Hix Does Tanzania - Sure As Kilimanjaro Rises Like Olympus Above The Serengeti

Note: This post contains no images, as I took no photos that day. The reasons for this will become evident as you read on.

Day 20 / 5th October, 2014

After having what was arguably the best day of my safari to date I thought maybe things were beginning to look up, but Day 20 actually turned out to be the worst day of the entire holiday (and that includes the day I fell on Kilimanjaro).

The south rim of Ngorongoro Crater has a lot of rainforest-type vegetation, the result of loads of rain, and there was plenty of rain overnight. I got up early for breakfast and took my cameras with me to photograph the sunrise, but visibility was down to only a few hundred metres due to the clouds/fog that had enveloped the crater rim. The only thing of interest was a pair of Red-winged Starlings that had come in from the outdoor deck through an open door and were happily wandering around under the restaurant tables looking for scraps. This species was a Lifer, and seeing them was the only good thing that happened that day.

Innocent picked me up and drove me through the fog to the Parks HQ not far away for my early morning bird walk at 8:00am. This modern building was in a small town/village comprised of a few buildings – mainly government offices – and a petrol station. At 8:20 somebody arrived to open up the office, and after a few phone calls we learnt there wouldn’t be anyone available for a couple of hours. As it was still raining, foggy, and the ground was quite muddy, and visibility was sometimes as little as 5 metres, I reluctantly decided to cancel the walk. Before leaving the office I picked up a few brochures and purchased a foldout map of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with a focus on the Crater which makes up only about 3% of the Conservation Area. The brochures were free, but the map was around $20. I had seen maps for the Serengeti at similar prices and it appears that maps are an expensive commodity as they are not as popular as books and brochures, so they have a smaller print run. I was also able to buy a couple of bottles of Coke, and a couple of bottles of Stoney (the locally produced Ginger Beer).

So we left the Crater Highlands and headed westward again.

Our destination was Lake Natron, famed for its flamingos, and not on 90% of the standard Tanzanian safaris. I had specifically asked for Lake Natron because I wanted to ensure seeing flamingos, and this is the only regular breeding site in East Africa for more than 2.5 million Lesser Flamingos. Although in hindsight I needn’t have bothered as I saw over 500 in the crater, and more than 5,000 a week later.

Natron is directly north of Ngorongoro and the northern part of the lake borders Kenya. Because of the steep Highlands, there are only two main ways to access the Lake, from the Serengeti in the west (we had originally planned to go there from Lobo), and from Mto wa Mbu in the east. However, Innocent knew another way from Ngorongoro, by heading westwards down to the plains, and then heading north along the base of the highlands to the join the road from Lobo.

So we headed westwards towards the Serengeti again, and within a few minutes of starting down the mountains we came out of the clouds and then the sun came out. We could still see the clouds, hanging around the mountain tops.

At about 9:00am, only 30 minutes after leaving, the Landrover made a loud noise and Innocent pulled off the road, driving onto some level grassland where a Masai boy was grazing his goats, and stopped under a small acacia tree. He jumped out and lifted the bonnet, then came back with the bad news – “Alternator broken”.

So he went back to work under the bonnet (or hood, as it’s also known) and I went for a quick walk to see if there were any birds around – there weren’t. When I came back I saw lots of pieces of the engine on the ground, and one shiny silver sphere (that looked strangely like a nuclear device I’d seen in a movie at some point) had not just been removed but also been taken apart. That’s when I realised the gravity of our situation.

Unfortunately, although I’m a fairly good driver, I don’t know the first thing about what goes on under the bonnet so I was unable to offer Innocent any help whatsoever. So I left him to it and sat in the car reading a book, glad that I had bought something to drink as it was now getting rather hot. Luckily, there was a light breeze which blew through the car’s open door.

Half-an-hour later the engine was put back together again. Innocent started her up and we travelled about 50 metres before the engine just stopped. We hadn’t even made it back to the road.

Innocent looked over his shoulder at me: “That’s it. We’re not going anywhere without a new alternator.”

