A longer time with the Hadzabe
 

Most trips do one hunting activity with the Hadzabe. I also see that honey gathering is an option.

Do you think this would work?
1 Arrive Lake Eyasi from wherever.

2 Hunting activity in the morning and some more visiting in the afternoon.

3 Do another early morning hunt or honey gather or whatever they are doing that day and end up at Sopa Lodge.

Does anybody every stay with the Hadzabe for a night instead of the nearby tented camp?

The men hunt and the women gather (tubers, etc.) I don't know which group does the honey gathering. Frankly, I found the morning hunt sufficient. I wasn't as comfortable around them as, say, the Maasai or even the Datoga. I know others here on the Board have done Hadzabe visits, so they may have a different opinion.

Is that Sopa at Ngorongoro or Serengeti (as thread above?)

Even if only going as far at Ngorongoro from Eyasi after morning hunting, you don't arrive in time for afternoon crater tour.

Attempting to get to the Serengeti Sopa... goodness, another very very long day if you even make it by dusk.

It was Sopa Serengeti, which appears to be a no-no from your comments Sandi.

Hi Lynn,
If you you can dig up my E. Africa, Seychelles trip report I have a great contact who can set up whatever you'd like.
I'd do it but I can never get the search to work properly - sorry.

Lynn -

Right, I wouldn't recommend it. For both the long drive from Eyasi and location during June/July. Though nothing wrong with the lodge that many operators/outfitters use.

Hi Lynn

it's much better to do Eyasi after coming back from Serengeti and Ngorongoro. e.g. After Serengeti, you sleep on the rim. next morning you do the crater tour and drive out of the park coming to sleep in Ngorongoro Farmhouse or Gibb's or Karatu. then next morning is Hadzabe time

as for your other questions:
There are several groups of Hadzabe you can visit, so you can visit different groups
There's one irecommend: they're living under a rock-cliff shade (not a cave) and their environment has a striking landscape with Baobabs and bushes
I don't think that honey gathering is an option to choose, since it may be a matter of availability;
hunting can be "ördered" (it is not totally untouristic...) anytime, even at noon time. Usually they'll send some young guys to hunt birds- it is still absolutely amazing to see how they shoot a small passerine bird, you may not see, with an arrow (then they make fire, much more efficiently than Maasai...:-)) cook and eat the snack

Staying with them?
i don't know what to say...
i've stayed with different people like Maasai (yeah inside the mud&dung hut), Samburu, Turkana etc
but Hadzabe are less communicative,
and usually doped (!)

hope that helps

aby

if i find the contact there (a local guide that participates in the anthropological study) i'll send you so you may pre-arrange

2 more remarks:
# of course you can sleep at Eyasi
# groups move around, so they may leave the shelter specified

Great responses. Now I only wish I were planning a trip in the near future that incorporated all of these.

I have heard about the altered state of consciousness that seems to be enjoyed by many Hadzabe--the "doped" comment. Maybe staying with a family is not the best idea, then, even if it has worked in other areas.

Eventually this info will all be incorporated--even sooner than eventually if I have some exceptional luck.

Baricke Bee--is he the guy Cybor?

Lynda's handy East Africa Index makes finding past reports easy. The new Fodors setup should make it easier too.

Lynn we stayed at Manyara overnight and then went to Kisima Ngeda camp (Lake Eyasi) which is a lovely camp. We were told that the road to the camp is usually graded, however they had only graded half the road and the ungraded section was extremely bad. In the morning we left the camp at 7:30, picked up our interpreter at his house and then drove for another hour on what could only be described as a dried up riverbed. With our guide and our interpreter we then hiked about 20 minutes to the Hadzabe camp. We had decided not to go hunting with them, but rather spent about an hour and a half with them watching them make and shoot their arrows. They demonstrated how they make fire and my husband had a go at it. They gave my husband an arrow to take home. We saw how they live and watched the woman smoke some "funny stuff". We felt very comfortable with them and it was a wonderful experience to interact with them. People in our camp who went on a hunt said they spend about an hour trailing after the men as they hunted. At times they had to run to keep up. The men killed a baboon and they watched them cook it. We were happy with our choice. You can do both, but I don't know if you can to it in one day. We went back to camp, had lunch and left for the crater.

Thank you Raelond for being my scout once again. I recall that you opted out of the hunting expedition.

Now would you please go to Churchill, Manitoba in the summer, put on a dry suit, and snorkel with the belugas? I want a first hand report on that activity. Thank you in advance. ;)

<i>Now would you please go to Churchill, Manitoba in the summer, put on a dry suit, and snorkel with the belugas?</i>

Can I volunteer? Who's offering to pay?

This is an all volunteer effort, Patty, sorry. In fact you pay for the privilege.

Not BB, Lynn. I can't believe I forgot his name. We were actually involved after the fact in some other projects.

I'll see if I can find it later. Sorry.

&lt;&lt;&quot;There is a local guide by the name of Momoya Muhindoi that most other guides use, because of his knowledge of the region, its people, and he speaks the local dialect/language that most others do not speak. For example, the Hadzabes and Datogas have their own dialect/language. Momoya has a well maintained campsite that I stayed at and one can see some of the local small game that roams the campsite on a daily basis. Momoya is an excellent guide and goes the extra mile for his clients. You will not be disappointed and well educated by his expertise. He can be reached by regular mail: P.O. Box 120 Karatu via Arusha, Tanzania or e-mailed at: [email protected]&quot;&gt;&gt;

I picked this off a website. His last name can also be spelled Muhidoti. I used the above email about 8 months ago and it was ok then, btw. He's quite good at responding quickly.
The campsite, btw, looked decent. Basic but decent.

Also, I noticed that my notes state that it took 3 - 3 1/2 hrs. to get to Lake Eyasi from Karatu. The roads, though were a bit slick from the rain.
Hope that helps.

Thanks cybor!

Regarding the &quot;doped&quot; comment: they were smoking marijuana when we visited them.

Do you think the Hadzabe would hunt most every morning even if there were no visitors?

Are there many families or tribes or groups that allow visitors to accompany them? Or are there just a few?

I'm wondering about supply and demand of visitors and Hadzabe hunters (not to mention the supply and demand of the prey they hunt). Are there enough hunting Hadzabe for the number of visitors or are they altering their habits for the sake of the visitors?

Who would really know this or be able to answer? Maybe Momoya, the contact from Cybor.

Good question.
There's many groups of Hadzabes scattered about. Not all visitors see the same groups.
I believe in Momoya's case that he tries to rotate which groups see people to reduce the impact. He seemed to be very concerned about this. That and the fact that money given does help the tribe get medical attention and nec. staples. The tribes, however, appear still seem to honor their traditions.

We got the feeling that the group we saw didn't see many people, as the women/children were extremely shy.

I would imagine that my group hunted everyday as there were many mouths to feed and the minimal game is small. It seemed like it was all business when these guys were hunting. They didn't appear to slow down or cater to us, as it should be. We socialized before and after and not during the hunt.