Oldeani

Arusha is the only large scale urban development in the region. Mbulu was established as a German administrative centre, and became the British headquarters for the Mbulu District. Oldeani developed as a trading centre when the German settlement started there in the late 1920's. Babati served that section of the Mbulu District which lay below the Rift (now the Hanang District). There were a few European settlers in the vicinity but the few shops were dependant on the local African producer, as well as serving the passing traffic on the "Great North Road".

The site of Monduli was a farm alienated in German times, and acquired by the Government when a headquarters was being sought for the newly established Masai District in 1929.

A more recent development is the Tengeru complex, which started as a Polish Refugee Camp established on a German Farm to house 6000 refugees which the Tanganyika Government agreed to accept in 1942. After the departure of the refugees, the Government used the site to develop an Agricultural Research Station with a Soil Conservation Service. The Game Department was also housed there. On the establishment of Arusha as the capital of the East African Community the buildings were handed over for community use and the agricultural work was abandoned. Adjacent to Tengeru a considerable rural service centre has grown up on a German Farm bought by the Government for Meru expansion. It now contains a teaching training college, an expanding health centre, and in the shopping and market area an iron welding workshop and a carpenters shop equiped with modern machinery.

Contrary to a widely held belief, the Oldeani coffee plantations, although largely German in origin, were not opened up in German times. They started about 1926, and led to the construction of the road from Mtu-wa-Mbu, and a subsequent branch road to Mbulu which was previously approached from Mbugwe, or from the South via Dabil.

The main European settlement is at Oldeani, which does not date from German times, but started in the late twenties, and built up rapidly under German government subsidy till halted by the outbreak of war in 1939.

Ngorongoro was of course well known to the Germans prior to World War I, and to British officials, farmers and hunters in the early twenties. But the land through which the road runs from the top of the rift to the Crater was then uninhabited. In the mid-twenties German nationals were permitted to return to their previous colony, then a Mandate, but the previously German farms had been sold by the Custodian of Enemy Property, so that the returning Germans had to find somewhere new to live. Who the originator of the idea was will never be known, but a number of these people settled on the lower slopes of Oldeani and started carving out coffee farms for themselves.

One effect of this move was to encourage the Iraqw people to move up from their overcrowded country to the south, first as labourers on the farms, and then as settlers in their own right on the neighbouring uninhabited land. A specially appointed Land Commissioner, Mr Bageshaw, recommended - and the recommendation was accepted - that all the land lying to the south of the boundary of the Northern Highlands Forest Reserve, already demarcated by the German Government, should with the exception of the alienated farms, be developed as an expansion area for the Iraqw tribe. There were however three major deterrents to settlement; firstly the tsetse fly which prevented the keeping of cattle, then the lack of water, and finally the fear of Masai raids from Ngorongoro. But the tribal authorities, with the aid and advice of British officers, organised extensive self-help schemes whereby the empty lands were settled, slowly at first, but with increased impetus in the period following World War II.

When I first travelled along that road in 1934 there was not a sign of habitation from Mto-wa-Mbu to Karatu, whilst the big triangle of superb land lying between the rift and the forest edge, called Mbulumbulu, was entirely empty. With Government aid and encouragement the Iraqw folk were just beginning to trickle north, when World War II broke out. This involved the removal of German settlers to camps, but at the same time increased the need for self-sufficiency. The Oldeani-Karatu-Mbulumbulu area had proved itself particularly suitable for the production of wheat, and attracted the attention of the Custodian of Enemy Property (who was running the vacated farms in the interests of the Government), the non-German farmers in the area, and a specially organised official Wheat Scheme. In addition to encouraging production within the boundaries of the existing farms, the Government of the day permitted all these agencies to clear and plough on the land allocated by the Bageshawe Commission to the Iraqw people, on short term lease, the agreement being that the land should be handed back at the end of the war.

In spite of the pleas of those in occupation to retain the land, the Government honoured its pledge to the Iraqw people and put the land at their disposal. The result was that one had a number of wheat growers, with know-how and machinery at their disposal, but no land and a large number of Iraqw folk with a large area of ready cleared wheat land awaiting cultivation, but lacking machinery and know-how. Common interests brought the two parties together, the wheat growers working the land for the Iraqw and sharing the profits.

Attached are lists of villages and other offices where you may find a circular date stamp. Well, most are circular and almost all are dated. The lists are loosely arranged as follows:

Name as it appears in an early cancel or in the majority of cancels. Many town names, especially in Africa and Asia, have a number of spellings in English. These are ignored. But, if the town name changed significantly, the newer name is in parentheses. Names often changed because of confusing same or similar names in the same colony.