“So what do we do now?” I asked, genuinely curious as I’m sure there’s no AA, RACQ, NRMA or any other type of Roadside Assistance in Tanzania. “Is there a mechanic or tow-truck that could come and get us?”

“Maybe” he answered “but today’s Sunday”.

So he pulled out his mobile phone and started making some calls. Despite being in the middle of nowhere there was excellent reception in most parts of Tanzania – in fact I had reception on top of Kilimanjaro!

After a short time he came and told me that some friends were coming to tow us to Karatu, on the other side of the highlands, but they would be a while. So I sat in the car drinking my Coke and Stoney, doing sudokus, and occasionally going for a quick walk to see if there was any wildlife of interest about.

At 2:00pm – five hours after arriving at this spot - Innocent’s friends turned up, two old guys in a Landcruiser that looked even more ancient than Innocent’s. They hitched a tow-rope between the vehicles and then I was invited to ride in the back of the lead vehicle while Innocent would ride in his. And so we headed back up into the mountains.

Despite it being hot and sunny halfway down the mountains, the crater rim was still shrouded by a dense fog/cloud that was heavy with moisture and necessitated the use of the windscreen wipers periodically. The driver must have gone to the same driving school as Innocent, because he liked to drive as fast as he could, but on top of the mountain he had to slow down due to the low visibility and the dirt (=muddy) roads.

Five minutes after we drove past the Wildlife Lodge I saw a stone pyramidal monument by the side of the road, and as we went past I could make out two plaques set in the stone, one above the other. On the top one I could just make out the name Michael Grzimek and realised this was where he and his father Bernhard were buried.

The road on this side of the mountain was not as wide or safe as it was on the western side. It was little more than one lane wide, and muddy, and was windy (thats ‘windy’ as in the road winds around). We were driving at about 60kmh which was a little fast in my view, especially considering we were towing another 4WD. Looking out the window to my left I realised we were right on the edge of the crater rim and the ground dropped away very steeply. So I moved over to the right, to add my weight to that side of the vehicle and I noticed on our right was an escarpment with a rather precipitous drop. The road was on a narrow ridge probably less than 10 metres in width.

Despite some sliding around in the mud, we eventually drove intact through some large gates that welcomed you to Ngorongoro (if you were driving up the hill into the reserve). We had to stop there to let the rangers know what we were doing, and I visited the little shop to replenish my supply of soft drinks.

A few kilometres further down the road was the township of Karatu which, despite being a Sunday, was busy with people. We were dropped off at a spare parts shop – which was open – and a new alternator was given to Innocent to install while I paid his friends a 20,000 shillings tip. During this time a 14 year old boy demanded i goive him $10. When I asked why he said he wanted it. A short while later the car started up and before leaving we stopped at a guy with an air compressor who preceded to blow a snowstorm of white dust from out of the engine and the underside of the car.

At 4:30 we were ready to go on. I knew Lake Manyara was very close, about an hour away to the campsite, and I discussed this with Innocent. Lake Natron was two and a half hours away.

“Will we be there by dark?” I asked. There seems to be some belief that tourists like to arrive at their accommodation when it’s dark, and I had a hard time convincing them otherwise (I like to do some wildlife watching in the late afternoon). But Innocent indicated we would arrive just as it would be getting dark. So we left Karatu, and the 14 year old who was convinced being rude would garner him $10.

As I said, Natron is not on the main tourist trail, and if I didn’t go then they probably wouldn’t get paid. And as I think the best way I can help the local economy is with money Paying for a service, not because you think you’re entitled to it), I chose to go on to Natron. Which turned out to be the wrong choice.

Firstly, thinking this day couldn’t get worse I discovered soon after that it could. The road to Lake Natron is, quite simply, the worst road I have even been on in my life. It was full of holes and large rocks and was quite abysmal. Bouncing around in the Landcruiser with crappy suspension I was hanging on with both hands, and there were a few times when I almost hit my head on the roof. It got worse after dark. And it got dark when we were only halfway there.

