In a forest. In a bee suit. In the middle of
Tanzania. 100 miles away from Mikindani. With Tony
Herbert’s reputation. Most contrapuntal by
anyone’s standards but after spending five days with
our beekeeping mentor we knew better than to be surprised
by such a situation. Our quest to obtain two stocks of
bees had started on Tony’s arrival on the Saturday
but this particular episode had begun at 5am that very
morning.

The objective of our trip to Masasi, a settlement known
for its history of beekeeping, was to purchase two hives
and colonies of bees to get the apiary up and flying. With
six of us packed tightly into the Land Rover we set off
West with the sun on our backs basking in the ever more
magnificent African sunrise. After breakfast at Mnazi
Mmoja (literally translates as “coconut one”
but why, no one seems to know) we reached the Regional
Resources Office in Masasi at about half past ten
following another particularly bruising journey on the
roads of Tanzania. After being promised a meeting with the
regional beekeeping liaison you can imagine our surprise
to find out he had left the office not more than half an
hour prior to our arrival. Needless to say, his phone was
either turned off or more likely, out of signal. Had our
quest for the holy pair of hives been scuppered by the
absence of one man?!

Despite this set back, we were offered a glimmer of light
at the end of the tunnel by a man named Rodney, the
temporary liaison for Natural Sciences in the Masasi
district. He knew of a small village called Lipupu, around
50 miles beyond Masasi that was notorious for its
beekeeping activities. It was a long shot but with Tony on
board we knew that anything was possible and so the
decision was made to press on.

Sure enough, faith has its rewards. We found it without
any problems and were pointed straight towards the village
beekeeper’s house, signified by the array of unused
bee hives and interesting looking logs suspended outside
his house. One problem… occupant was nowhere to be
seen. We were ushered in to the woods by a group of locals
keen to show us the hives kept by the owner of the
intriguing house and were promised that he was not too far
away and that he only left about half an hour ago. Despite
being sure that we had heard those words before that day
we set off in to the middle of nowhere to investigate the
bees that we had been promised. We could not believe our
luck when the owner of the hives appeared from within the
bush and after many furrowed brows, tense looks and
careful negotiation we purchased our two colonies of Apis
Mellifera Scutellata, the African honey bee, to be
complemented by a further two log hives worth of sting
less bees. After all the setbacks of the day we felt we
has earned our luck in finding this beecon (sic.) of
beekeeping in an otherwise uninhabited part of Tanzania.
So, as we set of widdershins, driving in to the rain,
spirits were through the roof. The smile on
Tony’s face produced by this accomplishment never
disappeared for the rest his stay and it really was the
culmination of a tiring but wonderfully productive and
enjoyable week. For this we will be eternally grateful for
the hard work and never ending enthusiasm of one man.
Thank you Tony.