Also, independence led to de-Anglicization, especially if the town name included words such as "fort". If the town is a post office outside of the colony but administered by the colony, that is indicated.

Next is the earliest date "known" of a dated cancel or, sometimes the date of opening. If not from literature, then from my collection. Sadly, most early dates from my collection are not that early.

Then there are letter or numeral killers used alone or in conjunction with a date stamp. Sometimes several different numbers were used, perhaps in different styles. This is a huge field, only touched on here.

Lastly, the location of the village is given (or will later be given) by latitude and longitude. Sometimes this is only approximate, variables including inaccurate old maps, inaccurate new maps, moving of towns, confusion over similar town names, quirky software and my own clerical errors.

The lists are a place to get started. They are incomplete, the degree depending on what literature is available to the author. Focus is on villages with post offices around the turn of the century without attempting to include newer offices. The cut-off date for each colony varies, depending on manageability of the number of offices.

Many of the village marks are rare. Occasionally, only a single example is known. Some offices were open only a few months and have disappeared from modern maps.

TANGANYIKA

[short list, with some names from Northern Tanzania]

Arusha 1922 3s22 36e41

Babati 1935 4s13 35e45

Kondoa 1920 4s54 35e47

Loliondo 1937 2s03 35e37

Mbulu 1920 sl 3s51 35e32

Monduli 1939 3s18 36e26

Moshi 1917 3s21 37e20

Ngare Nairobi 1928

Oldeani 1934 3s21 35e33

Singida 1926 4s49 34e45

Usa River 1929 3s22 36e50

The cow [Rhino] was killed by Mr. J. van Rooyen of Oldeani. It had been raiding on his farm. Unfortunately for him he was not in possession of the necessary licence and so the trophy became the property of the Government.

length of front horn, outside curve 47 1/4 inches - second largest world's known record.

I am hosting sisters Cecile & Julia Popp here in Tanzania in the first week of February, coming 'home' to retrace their routes. Their parents were German farmers in Babati & Arusha and the family was interned in Oldeani 'Concentration Camp' during the Second World War, before being deported to Zimbabwe. There are a number of sisters, some of whom were born on Lutheran Missions between 1930 - 1939.

I am looking for ANY information on Oldeani - the whereabouts of the camp, the set-up (at present, this is a somewhat controversial issue with some remembering it as merely a group of German-inhabited farms 'watched over' by the British, and others producing old letters sent from Oldeani to Germany in 1943 with a postal stamp saying 'Concentration Camp, Oldeani via Arusha'.), as another sister Leonie was born in 'the Bundie's guest hut'. We plan to drive out to present-day Oldeani and 'look around' so any more information would be highly appreciated!

The family also went to Arusha School when Wynn-Jones was the Headmaster. I am trying to prepare a collection book of memories for them, so if anyone remembers them specifically and would like to get in touch, PLEASE DO. I know they would be so delighted.

Thank you for this facinating website!

I thought there might be some interest in my late Uncle, Colonel T.S. Conner DSO. KPM, (known everywhere as "The Colonel"), so I thought I would let you have a small history of his and my families life in Tanzania, together with names I remember from the 1960's and 70's. I am also attaching some photographs which I thought maybe of interest.

The Col and his American wife, Jo, arrived in Mombasa from India in 1947 en route to South Africa following his retirement from the Indian Army. They had an American Willis Jeep which they had brought from India and set off to explore East Africa for a few months before departing for SA. However, they decided to stay and purchased a small farm somewhere not far from Nairobi. A short while later the Col heard that farms were being offered to soldier settlers in Tanganyika with the help of a loan from the Land Bank. He put his name forward and though questioned about being a little old (52) he was granted 3 lots as one farm in Oldeani, which he named Kongoni Estate. He and his wife then set about farming the land of which he had little knowledge save for being apprenticed to a Tea Planter in India before the First World War!

He farmed coffee wheat and barley as far as I can remember. He also had a fine heard of cattle. Sadly in 1950 Jo died in America of cancer. She had gone home to have a thorough check up, both unaware of how ill she must have been, but she never returned to Tanganyika. She did however organise to have all sorts of much needed farming machinery shipped over to Africa and in the following years, the Col together with his manager Van Wyke built up one of the most successful farms in Tanganyika. Success allowed him to buy 3 other farms, New Brandon Estate in Oldiani, Swiss Estate in Arusha and Little Kongoni Estate at Weru Weru, just 9 miles from Moshi. The Col offered many members of his family the chance to change their lives and come out to work for him.