At dusk we came upon a village. The road went through the village, but there was a large white boom across the road at the village entrance. Apparently this was a toll gate. Nearby are some footprints in mud which were made by early hominids, so the village charges tourists 10,000 shillings to pass through. While Innocent was paying a couple of Masai women sitting on the ground got up and wandered over to my window, waving gourds covered in plastic coloured beads at me. I shook my head but they wouldn’t leave until the boom was lifted and we drove on. One of the women made a circle of her thumb and finger and put it over her eye, then put her finger on her cheek just below her eye and pulled the skin down. I think this was some kind of curse, and apparently it worked because the road got even worse.

About an hour later we came to another boom, in the middle of nowhere, but the terrain was such we couldn’t go around it. Innocent was a little puzzled by this one as it shouldn’t have been there. He hit the horn and a guy appeared.

Apparently the guy had bought the rights from the Tanzanian Parks authority to have a toll gate. As this is the only road to Lake Natron, and Parks can’t afford to put in their own tollgates and staff them, this guy pays Parks something like USD$100 a month. He mans the toll gate and collects 15,000 shillings (around USD$6.00) each way, although he can charge whatever he likes. He keeps whatever he collects. So Innocent paid 30,000 shillings for our trip in and our trip out. He was not happy about this as he recognised it would kill tourism, and suspected someone in Parks was lining his pockets with USD$100 a month.

Innocent was even more pissed off when we came across yet another one 10 kilometres down the road!

Eventually, around 8:30pm we arrived at Halisi Tented Camp, situated about a kilometre from the lake’s shoreline. I collected my bags and followed a camp worker while another directed Innocent and his Landcruiser to the guide’s accommodation. But I was not taken to my tent; instead I ended up at another large tent where I was met by the camp manager and the chef, who had a refreshing glass of cold apple juice for me. Very refreshing as it was quite hot here.

The manager welcomed me to the camp and then started waffling an introduction to the camp and Lake Natron. I interrupted him:

“Thank you, umm, but I’d like to go to my tent and freshen up before dinner.”

“Yes, but I will give you the briefing first” he replied, and then started again.

“How long will the briefing take?”

“About 20 minutes. The camp was built in 2012 ...”

I was standing there, wearing a backpack, binoculars and camera, and carrying a suitcase in one hand an empty glass in the other, and I was expected to wait like this for the next 20 minutes?

“No”, I interrupted again, ever so politely “I would like to go to my tent. I will hear the briefing when I return”

“No” he replied “I give you the briefing now. On arrival.” He paused and started again with his spiel.

“Listen” I interrupted again, keeping my voice quite, my tone calm and friendly “I’ve been on the road for 13 hours, the last four of which have been on the worst road I have ever been on. I’m tired, hot, sweaty, dusty, and a desperately need to use a bathroom. I promise you I will be back here in ten minutes and you can give me your briefing then, but right now I would really like to go to my tent.”

I immediately started considering my next option if he still resisted. I wasn’t going to raise my voice, or change the tone of my voice to something sterner – I just wasn’t in the mood for something along those lines. So two options quickly popped into my head: If he said no and started waffling again I could either say “Ok, I’ll find it myself” and wander off into the dark, or I could put down my bags, walk over to a nearby bush and relieve myself, because I really was in need of a toilet.

Luckily, the manager relented when I said I needed a bathroom and he instructed one of the camp workers to escort me to my tent. The tent was similar to the one in the Serengeti, except it had lights (which were powered by small solar panels on the roof. So I quickly used the facilities, splashed some water on my face, and went back to the larger tent which turned out to be the dining room.

The manager was not there, but the chef said he would be back soon, and my dinner was brought out for me. During dinner the manager arrived and gave me the briefing. Which only went for five minutes. I apologised for my earlier behaviour, and as this camp tries to leave as minimal an environmental footprint as possible I asked him some questions regarding their protocols and technology (which is mostly solar), which he seemed to appreciate as he said the other patrons don’t usually ask such questions.

After dinner he escorted me to my room where I unpacked and then fell into bed, completely exhausted. During the night the wind picked up and was quite loud, waking me at one point, but I soon fell asleep again.

The worst day of the safari so far, but things could only get better from here.

