Lake Eyasi
Lake Eyasi is a shallow, saline lake lying in the Eyasi Rift at the foot of the Ngorongoro Highlands in northern Tanzania. Alkaline and largely fishless, it is not a wildlife park in the conventional sense. What draws visitors here is something far more profound: the people who have lived along its shores since the Stone Age. Lake Eyasi is home to the Hadzabe, one of the world's last surviving groups of true hunter-gatherers.
The Hadzabe
The Hadzabe (or Hadza) are one of the most genetically ancient human populations on earth. Numbering approximately 1,000–1,300 individuals, they continue to live as their ancestors did for at least 40,000 years — hunting with traditional bows and arrows, foraging for berries and roots, and moving camp seasonally in pursuit of game. A guided visit to a Hadzabe community near Lake Eyasi offers a genuinely profound insight into humanity's deep past.
These visits are arranged respectfully and with community consent. We do not organise exploitative tourist encounters — our Lake Eyasi experience involves a guided early morning hunt with Hadzabe men, followed by time at their camp, learning about fire-making, identifying edible plants, and the social structure of their community.
The Datoga People
Lake Eyasi is also home to the Datoga, pastoralist cattle-herders who have lived alongside the Hadzabe for centuries. The Datoga are renowned blacksmiths — visits to a Datoga forge, watching the production of arrowheads and jewellery from scrap metal, can be combined with the Hadzabe visit.
Getting There
Lake Eyasi is approximately 3 hours from Arusha by road, and most commonly visited as a day trip or overnight addition to a Northern Circuit safari. Our 3-Day Tarangire, Ngorongoro & Lake Eyasi safari includes Lake Eyasi as the defining day-three experience — combining Tanzania's wildlife best-of with one of Africa's most extraordinary cultural encounters.