Food: Snot Apple (azanza garckeana)

Snot apple!

While in the field the other week, our team needed to find water. We made our way to a dried up river bed and dug shallow holes in the sand to access water. Along the river there was a medium-size tree that our local team immediately identified as having edible fruit. They sent the youngest member to gather some of the fruits, at which point I got quite excited at the prospect of trying a new fruit.

The fruit of the not so flatteringly named, “Snot Apple (Azanza Garckeana)” is strange to me in a few ways. First, the skin does not look inviting but the fruit is consumed with no peeling. Second, the texture has an odd mix of soft innards and a kind of chewy and tough skin. Third, the flavor is subtle at first and then tastes like a slightly watered down honey. You end up chewing on it like sugar cane; swallowing the liquid and spitting out the skin and innards. The fruit gets its name from the texture, which many people describe a slimy.

Overall the fruit was initially foreign to my taste and consumption but the flavor is quite nice and certainly a good find while navigating around the bush. I'm not sure if I would buy it in town but anytime I see a fruiting tree, I'll be more than happy to get some fruits!

Food: Fruit from Baobab Tree

Seed pod, exposed seeds, a few seeds that have been sucked dry, and a phone for scale. 

I've already written about the iconic Baobab tree but one thing I overlooked was the fruit. I had tried the juice made from the fruit and I have seen the seeds both on the tree and on the ground but I had never actually thought about eating the seed.

The area I am living has a large amount of Baobab trees and thus some of our local staff have recently shown us how to consume the fruit. The Baobab tree has a large, woody, oval pod that is covered with fine velvety hairs. It can be over 20cm long and is quite strong so to open it you can step on it with quite some force. Inside are numerous black seeds that are embedded in an off-white, crumbly pulp that is divided into sections with some fibrous red hairs. Separating the seeds is relatively easy and you can pop them in your mouth and suck on them to get a lightly tart taste reminiscent of something rich in vitamin C (which it is). It leaves a strange texture in your mouth, a kind of “fuzziness” that I find challenging to describe, kind of chalky and gritty. I think it's one of those foods that leaves a funny feeling that is remedied by eating more of it, thus creating a cycle.

You can also make juice by simply soaking the seeds in the water overnight and filtering the seeds out, adding sugar to taste. The fruit is apparently very high in vitamin C and locally it is believed that it helps to reduce thirst when out in the bush. There is a caveat to this local belief though; I find it DOES reduce thirst by generating more saliva, but this actually then leads to me being more dehydrated overall. Still, I'm not sure it will be a matter of life and death so I'm always pleased to pop a few seeds!

Clear look of the insides

Ngorongoro Conservation Area: Ndutu Trip II

Lions and elephants

I've visited Ndutu in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) once before (Trip I) and it was one of the more amazing experiences with wildlife that I'd ever had. Granted, we were there during the time of the migration and calving, so there were plenty of carnivores stalking the available prey. However, my most recent visit took place in the heart of the dry season, so I was curious to see how the landscape and animals varied.

We stayed three days in Ndutu and although we only had chance for one game drive, there was quite a bit of wildlife around the lodge we stayed. The lodge owners said the year had been especially dry and that the area looked like the dry times in November, even though it was only August. All of the migratory wildlife had moved on, leaving only the resident wildlife hanging on for survival.

I could see a marked difference in the landscape, obviously the green grasses were gone but also Lake Ndutu was entirely dry. I remembered seeing wildebeest crossing in the morning but now it was only caked mud. A few other wetlands had also dried up, though there were some water holes that still held water. On our game drive we managed to see many lions, though prey seemed a bit scarce.

Even though it wasn't the ideal time to visit, I still found Ndutu area to be stunning with plenty of wildlife. It was also very cool to see the change from wet season to dry and gives a sense of the "other half" of the legendary migrations of this eco-system. No wonder the majority of the ungulates are chasing the rains in the far north; there is very little fresh grass in Ndutu!

Large male lion. 

Ngorongoro Crater: Trip IV

Wildebeest looks on 

I was fortunate enough to get a trip to the famed Ngorongoro Crater as part of a work event. I consider myself to be very lucky to have visited a few times before (Trip I, Trip III) but this trip was quite different as the trip was organized with a partner organization that are true locals!

There is an organization in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) that has a similar approach to lion conservation as us. As a result we brought up 10 members of our team for a weekend of training and celebration. The NCA was kind enough to fully support the endeavor and even lent a hand by providing drivers and cars for participants. In total we had probably about 40 people, most of them traditional pastoralists, that participated in our game drive.

It was most fun to see guys from our team wowed at the habituated nature of the wildlife, as well as the huge amounts of safari cars. They probably saw more safari cars in one day in the crater than we do all year at Ruaha. It was a very cool trip and although we didn't see many lions or rhinos like I have in the past, I still feel the crater is one of the most amazing natural landscapes in the world. It's unfortunate that tourism has driven up the cost of visiting to an unreasonable amount ($70 USD/day and $250/car!!) and thus I feel very lucky when I have the opportunity to visit. Each time I leave I say..."well, that's the last time I'll visit that place"...so hopefully I continue to prove myself wrong!

Zebra. 

Guys doing some posing. We had a lot of tourists looking at us at the lunch area. 

Sad dying rhino.  

View from the crater going out.