In 1952 his niece Eileen and her husband Paddy Purchase arrived. Paddy built a house for them on the farm and their 3 children, Melody, Rosemary and Nigel, spent their early years in Oldeani before they moved to Arusha and Dar and then Kenya.

(No relation to the Siedentopf brothers).

In a contemporary [1947] account of the clearing of the Oldeani coffee shambas:

'All the other game learns quickly that it is best to avoid contact with man, and changes its trail accordingly. Only the Rhino persists in the precedence of the right of way. So the stupid beast goes on stamping through the fields and flattening time and again the tender coffee seedlings which the farmer replaces meticulously day after day. Then comes the hour when the planter's cup of wrath overflows and the bully gets himself shot.'

I see that a Dr Ashad Kamal Khan is after information on my late Uncle, Col Conner. Perhaps you can put him in touch with me and I can provide the info he is after.

I can confirm that my Uncle was indeed in the British Indian Army for 35 years before moving to Tanganika in 1947, where he farmed in Oldeani. He moved to live in Nairobi in 1970 but kept a Farm at West Kilimanjaro until it was compulsarily purchased by the Govt in 1975.

He died in 1994 aged nearly 100, still driving and independent and he kept up his interest in Sports in Kenya. I indeed have plenty of photographs etc as i inherited all his personal papers and memorabilia. Thanks

My family were coffee farmers in and around Arusha, Moshi, Oldiani from 1947 until about 1970.

My Uncle, Colonel Terence Conner was a well known character in Tanzania, from farming to sports. I am wondering if a history of the period has ever been written with information on the British farmers and indeed other farmers and their lives during that time.

I was at Arusha School from 1963 to 1966 and lived on a farm outside Moshi at a place called Waru Waru.

My father worked with my Uncle and they had a large farm at Oldiani then moved to Ogaden estate ouitside Arusha and thus to West Kilimanjaro before a compulsory purchase order was placed on all the 26 arable farms in West Kili in about 1975.

Shaun R S Conner

Thank you for your email. Yes, I have been back to Tanzania since we left in 1966. As I say my Uncle continued to farm until 1975. I went back in 1988 to wedding at the Marangu Hotel in Moshi. Previous to that I did a trip with my Uncle in 1974 visiting all remaining friends in Oldiani, Arusha and Moshi.

My Uncle moved to live in Nairobi and I have literally been out so many times over the past 20 years to Kenya I couldn't say for sure how many. We have many friends in Kenya still.I love Africa! I will try and get the info you seek. I have a good contact in Moshi, Rennie Barnes and I think he has access to all sorts of info about the farms. I will try.

Shaun

It would take a book to describe the variety of sport to be had in the areas where shooting is permissible, and there is only space here to give a brief sketch of a typical safari starting from Arusha by car and motoring by way of Engaruka, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti plains.

Arusha itself may be reached by air, by road or by railway. Ten miles out of the town antelope, giraffe and zebra can often be seen. Forty miles further comes the first view of the Rift Wall, that great crack in the Earth's surface which cuts through Africa almost from north to south. Lake Manyara can be seen under the dark shadow of the Rift. At seventy miles out the road turns northwards along the Rift Valley through great herds of game to Engaruka. On the left there is the great wall of the Rift Valley, and away on the right is open undulating country, with many herds of game and Masai cattle sharing the grazing and living in harmony.

The green swamp and forest belt at Kitete conceals many buffalo and rhinoceros, and elephant and hippopotamus occasionally visit the place. To the right the plains are covered with hundreds of termite hills. Grant's gazelle, ostrich and impala will be seen on the way as well as giraffe, accompanied often by their young, who gaze with soft eyes at the car and sometimes allow it to pass within a few yards of them.

At Engaruka there are stone ruins of a great village where the inhabitants were perhaps once concentrated for defence against the Masai. On a frontage of about three miles tier upon tier of terracing is still clearly visible and closer inspection shows the rock-built homes, the graves and the huge cairns of a vanished people. From Engaruka Masai bomas may also be visited without difficulty.

During a stay of a week in this neighbourhood lion, zebra, Grant's and Thomson's gazelle, impala, wildebeest, rhinoceros, oryx and gerenuk may be obtained.

From here Maji Moto, sixty miles south along the Rift Wall, may be visited. The hot springs there seem to be a natural spa for wild life and there will be found spoor of elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion and all kinds of smaller game. The place is a game photographer's paradise.