New Bird Species: Red-winged Starling



Hix

As mentioned initially, this post has no images, and no discussion of animals. Hopefully it was still of interest.

For those of you who like looking at pictures, no matter what they are of, attached is a photo of the toilet in my tent (that I was so desperate to visit), and the instructions on how to use it.

 

Possibly my favourite ever post on Zoochat!

 

I'm glad you liked it!

I thought some people might find it boring, but hoped others would enjoy it, however I didn't expect to evoke such a positive response as yours! What in particular did you enjoy about it ?



Hix

 

In part, it's the joy to be found in reading of the despair of others (sorry!); in part it's the recognition of a very typically Tanzanian series of events: my favourite moment here was the youth who picked the person least likely to give a handout, at the moment when that person was least likely to give a handout, and asked for a handout in a manner least likely to inspire the giving of a handout. I have certainly been there! And the way that a "while" can translate into the best part of a day (you're lucky it wasn't several days!). And the interesting driving.....

I love Tanzania like nowhere else on earth, but you manage, brilliantly, to capture the country's capacity to frustrate and exasperate!

 

I suspected it was something along those lines. It's good to know I'm translating my experiences accurately!



Hix

 

Day 21 / 6th of October

Next morning the wind had abated but it was still very hot. After breakfast a Maasai guide – Matthew – took me to the lake to see the flamingos. The lake was a couple of kilometres walk away through the scrub and when we arrived I found that the lake shore had retracted a few hundred metres (like so many other places I had seen on this trip). We could walk over the dried mud for a reasonable distance but close to the water’s edge it was still wet, slippery and gluggy. And salty.



Lake Natron is one of East Africa’s alkaline lakes, or soda lakes, with a high salt content making it uninhabitable for most creatures. The flamingos, however, feed in the mud and make their mudnests in the lake as the caustic water deters predators. The lake has a maximum depth of only about three metres, or ten feet, and under the blisteringly hot sun the water gets quite hot, getting up to 60ºC (or 140ºF) which is also a deterrent to predators.

It wasn’t really the breeding season but there were still lots of flamingos present, although not in the ridiculously large numbers you see in the documentaries. All the birds I could see were all Lesser Flamingos except for one lone Greater Flamingo. Near a spring that feeds into the lake, in amongst some reeds, where I imagine there are insects and perhaps frogs, were Little Egrets, Glossy Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Marsh Sandpipers and Cattle Egrets, as well as a few adult flamingos with some large chicks.



I got plenty of photos of birds in the lake, the juveniles in the reeds, and even a few flamingos in flight, when they came near. And there was a dead flamingo chick on the mudflat and also some Chestnut-breasted Plovers running around the mudflats.



Eventually Matthew and I returned to camp, but I saw a few birds along the way back including Fischers Sparrowlarks, Blacksmith Plovers, Lilac-breasted Rollers and two lifers – Black-throated Barbet and Namaqua Dove (or Cape Dove). I was glad to see the dove as it’s another species commonly kept in captivity in backyards in Australia and elsewhere, and it was good to see them in the wild.

Matthew and I talked along the way, he had very good English and had a good knowledge of mammals, but not that great on birds. He had even been to America many years ago, as part of Tanzania’s contribution to the World Expo. Dressed primarily in blue robes, with some red material, he carried a stick about four feet in length with a knob on the end. I thought this was like a hiking pole, but he never used it as such; apparently it was in case we encountered any dangerous animals.

Along the way to and from the lake we periodically passed some young Maasai and when we did they would walk over to Matthew, the two would quietly exchange a few words, the Maasai would bow their head and Matthew would put his hand, open-palmed, on top of their head for a second. I asked him about this and apparently this is the custom for young people when they encounter an elder of their tribe. This reminded me of something I had read in the Swahili book.

“Matthew” I said “I should apologise then, for when we met I greeted you with ‘Jambo’, when I should have said ‘Shikamoo’ ”. The latter term being a respectful greeting for elders.

Matthew laughed. “No, that is not necessary, because you are shikamoo too!”

