Lake Eyasi is home to and famous for the Hadza bushmen, the last survivors of a civilization that knows nothing of agriculture, livestock, pottery, and metals. They live by hunting with bows and arrows, and gathering wild berries and fruits. The Hadza people of Lake Eyasi are the heirs of the very first human beings, the kids of Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora who still have a symbiotic relationship with the environment, the purest example of anarchic society with no rules and no chief.

The Hadza hunt game, gather edible plants and honey, and move from place to place whenever the weather changes, or the wild herds migrate, or when they just feel like moving. Every two weeks or so, they move to a new temporary settlement. It takes less than two hours for Hadza women to build a new camp. They make huts by bending and weaving branches into round structures about six feet high, then covering them with thick clumps of long, golden grass.

Some rock caves have been used intermittently by the Hadza over thousands of years and are decorated with ancient rock paintings. Whether they sleep in huts, caves or in the open, the Hadza cover themselves only with thin cloths and rely on fire to keep them warm. It takes them less than 30 seconds to start a fire by rotating wooden firedrills between their palms and creating friction in a hollowed-out scrap of soft wood. Meeting them is fascinating and they are happy to take you with them in the early morning, to hunt for a few hours and experience their archaic way of life. Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge is a great location to organize such trips.

Other inhabitants of the region are the polygamous Datoga, herders who came from the Horn of Africa to this region following stock in search of pasture. It is possible to visit a village and a blacksmith’s shop that still uses ancient techniques to produce everyday objects, jewellery, and arrowheads for the neighbouring Hadza, who provide animal skins and wild honey in return.

A notable site that reflects the ancient human influence in the Lake Eyasi region is the Mumba Cave, an archaeological site that is located by the shores of Lake Eyasi. The site has yielded a number of Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age artifacts that have proved vital to the study of man’s origins in the cradle of humanity.

Seasonal water level fluctuations in Lake Eyasi are dramatic, though the northwestern shore is constrained by the cliffs of the Serengeti Plateau. During the dry season the lake may dry up almost entirely, especially in drier years, so that Datooga herders and Hadza foragers will cross the lake on foot, but in El Niño years it may flood its banks. However, even during wet periods, lake depths typically remain less than one metre.