Lake Manyara, seen from the hot springs, has a great variety of birds, including thousands of flamingoes. On from here the route lies over the Rift Wall up steep slopes to the Ngorongoro Crater.

The first view of the crater is magnificent ; it is one of the greatest in the world, the floor, twelve miles across, lies 2,000 feet below the precipitous walls, covering an area of approximately 100 square miles. The drive along to the Ngorongoro Crater Rest Camp is one thrill after another, each succeeding view of the crater being more beautiful than the last. Suddenly the most delightful camp is sighted-a group of about twenty log cabins, in the most wonderful natural setting. A night or two may be spent here* and the great concentration of game on the crater floor may be watched with glasses. Thousands of animals make their home in the crater throughout the year.

Then the way leads into the Serengeti Plains which may one day become the greatest national park in the world. In a stay of a few days in the Serengeti great concentrations of game will be seen, It is not uncommon for visitors to photograph as many as fifty different lions in a stay of only a few days, and the masses of game have to be seen to be believed.

On the return route the visitor can go to Mongalla, west of Oldeani Mountain, where hippopotamus, rhinoceros and other big game may be hunted, then pass through Mbulu, camp in the game area at Basotu Lake, go past Hanang Mountain and Babati Lake and so back into Arusha. Such a trip gives a month of enjoyment . which for the lover of wild life cannot be surpassed, and it is only one of many that can be made in the game areas of Tanganyika Territory, the finest hunting ground in the world.

Pastor Elder Jackson, a former missionary with the Karatu Lutheran Church died at the age of 88 on Saturday, November 29, this year at the Benedictine Living Community in St. Peter, Minnesota, US.

A Memorial service was held on Friday, December 5 and was attended by former missionaries and friends. Burial was conducted in Resurrection Cemetery, St Peter.

Jackson was born on February 21, 1920 in Rosholt , South Dakota and attended West Central School of Agriculture before joining Augustana Seminary in Rock Island Illinois. He was ordained Lutheran Pastor in 1948. Jackson served as Pastor in Wheaton Minnesota for one year then became Missionary in Tanzania and Kenya for thirty six years.

The late Reverend Jackson served Lutheran Church in coffee Plantations at Oldeani before he moved to Karatu in 1954 after the Lutheran mission had acquired land from a South African family, Chris Hitchcock

He is most remembered in Karatu area for establishing primary schools in villages, then known as bush schools and building houses of worship. However, in 1959, They needed to move to Singida area to continue with their mission work because his wife Renee Jackson was allergic to Karatu�s volcanic dust.

He is survived by his wife, Renee, seven children, 18 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

At the top [of the rift] there is more emptiness until one comes equally unexpectedly on the outlying wheat fields of the Oldeani settlement. The little group of European farms was originally German - most of the present farmers took over enemy property as a going concern after the latest war, and with prices high have been doing well ever since without as much effort as is normally required of the settler. Their wheat maize and barley looked fine, and on the high lip of the Ngorongoro Crater, which we only saw from a distance, they grow coffee. They are administered from Mbulu about thirty miles to the south, and it would seem that up to the present they are rather an anarchical group having achieved little or no sense of community. According to their overlord, the D.C. of Mbulu, they had little good to say of each other when he visited them; there wives were kept busy embellishing their houses with the rich proceeds of each years crop, also a clubhouse was in the process of being built, and the German school was being used by one form of the overcrowded Arusha European boarding-school.

. . The first project to be undertaken was the construction of the new road from Namanga to Arusha. In continuation of the programme in that area it was decided to extend the new road from Arusha through Moshi, to Himo with a short extension towards Tanga. The first contract was let, in 1949, to Messrs. Stirling-Astaldi & Co. This project, which is now complete, provides 135 miles of first class road, with a stone base course, and an 18 feet wide bituminous surface. . . . .

The roads in this area not only carry some of the heaviest traffic in the country, but the volcanic soils are probably as difficult as any in the world for purposes of raod building. In the circumstances the substitution of bituminous surfaces for earth or gravel was long overdue.