We arrived back at camp at around 10:00 and the manager told me Innocent had left and would be back around midday, and then we would continue on to our next destination. I had mixed feelings about this – the later we left means the later we arrive, and I didn’t want to arrive in the dark. However, I was not looking forward to riding back on that shocking road for four hours again, so in that respect the delay was welcome.

It didn’t take me long to pack, so I spent the next couple of hours wandering around photographing the birds within the campground. There weren’t very many, but they kept me busy. I eventually got to see the Blue-naped Mousebirds clearly (my previous viewing at Speke’s Bay Lodge was not clear at all). There were more Black-throated Barbets, some Mourning Doves and Common Bulbul, Grey-headed Kingfishers, Green-backed Woodpeckers, and White-browed Sparrow-weavers that were building some nests in one of the trees near the dining tent.



After lunch Innocent arrived and we left for our next destination, Ol Tukai Camp on the shores of Lake Manyara. The drive back to Mto wa Mbu was just as bad as the previous day, but in the daylight it didn’t seem quite so bad, probably because there was other things to look at, whereas the previous night all I could see was rocks and boulders in the headlights gleam. Although I didn’t see any wildlife apart from some goats – it is very dry and barren - I did manage to get some pictures of Ol Doinyo Lengai (“Mountain of God”), an active volcano that erupted less than ten years ago, and a popular hiking destination with some tourists.



Arriving back in Mto wa Mbu we drove on a very nice, sealed bitumen road for a few kilometres before turning off the road in the middle of nowhere, and then spent the next hour or so driving through the scrub to Ol Tukai Camp.

Lake Manyara is a reasonably large lake located at the base of the eastern escarpment of the Ngorongoro Highlands. Between the lake and the escarpment is a narrow strip of land that is thickly vegetated (because of all the streams running out of the mountains) and Lake Manyara National Park is situated here. We, however were on the opposite side of the lake, which is all private or community lands, and without all the freshwater mountain streams was a more arid habitat, comprised of mostly acacia thornscrub.

Ol Tukai is a private camp belonging to Eastco; a few hundred metres away from camp is a Maasai village and some of the men from the village work in the camp, preparing food and maintaining the facilities. The camp consists of a large building that is the dining room/communal area, and two ‘rooms’ which are large stone circular buildings with thatched roofs and a real toilet and shower attached. There are plans to build more rooms in the future.

The camp is situated on the shores of Lake Manyara, but like so many other bodies of water, the shoreline had receded somewhat. In the case of Manyara, the water wasn’t even visible in the distance, having receded several kilometres!

After unloading all my gear and getting it stored in my room, Innocent was getting ready to leave, and he said Bernard would be along in an hour or so. And then, after giving me an earful about not tipping the guys in the Serengeti, he left.

After unpacking, and photographing a Striped Skink on the side of my room, I went for a walk in the bush around the camp for an hour until it got dark. The time was around 4:30pm and it was still quite sunny. I saw the usual suspects: Common Bulbuls, Northern Helmeted Shrikes and African Mourning Doves, but also a few lifers – Yellow-collared Lovebird (or Masked Lovebird as they are sometimes known), African Black-headed Oriole, Yellow-necked Spurfowl, and Double-banded Coursers that preferred the short grasses on the dry lake bed. There was a Lilac-breasted Roller pulling out the thatch from my roof (presumably for its own nest), Fischer’s Sparrowlarks, Spotted Morning Thrush, Cisticolas, Pygmy Kingfishers, Red-cheeked and Blue-capped Cordon Bleus, Pied Crows and more Namaqua Doves.

Returning to camp and looking west, over the dry lake bed, was the escarpment of the Ngorongoro Highlands, and behind it the sun was setting.

A little after dark Bernhard arrived and after dinner we spent an hour or so talking, mainly about birds. He told me the reason Lobo Lodge (in the Serengeti) had cancelled our bookings was because of a burst water pipe that had caused extensive flooding and damage to rooms and the reception area, and would remain closed for a few more weeks until the damage had been repaired. On my laptop Bernhard identified a number of birds that I had photographed but that I wasn’t too sure of, and after a bit more talking we called it a night. The camp has no electricity apart from a lamp in the dining room that is solar powered. So I walked by torchlight back to my room and settled down for an early night.

