You will leave Arusha at dawn, before traffic makes the city impenetrable. For four hours, you will look outside the window of your old landrover and see Tanzania unfolding along the edge of the road, the burnt clay ground, the very vivid uniforms of students, and the gangs of shiny moto-taxis waiting for the next customer. You will cross all the vast expanses, where young Masai men pasture their cattle and the earth becomes drier and drier. You will rest your gaze on Lake Eyasi oasis, beyond the sunny plantations of red onions – the pride and economy of families in the area – and beyond the tangle of palm skyscrapers that leads past the village and to the tented camp Kisima Ngeda. Simple, true, tropical. There is a rock to climb at sunset, in order to enjoy the soft early-summer light that spreads on the acacia forest. There is a lake of tilapias with spring water. There is the wooden outpost on a tree, from which you can watch diligent Wadatoga shepherds by their cows and goats on a dry lake in the distance, and down to the breath-taking line of the Rift Valley. There is a delicious and generous local cuisine at the end of each day. Then there are the last Tanzanian tribes, Hadzabe gatherers-hunters, on whose wake you chase preys with a bow and poisoned arrows, among majestic baobabs in bloom that smell like magnolias, and good spicy berries.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.