It should also be noted that the plan provides for a further stretch of bituminized road westwards from Arusha for 50 miles, but owing to rising costs on the roads now being constructed it has been necessary to postpone the building of this section. It is, however, intended to bring this section of the Great North Road up to bituminized standard as soon as finances permit, since most of it passes over friable volcanic soils and carries very heavy traffic, and along it the produce of the Oldeani farming area and the produce of the Mbulu District is evacuated to Arusha

Estimated costs:

1. Great North Road

a) Namanga to Arusha �950,000

b) Arusha to Makiyuni � 410,000

c) Makiyuni to Tundama �31,051

d) Bridges �200,000

e) Mporotos Deviation � 60,000

Total �1,651,051

split to

Territorial or Loans Funds �796,051

CD & W Funds � 855,000

Other areas where improvements to the existing roads are needed are the farming area of Oldeani in the Northern Province. . . .

I have pictures of Oldeani and wondered how I can send them to you for your Arusha site.

I was at Oldeani from 1950 - 1952. I remember the tortoise at the school in Arusha, although I seem to remember that there were two of them.

I loved your site and seeing familiar names. Lovely memories.

Tricia Barton (nee Lane)

I see in your web site an entry from Marie-Louise Sandberg (Nillson). How can I contact her? Could you send her my email address and ask her to contct me.

I had told you earlier that I WENT TO Oldeani and didn't mention that I then went to Kongwa. I love to see what many Kongwaites are up to these days.

These men [working as police officers on cattle theft and prevention] were invariably Afrikaners from the community at Oldeani where they had settled in the early years of the century.

It is hoped to start, in the not too distant future improvements on such roads as the Makuyuni-Oldeani Road . . . .

Estimated �150,000

Packing and preparing for our journey to Ngorongoro Crater before visiting Oldeani at the weekend. We eventually got away before 11am, discovering at the last moment that the car bonnet would not open to let me put water in the radiator! It was too late to do anything about it, and we decided to get going and hope for the best. We had a good journey down the Dodoma Rd. and decided to call at Oldeani on the way, although it meant an extra 24 miles.

It was about 100 miles to Oldeani, and we found the Notley�s estate easily, arriving about 4. We had some tea, left some of our things there, not wanted until Sunday, and then made our way back to the road to the Crater. At the junction of the roads it was 16 miles to the Rest Camp, slowly climbing all the time, 11 miles of which were continuous bends around the mountainside, surrounded chiefly by forest.

To compare the heights - Arusha is about 4,700 ft: Oldeani 5,500 ft and the Crater Rest Camp about 7,500 ft.

We arrived at the camp about 6.30 p.m. having had to stop once on the way to let the engine cool down. So we had to settle into the camp in the fading light - unpacking, making beds, seeing to a meal all by hurricane lamp. We had one of our houseboys with us, so he saw to the kitchen fire and cooking.

The camp is really quite well equipped - tho� you have to bring all food, kitchen utensils and crockery. We had quite an assortment of things in the back of the car! We had two log huts, a kitchen, a bathroom (all log huts) between us. The two 'rooms' had beds + armchairs and tables etc. We brought bedding, although blankets could be hired - it got cold at night, and a good wood fire in the hut was appreciated! We concentrated on feeding and getting the boys to bed, and then decided on an early bed ourselves anyway.

About a week after my return to Arusha we went off on a safari to Oldeani and Mbulu for Christmas services. ... The rains started while we there and made many roads (or tracks) impassable. ... On Sunday morning I left E. D. & P. at Oldeani, and went to Mbulu (50 miles) taking a boy with me, not anticipating a good journey. However the roads were not too bad, and I had no difficulty over wet roads. We had one long escarpment to climb, and a very rocky stony road down. At the bottom I had a puncture which ripped completely one tyre. So the rest of the safari had to be made with no spare tyre. ...

I got back to Oldeani just before 1 p.m., and already it was raining hard upon the mountain. E and the boys were all ready, so I loaded on the luggage and we left immediately, hoping to miss the storm, and stop later for a sandwich lunch. We escaped the worst of the storm, but caught on the edge of it. We stuck on a muddy patch near the top of a hill, and only got through with the help of a gang of Africans from a PWD [Public Works Department] lorry, who pushed us out of slippery patches - and all this in the pouring rain. The next stretch of road was not too bad, but ahead, about 30 miles away, we could see another storm near the Dodoma Road on which we were to travel. We climbed down the escarpment to the bottom of the Rift Valley at Mto wa Mbu without difficulty. Here, while filling up with petrol, we discovered a leak in the petrol tank! David's plasticine came in very useful to bung the leak up, and it lasted all the way on some very bad roads indeed. The road across the plain to the Dodoma Road was 25 miles of farmyard mud. We got stuck three times on this stretch and took 3 hours to do it. The first time we got stuck in a stretch with water across the road, and I had to get out without shoes or stockings to wade through [ and clear] the exhaust pipe which was under water. We got pushed out with the help of a couple of Africans. ...