New Species of Birds: Greater Flamingo, Namaqua Dove, Black-throated Barbet, Blue-naped Mousebird, Yellow-throated Spurfowl, Double-banded Courser, Yellow-collared Lovebird, African Black Oriole



Hix

Attached below are: Matthew the Maasai, my room at Ol Tukai camp, myself and Bernhard in the evening, sunset over the Highlands.

 

Day 22 / 7th October

My scabs started to fall off during my morning shower, only small bits, but it was good to know it was healing. My sunburnt lip was still a little sore but not as bad and blistered as a week ago.

From the dining room while eating breakfast I watched a group of fifteen zebra on the dry lake bed grazing on the short grass that grew sparsely in the dust. Bernard outlined what we would be doing in the morning, and shortly afterwards I heard him start the car, with the help of some of the Masaii.



Arriving at the Landcruiser I learnt one of the Masaii elders would be joining us, which was good as it meant three pairs of eyes would be watching for wildlife, two pairs which were experienced in this part of the world, a fact that was demonstrated fairly early on. We'd only been driving for a few minutes when the Masaii said something to Bernard who slammed on the brakes and brought us to a complete stop, which wasn't as dramatic as it sounds because, unlike Innocent, Bernard drove at 5 km an hour (or less). I didn't see it at first, it took me few seconds; about two metres directly in front of the car stood a Double-banded Courser, perfectly camouflaged in the grasses growing on the track we were following through the long grass. We backed up and went around it. These birds were reasonably common around the dry lake shores and I got some photos of others, plus an egg that was just as well camouflaged as the birds.




After a few hundred metres we drove onto the dry lake bed and drove north following the 'coast'. Bernard said that Simon and the Masaii had allowed a group of fisherman and their families to set up a temporary fishing camp on the shores of the lake some months before when the lake was full. This was done on the proviso they take everything with them when they left after six weeks, leaving no trace of the camp. The Masaii suggested the fishermen hadn't complied with this requirement and Bernard wanted to see what the fisherman had left.

Two kilometres north of our camp we found where the camp had been. There was no sign at all of the camp itself, but we knew they had been there because of the enormous amount of rubbish strewn across a wide area of the lake bed. Obviously they just threw their rubbish in the water, where it sank, and they thought nobody would notice. Of course, once the lake dried up everything was exposed. It was mostly plastic, glass, metal, some cardboard and fabric - rags and torn clothing. It was absolutely disgusting. In amongst the rubbish we sighted several Chestnut-banded Plovers and Kittlitz's Plovers, well camouflaged on the dry ground but rather more visible against a background of plastic refuse. Bernard was particularly angry as the rubbish would need to be removed - before the lake filled again - which would be costly and labour intensive. There was obviously no way to force the fisherman to return for the cleanup, so the job would probably fall to Eastco and the Masaii. At least the fisherman would never get permission from Eastco to do this again anywhere, and they would probably let other landowners around the lake know about this too.

After driving around on the lake bed for a while we headed back inland, through the long grass and the thorn scrub where we stopped and walked for a bit. In the long grass we came across a Hartlaub's Bustard, and then an Ostrich with a clutch of eggs. In the thorn trees we saw some African Pygmy Falcons, Eastern Chanting Goshawks, and Taita Fiscals. The only time I've ever seen African Pygmy Falcons before was in an aviary at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and at the time I was captivated by these tiny raptors. So I was very happy to finally see this species in the wild, and I got to see three!




Returning to the lodge for lunch we saw the Zebras were still grazing out on the lakebed, and there were a few more now – a total of twenty-six. I walked out onto the dry lake with my camera and tried to get close to them but they would canter off when I got to around 250 metres from them, their hooves kicking up little clouds of dust as they ran. I managed to get some photos of the group, including a couple of foals, but no close-ups. I'd need to be in a car to get that close, I guess.

Around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Bernard drove us to a waterhole to see what birds were there. Although the day had been cloudy, the sun came out as we headed off and I hoped we would be lucky with the birds.

