A bush experience at the Meserani Snake Park

The Arusha Times
By Elisha Mayallah
January 10, 2009

We have been totally spoiled with long weekends lately, and I am sure you have been making good use of them. The beginning of the year, was pretty good for my friend and I. And freedom was really the theme of our trip. It did not take a lot of persuading to get me to Snake Park at the best of times, so the invitation by a friend to the Park was just the motivation I needed.

We moved out of Arusha and drove westwards towards the wonderland of Tanzania tourist destinations. Through the winding tarmac road a beautiful open landscape came into view catching a glimpse of Tembo Club, Kisongo, a market town and Duka Mbovu, another little town along the way.

Duka Mbovu, like everywhere else I have travelled was beautiful with striking lines of shops. After falling victim to droughts the little town has regained and there is an upbeat feel to it. Duka Mbovu is enticing as the scenery is gentle, its people are mainly the rural and speak with wonderfully strong Maasai accents. Here is a community that has existed in total isolation until the Snake Park was built in the area with the intent of helping the locals.

As we branched over and off from the main road, Snake Park was just there! It has an ambiance of rural peace where the Reptile Park, Maasai Cultural Museum, Maasai ladies Craft Market and the new ‘House of African Art’ brings visitors in touch with life at a slower pace.

While magnificent opportunities for exploration exist all over the country Snake Park is indeed recognized as special. The sense of light and airiness is liberating especially around the Park’s infinity cage where a clever illusion leads you to believe that the cage starts at the Park’s base and reaches out to the hazy Monduli horizon.

“Snake Park is on a roll and is the place to be, and it is a great day out for the whole family” says the receptionist as we enter. “This place is a paradise – the native that surrounds it is famed by hills which appear to be reclining as if to admire the view” she adds as we stroll down to the eating place. I was taken aback to find a well-developed infrastructure at the site and to be told that it had become Arusha’s getaway. It was not so serene a setting before though, we were told.

At lunch we found ourselves at a table with half a dozen English adventurers. Besides us sat animated locals possibly from Arusha, while behind us Americans and South Africans altogether enjoying their lunch menus. Lunch was excellent and the selection of beefburger was irresistible on my part which made my taste buds sing.

As the minutes evolved so did the visitors at the Park. We took a line to view the varied images of authentic bushes presiding over various snakes, including the black and red spitting cobras. We saw 48 families of different snakes strolling and starring at us glassy-eyed like they needed no encouragement whatsoever to attack. In fact our guide told us when it comes to the deadly snake the Black Mamba is the most dangerous in Africa. There was a bit of weird moment as the guide was explaining. In Tanzania, the black mamba which has a history of being even more aggressive to humans is mostly found in Dodoma, Tabora and Singida.

In the wider fields next to the snakes we saw how tortoise fed themselves on fresh greens. The starring rewarded us with something else though: A crocodile at a single metre distance remained stoically in the warming sun with his oblong shaped mouth full of sharp teeth wide open! In a different setting we see a lonely and proud slender snorted crocodile from Lake Tanganyika.

Berry Bales, his wife Lynn and 55 plus staff make Snake Park what it is today. The staff makes it their duty to bond with visitors combined with attention to detail. The Bales are particularly happy that today’s visit is very different to that experienced by those pioneer visitors. Many tourists will probably only go to snake park once in their lifetimes. Berry says “And it is our job to make sure they go home with really wonderful memories of that one-off visit”

Lately the Snake Park is offering a free gym and Berry says “We invite everybody to exercise and keep fit” Yet, camel riding is still attracting hundreds of visitors. Walking definitely needs nourishment and in all the sections, the options are so attractive in the surrounding areas providing great views of the Monduli township.

The Snake Park, located 25 km from Arusha, which was established in 1993, is a place of immense power providing a free medical health clinic, free education centre, and a home to orphans to the locals. The clinic started treating snake bites, which mainly happen during the rain season, but it has gone further to treat water-borne diseases and many others. According to the nurse, patients as far as from Tanga, Simanjiro, Babati and Ngorongoro have repeatedly visited the clinic for treatment of snake bites.

“Outside here we have famous Maasai warriors [morans] jumping up and down screaming” our guide said as we ventured on a clearing. Then, as if to kick-start our imagination, a Maasai warrior walked slowly past us and reached into the Maasai Cultural Museum to register in our memories!

Later that day, we saw Maasai women in the craft market busy selling maasai ornaments to a horde of tourists. The market is composed of 13 huts allocated to different families and Snake Park does not put a price tag on their business premises.

Snake Park visit turned out to be a highly social experience for us and was truly breathtaking! For locals are genuinely warm, kind, gentle and hospitable beyond belief. There, the sense of timelessness is a real thing, and I felt even more insignificant than usual.

Article at:  http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/society_3.htm