The next place we got stuck in was real mud, and we had to wait for something to come along and pull us out. It was a jeep Land-Rover, and they kept just ahead of us in case we got into more troubles - which we did once. When we got to the Dodoma Road we still had 50 miles to go and it was nearly 6 p.m. - only another 3/4 hours of light. The road was better for a while, but until the last fifteen miles, most of it was like driving though a farmyard after days of rain, and most of this was done in the dark with only the light of head lamps to give any idea of what the road was like, or where it was going. Eventually we arrived in Arusha at 9.10 p.m.

I have found an interesting newspaper cutting from a Kenyan Newspaper. They mention my uncle as being aged 59 so it must have been written in 1954. Its about the Oldiani farmers expressing their fears and worries about the Mau Mau troubles in Kenya, to the Tanganyika Governor, Sir Edward Twining. I had to scan it twice in order to get it all to you. If you are able to sort of put it together as it were I am sure it will be of interest, otherwise I could post it to you? When I have time I have a lot of things like this in amongst my Uncle's papers.

We had to have everything we might require as I did not know always where we would be staying. So we eventually packed into our new Anglia three camp beds, one suitcase of clothes etc., my case of robes and books for service etc., overnight bag, the boy�s kit (Lazaro, one of the houseboys came with us) paraffin, water bottles, primus and lamps etc., etc..

The road out of Arusha is being tarmaced for about 50 miles, and at the moment where work is in progress, deviations are created - made by a bulldozer of some kind just pushing back a track across African bush for cars to travel over. This means that you have to journey over soft ground, in inches of dust, with soft patches and potholes likely to occur anywhere. To save some of this we took the road into Monduli and then backout again on their dry weather road out to the main Dodoma Road. This added a good 10 miles to our journey, but saved about the same number of dusty ones.

We made quite good time and pushed on to Mto wa Mbu for lunch. (about 75 miles from Arusha). We got petrol here and then stopped by the river amongst trees at the foot of the Rift Wall escarpment. We saw none of the baboons and monkeys that are sometimes to be seem here amongst the trees. We climbed the escarpment and took a view of the Rift Wall and Lake Manyara lying below us, and had hardly got going again when the car stopped, and I suspected over heating in the climb up. However it was not that, it was the petrol supply being choked with dirt. Fortunately Lazaro travelling with us had worked as a safari boy and had had something to do with cars so that I could get him to have a go with the carburettor without worry.

This delayed us in the heat of the day, and it was pretty warm at the top of the escarpment. However, we got on to Karatu in fairly good time, and called at the Government Rest House there to find that David Brown had moved and the place was empty. At least we will be able to stay here if required. We then went on to the Oldeani Rest House (mileage 109) and unpacked, leaving Lazaro to see to beds etc. while we went to the Notley�s for tea. ...

Lazaro had got our things out and beds seen to, but there was no boy around in full charge of the house so that wood supplies etc. were not available. However, David and Paul were so anxious to see cooking by Primus that we used that in any case. After a meal I got them to bed. (we were not able to have a bath after a very dusty journey as there was no bath available - so the grime stayed on). When the children had settled and Lazaro was finished I went over to the Oldeani Club (about 5 miles) for their club evening.

We were up early on Sunday morning, and I decided to have breakfast first with the boys, and then leave them at the Rest House while I went out for the 8 am service. ...

then back to the Rest House for a quiet hour before packing up everything to go to the Ngorongoro Crater. Nothing had opened up for us to stay elsewhere in Oldeani, and as the Oldeani Rest House was only available for us up to Monday night, I decided to spend the next two nights up at the Crater, and come back to Oldeani district on Tuesday morning.

We left the Oldeani dukas about 4pm ... we had a good journey up to the Park entrance, and then got stuck with petrol trouble again at the gates where we stopped. This took a little time to clear so we were later getting up to the top than I had hoped. It was a fine afternoon, clear and sunny, so we had wonderful views of the Oldeani farms as we climbed the road up the crater hill taking us up to over 6,000 ft. We made all the hilliest part without any trouble, and the car pulled very well and rode very comfortably.

We stopped at the viewpoint looking down into the Crater, 7 miles from the camp - then had the old petrol trouble again. We were comforted this time by a passing car, whose occupants reported that they had had similar difficulties. We were helped a bit by them and then moved on, only to find our companions stuck within a hundred yards. They told us to carry on and when we saw them next morning they said that they took nearly two hours to get into the Camp and do the seven miles.

