The Mara Estuary
Once back on the main road, our destination for the next three nights was a comfortable drive away. The small town of Butiama is the birth-place of Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania after the country gained independence from the British Empire in the 1960s. He was a world-renowned figure and a statesman of considerable repute. This not least because this is one of the few countries in Africa to not descend into either civil war, dictatorship, military junta rule or all three.
He managed to forge a state created from a wide amalgamation of tribal groups without bloodshed. Tanzania today is his legacy, prosperous, religiously tolerant and industrious. The overtly socialist economic policies may not have worked, and indeed created some tension with the west, but everything else did.
So, not really why we came here, but Mwitongo Lodge is owned by the Nyerere family and is part of a complex that includes a museum dedicated to the first president. It’s a nice, quiet and secluded spot, ideal for a few days while we use it as a base for our explorations.
So, why did we come here? Well, there is a bit of a story. Fred, Chris and Emmy came this way last August. They were simply driving through the area, on their way to the border and on into the Masai Mara in Kenya. On the drive north, they crossed the Kirumi Bridge. It crosses the narrow point of the Mara River Estuary a few kilometres from its mouth on Lake Victoria. There was a general expression of interest in returning to explore the extensive papyrus beds on the shores of the river.
When planning for our current trip, Fred enquired about the possibility of getting a boat to take us upstream to the bridge and Mwitongo Lodge were the only place to reply to say that they could do so. Thus, our primary mission, as described by Fred, is to be the first white men under the Kirumi Bridge. We’ll look for birds and whatever else is of interest with a constant eye on the possibility of the Papyrus Gonolek.
So, after some more good food and an equally good breakfast, we set off for the port town of Musoma and the dockside next to the ferry terminal where our boat and guides should be waiting for us. Getting there, despite the early hour, seems to be a bit of a problem. Apparently, the Prime Minister is coming to the lodge, right after we leave. When we turn out onto the main road, the traffic is almost at a standstill, there are waiting crowds (not for us, despite Fred’s protests to the contrary) and a policeman at every junction. We make it a few kilometres north, but are waved off the road as the convoy is just moments away.
Soon the host of flashing lights and vehicles streams past and we are allowed to be on our way. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to meeting a prime minister, but still not close enough. It makes us ten minutes or so late for our boat, but that’s not a problem. The boat is rougher, bigger and slower than we expected, but there really wasn’t much choice and we did indeed seem to be exploring uncharted territory.
The journey out to the estuary mouth takes more than an hour, travelling at about 8kph. It is a chance to see the rugged landscapes of the eastern shore for the first time. Somehow, perhaps from seeing the north-western coast in Uganda, I expected the shoreline to be gently sloping up from the shore to perhaps rolling hills. Indeed, we are not far east of the plains of the Serengeti and Mara. It’s not what I imagined at all.
There are numerous small islands, submerged rocky koppies and hilltops. The coastline is sometimes flat enough for settlement, but more often it is steep-sided, rocky hills that rise a few hundred metres up into numerous ridges. It is rugged, wild and very beautiful.
It’s soon apparent that our guide and driver don’t really know where the mouth of the river is. It isn’t really that surprising, as the papyrus rafts probably move and shift all the time, but I get the definite feeling they’ve never been this far east before. The boat is, frankly, a bit big and unwieldy for the task. It has too small an engine and the freeboard has far too much windage, even for the slight breeze we have today.
While getting in close to the papyrus isn’t the issue, holding a position or fine adjustments are a real problem. Still, the driver does his best with the tools at hand and we do manage to capture some really good photographs of blue-cheeked bee-eaters among others. We never do find the gonolek. I’ve never actually seen one, despite being in several suitable and inhabited swamps. I’m sure I will one day, but this isn’t that day.
The estuary narrows for the bridge, a good-sized cable-stayed steel structure that spans the water just a couple of metres above the surface. We make it under with plenty to spare and take a slow motor around the once again more open body of water above the bridge. This space is filled with several large floating islands of papyrus, anything from three or four metres across to perhaps 100m in length.
We manage to spot several herons and then a really nice marsh harrier makes an appearance over the heads of the papyrus on the southern shore. There are only a few highlights. Despite the promise of abundant birdlife, our single short visit wasn’t particularly productive. It really is an area where few visitors travel and even fewer stop to explore. With more time and considerably more patience, we might find untold wildlife riches along these seldom-studied shores.