Times in Tanzania: Lake Chala Camping

We had visited Lake Chala some months earlier but we were only there for the day. Since we had acquired some new camping gear while on holiday, we decided the two day holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan (Happy Eid!) was the perfect time to go back.

Lake Chala is an hour and half away by motorcycle and about a half hour of the trip is on a dirt road through farmland and rural settlements. One the way there we got stuck in a traffic jam of goats and cows! The picture above is the view in front and there were probably an equal number of goats behind us at that point. When I saw the wall of goats in the road I knew I had to stop and let them pass and then shortly after (you can kinda see in the picture) there were cows as well.

Basic campsite.

One of the nicest things about Lake Chala is that it is a privately owned business rather than a national park. This means the entrance fees (ranging from $30-$100 per day in national parks) are less outrageous. Unfortunately it appears as if Lake Chala has been bullied into paying a fee to the state. Last time we were at Lake Chala we chatted with the operations manager and he indicated that the government was trying to make them pay a fee while not providing any type of services. In fact, quite the opposite as Lake Chala was highly suspicious of the wildlife authority's involvement in a recent elephant poaching incident in the area. It's the reason why I hate paying wildlife fees in Tanzania; I'm not confident the money is reaching the right places and supporting conservation. This is unfortunate since the tourism industry is massive with the national parks receiving over a million visitors a year and although the numbers aren't impressive compared to other top tourism countries, the industry contributes over 25% of foreign exchange for the country.

The trip also marked the first time we could take advantage of our residents permits even though I have yet to technically receive mine. The wildlife authority didn't ask us for our permits but the motorcycle loaded with gear and the Swahili was seemingly enough to convince him. The entry fee was 5,000 TZS ($3.00) plus 2,000 TZS ($1.20) for the wildlife authority. The entry fee is nice since we could stay multiple days and only pay once, unlike the national parks. We also paid the 11,500 TZS ($7.00) camping fee to Lake Chala which provided us with a campsite, water, restrooms and shower facilities. There is a sort of bar/kitchen/seating area nearby several large tents which Lake Chala rents out if you don't have your own gear. They also have a set of similar smaller campsites a bit further out so naturally we took the one furthest away.

Ana doing some birding off the pier.

Lake Chala is also great because you are not required to have a guide when walking. The whole place is basically open and there is a network of trails weaving through the savanna. There's a dried up river bed that you can walk in with mesmerizing patterns of erosion. There is a steep trail down to the lake and they have recently constructed a small platform with a ladder into the water. This is a big improvement over the previous set up where the skinny trail led down to craggy rocks.

There is a healthy population of baboons as evidenced by their scat and footprints. We saw a solitary baboon sitting on a rock, I hate to say it, but pretty much exactly like Rafiki in the Lion King. It was all fun and games until we realized we had our food in our tent and carefully debated what to do with the food in order to protect it from baboons. I was insistent that the baboons were probably fearful of humans due to crop-raising and I didn't think we were in any danger at night, though we agreed to take our food in the backpack with us on our hikes.

The camping trip to Lake Chala was extremely successful. They even have luxury cabins now available for those who are not into roughing it. They were far more impressive than I thought and we're going to push for Ana's family to stay there when they come next month. Seeing as things went so smoothly, I can't wait for a return trip!