no crocodiles, hippos or sharks here there was definitely a sublime feeling of terror when I looked down over some of the boulders and saw the bottom drop away 50 feet or more.  (like the drop-off in Finding Nemo.)  It just kind of turns an inky indigo as one peers down.  I did swim down in some areas about 20 feet to the bottom, but the best fish viewing was around the rocks closer to the surface.  I could see, though how this could be the second deepest lake in the entire world.

All of us enjoyed snorkeling and even Oren went out with me one afternoon with his life jacket.  The kids did enjoy jumping off the lower boulders that stuck into the water and swam around them.  Elias and Aviajah are Naja and Thomas' children, Elias is Oren's age, and Aviajah is just more than a year older.  The three played very well together even though the only language they share is French.  Oren just seemed to be so comfortable communicating with them in French, and I was quite impressed.

David would play with them from time to time, but did seem to enjoy spending much of his time watching monkeys, frogs, crabs and other animals on the beach.  He also loved to kick around what I would call the lagoon formed by the rocky cliffs around the sandy beach.  (He still needs his life jacket to do that.)

The parents generally snorkeled, swam laps across the lagoon or played with kids on the rocks.  Sometimes sitting on the sand to sunbathe or read a book.

At meals we would go up to the cottage and prepare things we had brought.  We did have some things made in advance (like pasta sauce) that we served.  We also bought some things that are available locally (like Icecream) that are far less expensive here than in Burundi.

When one was tired of the beach there was the option of going up onto the savannah on the plateau above the cottage.  This was a very interesting area that looked like a game park.  I enjoyed hiking here nearly everyday.  There was the option of bouldering as well, which Oren loved to do with me.  The best part was the spectacular panoramic views one had at almost every part of this plateau as it looked over the whole peninsula.  We went up several times to look for wildlife, particularly zebras.  We did see some bush buck but the zebras alluded us most of the week.

In fact on one disheartening day we spent several hours looking for them as a family only to find, when we got back to the cabin that Naja and Thomas' family saw them in another part of the plain.  Later that afternoon though, when we had just finished our nap at the cottage, Rebecca looked out her window and 3 zebra were grazing in our back yard.  We went out and watched them to the delight of the children, and Oren went quite near to them and snapped a photo of one head on.  (No he did not use a zoom lens here.)

New Years Eve was enjoyable, especially dinner.  We had asked the house staff girl (Salome) to buy us a fish and she got us a giant whole sangala.  Seeing it whole I would describe it as the biggest bass I have ever seen.  It looked like it weighed about 12 pounds.  She cleaned it for us then we went down to the beach and built a fire and grilled it on the fire.  We brought it back up for dinner and I have to say it was the best fish I think I have ever had anywhere.  We feasted that evening.  We did not put the kids to bed but our kids fell asleep well before midnight but Elias and Aviajah did make it to join us in the Danish tradition of jumping (from a chair) into the New Year.  It was a funny evening complete with some South African chardonnay bought in Tanzania.

Since it was rainy season we did have a day or two when it rained up until about midday.  It was really not a problem as the kids had plenty of activities in the house, including some movies on a computer.  But the main indoor pastime was a 750 piece puzzle of a leopard that we did over the course of several days.  It looked very hard, but thanks to a grid of letters on the back of it, we were able to do it in sections and complete it before going back to Bujumbura.  The real bonus was that it was not missing any pieces!  Eventhough it was a used puzzle left to us by some friends.  (Thanks Charles and Val Carr)

I did not write about this vacation chronologically because the days seemed to blend into each other.  I do regret one thing, and that is that the children were not able to sleep in.  They were still up at 6am every morning to do things.  So we did not catch up on much sleep there.

The other thing I would say by way of caution is that in the clear depths it was easy to see snails on the rocks when we swam.  This is a red flag for Bilharzia (shistosomiasis)  To be safe we stopped at the pharmacy on the way out and bought each of us the right dose of Praziquantel.  (We all took it tonight.)

I don't know if there is much bilharzia here, but we decided not to take the risk of letting it go untreated.

We headed back to Bujumbura on Monday.  We decided to take a different route back through Burundi, passing through the provinces of Makamba and Rutana.  It is a pleasant part of the country with better roads, although a longer trip in terms of distance.

Thomas looking down the lagoon.
Notice how clear the water is.

We arrived back in the late afternoon and unpacked.  We found our house had been left in decent condition by our guests and the kids were very happy to be back to see the dogs (David at least.)

We have one last day before school starts and Oren already spent an hour or two doing some homework he was given over the break.  (Practicing his cursive letters and some vocabulary.)

They are excited because tomorrow we have one last special surprise for the end of Christmas:  The arrival of Grandma Jean tomorrow!  More next week.