We arrived at the Camp site about 6.30 p.m. It was a fine evening and a moonlit night, which helped the atmosphere for settling in. We had a two bunk, single room to ourselves with a separate kitchen, not being shared while we were there. There was reasonably hot water on tap so we were glad to have a good bath. D & P were happy to play around for a while with a couple of other boys, which gave me a chance of getting unpacked and organising beds and a meal.

The Camp has grown since we were here last - more huts, including 'double-roomed, self contained' ones and a Club Room, with a lounge and bar! Also a large telescope to view the Crater from the doorway of the lounge. It�s almost too comfortable for a camp. Needless to say once we got sorted out all we bothered about was baths, supper and bed. The boys thoroughly enjoyed safari camping and tackled all meals with great gusto, existing on cocoa with mixed milk powder as the chief drink! The evening was clear and we could see into the Crater from our hut, which was much further down than the one we had before. We were glad of the fire in the hut, as later on the night became very cold. The boys seem to have slept well and warm, but I found a camp-bed on the floor a bit draughty. Wooden logs huts usually have a few cracks somewhere or other.

It was fairly clear on Tuesday morning at the Camp. We had a good run down into Oldeani, misty in patches, though occasionally it cleared to give us views of the Oldeani farms. I found the turning off the crater road, which took us round the back of the farms on to the road that led down to the village shops. I reckon that I just about know my way around Oldeani now after about 6 or 7 visits though I still do not reckon to know who is on all the farms. From the Karatu end to the other end of the District well over 20 miles just along the road, and there are about 30 farms in the whole area. Many of them have their houses only a mile as the crow flies from their neighbour, but it is often more like 5 miles to get round by road and tracks.

We called at the Purchases ... after we left them, we stopped at the dukas for Lazaro�s benefit, and he decided to stay there until we came back for him late in the afternoon. Then we went on to Mrs Ching�s estate for lunch. .A new family has just come there, the Holton�s, and their daughter aged nine who was very pleased to have the company of other children for half a day.

Mrs Ching and Mrs Holton are both interested in �improving� church servies when the new club is opened, and asked about making contributions of suitable items of furniture. They also asked if more regular servies might be provided in the future. I am wondering just how much they may be spurred on by the fact that the Afrikaans folk are having more regular visits from their minister now!

It was well on to 5 p.m. before we got away from here, and as I had decided to spend the next two nights at Karatu, we went straight over to there, there being as much as 20 miles to cover. The roads were pretty dusty especially around the farms, and some of the bends wanted watching. On one of them the dust was so thick that we practically skidded round an S-bend, and then the wind whipped up the dust we created and blew it right across the car so that it was literally falling down the front of the windscreen as if some one had emptied a bucket of dusty sand from the roof of the car.

We picked up Lazaro at the Oldeani dukas and then got over to Karatu after 6 - to find that the Rest House was deserted, and all locked-up, though fortunately the back door had been left unlocked. We were able to get in and unpack, but there was no boy around in charge, and so no �kuni� (wood) for fires, and then to our dismay not water from the taps. We scrounged round for a little wood to light the bath fire, as we were able to do the cooking on the primus. Fortunately I had a good supply of drinking water available in the car to eke out for supper and breakfast if necessary. Judging from the next day it would seem that the water supply is off here at night for the present.

However we managed to get settled in and had a cooked meal, some kind of wash and then eventually to bed. David and Paul were very good over all this kind of thing and I never had a grumble from them the whole safari; occasionally they got a bit silly in their ways, but accepted all that came. Jolly good for them!

RJM Trip:

Friday

Packed for safari and left Arusha, after calls in scholl and town, about 10 for Oldeani. Tarmac to 45 miles. Called on Holmes. Lunch at Ulyate, then across farms to Mtu was Mbu. Pushed on to Karatu. Called at J Gibb for tea. then Hargs and saw Angus. Met Jacksons (Lutheran) on the road, and reached Taylors up on ex-Sands farm, before 7p.m.

Saturday

Out at 11, visited Purchases and van Rooyen. Afternoon very hot and returned to Taylors. Did not go out until after diner to Club.

Sunday

No one came for 8am service! Engine of car a bit 'pinky', so Taylor and I had a go at carburator. Not cleared by 11.00 am so he took me to Club and then went back to see what could be done. Only Hargs and Paddy and 1 child came to 11 am service. Lunch at Taylors, left at 3pm. Straight back to Arusha by 6pm.

