Lake Natron

Day 1. We familiarized with the air of Africa.

You arrive to the Kilimanjaro Airport, in Tanzania, and we will take you to our refuge where we spend our first night. We get familiar with the environment surrounding us, the covering night, the air from Africa. We meet the rest of the partners to embark in this journey with us. We have dinner while the sun is setting and learn the plans for the days to come in this adventure.

Day 2. Kaskazi and our first cavalcade.

We enjoy an English breakfast and drive 4 hours until we reach the Kaskazi camp, where we will be received with drinks and a lunch worthy of this experience in the deepest lands of Africa. After lunch, we will be introduced to our journey partners, the horses, and begin our first horse ride over the afternoon to get to know each other. The day ends in our tents, around a firepit, surrounded by the plains and the open night sky. If we listen to the roar of a lion in the distance, there is nothing to be afraid of, or maybe there is: we are in our tents with nothing to separate us from the danger.

Day 3. Picturesque and cultural day with the Maasai people.

We wake up early in the morning, with a tea or coffee in our open sky tents, and then we head to the central tent to have breakfast. We start the cavalcade. On our way, we closely pass along the oval shape huts, small huts of the Maasai people that seems to be igloos, not taller than one meter high. We also see some shepherds directing their packs under the sun. We look for a good shaded spot to have lunch and continue our journey to reach our destiny before the sun comes down in the horizon.

Day 4. Towards the oneiric region of Natron.

We get up in the early morning to an English breakfast, we saddle our horses and head towards the North. The Gelai mountain will be watching us at all time from the East. We leave behind the exotic Maasai communities and venture in the oneiric region of Natron. We can find packs of wildebeests and zebras on the open plain, becoming a part of this landscape during our journey. We enter the forest.

Day 5. No one will know which day they are living.

We have breakfast. Afterwards, everyone gets in their horse and move forward, there is no time to lose. Africa is calling us. The horizon, the exotic challenge is calling us, but more precisely, we are being called by the Mountain of God: the only active volcano of the continent. At this stage of the journey, no one knows in which day they are living, the time is dispelled in the fog, in the horizon, among the roars of the animals in the distance.

Day 6. The volcano behind us.

We wake up very early in the morning and have a complete breakfast. We will need the energies to endure the most intense day of our journey: 60 km of horse ride with temperatures at 40° Celsius. With the volcano behind us, we reach to the bed of the river where we find some shade. We have lunch and continue our journey, looking for some shade in the trees close to the river. We spend the night near hot springs, with a view to the river. We give ourselves in to the sleepiness, to the African night, which is said to be darker and thicker.

Day 7. The hyenas are watching us from their hiding place, waiting for the sun to come down.

After breakfast, we go for a walk towards the natural springs, entering the lake from the East coasts. Dry land, low visibility, the hyenas are watching us from their hiding place, waiting for the sun to come down. We take a dip in the warm waters to get rid of the heat, the strain and the dust. We head back to the camp and we then ride our horses to go around the land in the coldest hours of the afternoon, just before sunset. We will have the chance to surprise -or get surprised- by hyenas and jackals at the muddy borders of the lake.

Day 8. We stay still.

We wake up very early in the morning and leave the lake, dry and rattling desolated. We stay still: we head with our horses towards the bed of the river until we reach the lush and green land at the feet of the Ol Donyo Lengai volcano. We return with the sensation that we have reunited with a familiar territory: we have left the danger behind.

Day 9. Farewell.

We have a good rest and surrender to the inevitable farewell. The more intense the adventure, the harder to say goodbye. Our loyal partners, the horses, members of our staff, the lands of Africa, the mystery of nature, which has become more enigmatic after our ride. A private charter will return you to Arusha.