Tanganyika – Tanzania’s Great Lake

Posted on 24 August 2011

The long drive to the Lakeshore Lodge on one of Lake Tanganyika‘s remote beaches was well worth it. Lake Tanganyika is indeed great, a must see for anyone with a 4×4 and interest in unspoilt terrain.

Lakeshore Lodge

Come as guests, leave as friends.

This is either going to be very cool or very irritating, I thought as we approached the Lakeshore Lodge entrance gate, its motto painted in bold colours across the wall.  It had been a long dusty drive getting there – 450km of dirt road from the border town of Tanduma through Sumbawanga and eventually onto Kapili, a small fishing village 1.5km from the lakeshore. Although relatively well conditioned, the road was no walk in the park. Crazy bus drivers with decals reading “Speedy Tours” and “Time waits for no man” kept hooting us out of the way, coating us in dust and obscuring our vision. Construction vehicles complicated things further, creeping along at 30km/h, their enormous backsides making it difficult to overtake. “Next time we drive this road, it’ll probably be tarred,” James noted on the way, a flicker of sadness in his expression. Although a tarred road will bolster the development of the otherwise isolated communities along the lakeshore, it runs the risk of spoiling the unspoilt. Africa’s catch-22.

Lakeshore Lodge is situated on an isolated beach overlooking Lake Tanganyika, three small surrounding islands and the DRC in the far distance. The structure is a work of art – cleanly built and tastefully finished. The dining room, chill area and bar open directly onto the beach so that visitors can see the lake from any of the couches, loungers and chairs scattered across the sunbathed space.  Dinner tables were set up on the water’s edge when we arrived and as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, lanterns and a fire were lit, creating a silhouette I’d only seen in romantic movies. “Do you think one of those tables is for us?” I asked James, not daring to assume. “I think so,” he responded, equally cautious. Sure enough we were welcomed to take our seats where we gobbled down three delicious courses – the moon glowing overhead, casting shadows across James’s elated face.

Chris and Louise

“Bibi refused to leave. She kept insisting that Nyerere would be joining her for tea and she didn’t want to keep him waiting,” Louise smiled as she recounted the story of Bibi – an old woman whose hut had to be removed to make space for the Lakeshore Lodge dive centre. “She was completely nuts but helluva strong. Eighty years old and looking after herself on a remote beach. She didn’t want to go back to her village so we built her new home onsite. She lived here until she died”¦three weeks ago”. I imagined Bibi and Nyerere sitting on soft a cloud, steaming cups of Chai Bora fogging up their spectacles.

We were standing on the water’s edge chatting to our hosts and lodge co-owners Chris and Louise. Hippos were in the bay, audible but deliberately invisible. “They’re pretty shy around here,” Chris noted, “not a fan of the lights, as Bibi would have told you. Before we built the lodge, this section of the lakeshore was completely overgrown – a popular resting ground for hippos. Bibi chased them away with fire torches”. Chris and Louise must have done the same. They lived in a tent for eighteen months while the lodge was being built, a far cry from their previous life in Johannesburg where Chris worked in the restaurant business and Louise as a fashion designer. Their faces bore no trace of the difficulties those months must have entailed – Louise’s delicate laugh lines and Chris’s playful grin uncharacteristic of hardworking forty-somethings. Within six months the industrious couple had a deed to the land, the quick turnover testament to their good rapport with the Kilikiliki community and understanding of local dynamics. They speak fluent Swahili and have taught all their permanent staff – sourced from Kalikiliki – conversational English. Chris and Louise are exemplary Saffer entrepreneurs – business savvy and full of heart.

“Activities, activities!”

I don’t mind spending a day on the beach reading and daydreaming, in fact I quite like it. James on the other hand is no good at relaxing. We’d mutually decided to spend our first full day chilling – absorbing the beauty and tranquillity of the lake – but no sooner had we finished lunch James was jumping up and down repeating “activities, activities!” Soon after we were paddling out to Lupita Island where we found a small beach – vacant and untouched. After snorkelling around the turquoise bay, appreciating the wide variety of the cichlids, we headed back to the lodge. The setting sun was an unusual shade of pink, curtained by a soft haze that allowed us to look directly at it. The crimson orb dipped behind an angled rock on Mvuna, Lupita’s neighbouring island, adding geometric flare to the extraordinary scene. We paddled through purple-lit waters back to the shore where we were greeted by our dinner table under a rising moon.

The next four days played out much like the first – activities, activities, punctuated by magnificent meals and the odd snooze. Between kayaking, snorkelling, diving, water skiing, quad biking and sunset cruises, I had little time to daydream although I always took mornings out to sit on the water’s edge – quiet and still. On our last day we woke up to thick grey clouds hanging sluggishly above the lake. Thin streams of light broke through the grey ceiling, refusing to dance with the surface ripples and penetrating instead to the cichlids below. Fine drizzle coated the beach and lake in fine speckles. No activities today, I though cheekily, more than happy to do glorious bugger all.

Dinner was enjoyed, as always, on the beach. The morning clouds had lifted and we sat comfortably around a table of newly found friends enveloped in a balmy breeze. After soup, steak and malva pudding I headed back to our banda where I sat on our stoep and reflected, together with the moon, on Lake Tanganyika. The long dusty drive and dip into savings seemed well worth it when I considered the richness of my surroundings and sense of certainty that I’d be back for more.

Contact Lakeshore Lodge

+255 76 3993 166 / +255 752 540 792

[email protected]

http://laketanganyikaadventuresafaris.com/

 






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