To these ethnic curiosities were added a colourful collection of European settlers attracted by the excellent climate, fertile soil and beautiful scenery. Many of these settlers grew coffee in Arusha and to a lesser extent Moshi, while others grew the best wheat in the country at 0l Molog in West Kilimanjaro. A handful of white farmers also grew wheat at Oldeani in the north of Mbulu district. They were a microcosm of the Europeans in the White Highlands of Kenya, though with nothing like their political influence. A handful of South African farmers eked out a precarious existence growing wheat and maize at Sanya Juu behind Mount Meru.

Some European farmers grew wheat at nearby Oldeani, including the Irish Olympic hurdler Bob Tisdall.

Also at Oldeani was the quaintly named Paradise Bar where Frank Reynolds (the DC Mbulu), Kitwana Chumu and I once spent an evening admiring the epicene beauty of Iraq youth. The combination of wild scenery with a good climate gave one an extra elixir of life and I felt a daily joie de vivre seldom equalled elsewhere. The clear starlit nights, the crisp morning mists, the gaiety and charm of the people cast a spell over the denizens of this enchanted land.

To one side, now appearing small for the first time in our experience, was the Ngorongoro Crater. North of it were the steep rolling areas of the Crater Highlands, peeked with volcanoes like Embagai, and rising to 10,000 feet or more. Appearing still higher even than our basket was the active L'Engai, not smoking but flecked with white at the summit as if it were the conical roosting place of some monstrous and productive form of bird. Some 40 miles to the east of us was the big cliff drop to the Rift Valley, the Manyara lake, and the wide traverse of our previous endeavour. To the south were just hills and a lake and more hills, and a promise of at least 3,000 more miles before the massive continent comes to an end at the Cape. I do not fully understand the desires involved and of wishing to be levitated above the face of the Earth, but up in that basket at 10,500 feet above sea-level I felt supremely content. I shifted my feet, gazed fondly at Loolmalasin and Oldeani and then looked round at the others.

'Good view,' said Douglas.

A peasant farmer from Oldeani - Mbulu has been sentenced to serve 30 years in prison after being found guilty of possessing a leopard skin against the law.

John Shauri (22) was arrested on the 6th of October last year in Mang�ola village of Mbulu with a Tsh.1 million worth of leopard skin, said to have been acquired illegally.

It was alleged in court that his arrest was a result of the reports given to wildlife officers at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) who together with the local police, later conducted an extensive search in the area.

Posing as potential customers ready to buy the skin which the accused had been trying to sell, the government officers made an appointment to meet with Mr. Shauri.

The accused, later arrived at the meeting place and after some bargaining he offered to sell them the leopard skin at Tsh.70,000 of which, the officers paid Tsh.40,000 promising to settle the remaining amount later.

It was after the transaction had taken place, that the accused was arrested and taken before the Anti Poaching Unit where his statement was recorded.

The prosecutor from the Anti Poaching Unit, Abubakar Mustapha asked the court to issue heavy penalty to the accused as cases of illegal possession of government trophies were becoming rampant.

The Resident Magistrate, Thomas Simba sentenced the accused, who had earlier pleaded not guilty, to serve 30 years in prison.

Maasai for Giant Bamboo 'Arundinaria alpina' - Ol doinyo l'ol tiani

In the past the spelling of Masai place names has caused some confusion and controversy. Even the spelling of the name Masai is in doubt, some preferring Maasai. This is not a problem confined to this one area - it is a world-wide one which cartographers and geographers have as yet failed to solve. Frenchmen will continue to call London Londres, and Englishmen will refer to Wien as Vienna. Luckily, however, the present Conservator Mr Saibull is a Masai-speaker by birth, who has paid considerable attention to this problem. He has drawn up a list of spellings for place names throughout the area which I hope will become standard and eventually find their way into all publications and maps.

The early cartographers very frequently recorded the Masai name in full, for example Ol doinyo l�ol Kisale, Meaning 'the hill of the Kisale', five words in Masai (for the Masai language has an article, not a prefix, as has Swahili) and five words in English. But why laboriously spell this out at length every time? Mr Saibull has dropped the article in many cases, but retained it in some: as he sensibly says: 'For some words the article seems to enhance the Meaning and is indispensable: one has simply to try to decide which is correct.' Thus we have

Oldeani for Ol doinyo l�ol tiani (the hill of the bamboos) but

Sirua, not Esuria or Losirua for Ol doinyo l�ol Sirua (the hill of the Eland).