The waterhole is part of a river, this part retaining water longer than any other part of the river when it dries up. It's about 5 kilometres from our camp, and along the way we passed three wooden buildings that looked about 50 years old. Apart from Ol Tukai Camp, these were the only real buildings around for miles (the only other structures were the Masaii mud-hut villages). Apparently one was the school, one was the pharmacy-cum-hospital, and the other was the local council offices.

The waterhole was not circular as the name would probably suggest, but meandered around some bends, and I think it was probably an offshoot of the river. The water was a very unhealthy-looking green colour, and we arrived at the same time as a herd of cattle which ran knee-deep into the muddy water to drink. Further down was a group of Masaii teenagers who were swimming/bathing in the water which I wasn't prepared to even put my boots in.

We spent about an hour here. There were three species of Herons, Gulls, Stilts, four species of Plovers, Avocet, Pied Kingfishers and other waterbirds present, and feeding on grass seeds was a large flock on Red-billed Queleas. Further away from the edge were Ring-neck and Namaqua Doves, Pied Wagtails and Masked Lovebirds. There were also dragonflies with black spots on their wings known locally as 'choppers'. And just before we left a group of sand grouse flew down to the water's edge to drink. Dusk was approaching when we headed back to the Landcruiser, where I found Bernard had left the engine running for the full hour.



When we got back to camp I could see a storm coming, so I tried to take some more arty-type shots of the landscape, and as the rain started to drizzle I headed onto the dry lake bed - the zebras were nowhere to be seen by now - to get a photo of the shoreline with a rainbow over it. The rainbow's ends were just a fraction out of shot and so I kept heading backwards to try and get them into frame. I'd gone several hundred metres with no change when I realised that it had nothing to do with my distance from the camp, the rainbow was an optical illusion that was remaining static relative to my position and would always be just wider than my lens. So then I satisfied myself with some photos of the sunset over the Ngorongoro escarpment.



The rain came not long after that. During dinner some microbats kept flying through the dining room, so I set up my camera and flash and made several attempts to photograph them, both by hand and with a tripod. Two out of twenty photos have a bat in them that isn't out of focus, and many of the others don't even appear to have the bat. Unfortunately, even the good ones weren't good enough to get even a family, let alone a species, identification.



Hix


New Birds: Hartlaub's Bustard, Chestnut-banded Plover, Pygmy Falcon, Taita Fiscal, Singing Bushlark

 

Day 23 / 8th October

It rained overnight resulting in another cloudy morning, the clouds so thick that I couldn't even see the Ngorongoro Highlands. And no zebras on the lake today either. It remained cloudy for most of the morning, the sun coming out about 9am and the clouds completely dissipating around midday when it became rather hot.

Lake Manyara is situated at the eastern base of the Ngorongoro escarpment. Between the lake edge and the scarp is a narrow strip of very green, lush vegetation that is watered by the runoff from the highlands. The further from the escarpment and closer to the lake you get, the drier the land becomes. And it is here that we were headed for, the Lake Manyara National Park.

We left about 8am and Bernard drove very slowly, about 5 kms an hour (3 miles an hour), while he peered out over the steering wheel for birds. This was the complete opposite of Innocent who would have been hurtling along at close to Mach 1. After about 20 minutes and not seeing anything of interest - just some Longtailed Shrikes and a Wheatear - I asked Bernard what the plan for the day was, how long every stage would take etc. And he told how long it would take to get to the National Park, how long we'd be in the park, and how long to get to our next campsite. I then asked "Will we get there before sundown, because I don't like arriving after dark", to which he replied "Oh yes, of course we will" and - taking the hint - he immediately accelerated to a more acceptable speed.

We arrived at Lake Manyara National Park around 9am, just as the sun was breaking through the clouds, and stopped at the entrance so Bernard could pay the entrance fee, which took about 15 minutes. He left the engine running and I stayed with the car, doing a little birding in the carpark but there wasn't much there - too many other vehicles and noisy tourists. However I did see a new species for me, a Silvery-cheeked Hornbill.



Upon entering the park the first thing we came across was a pair of elephants crossing the road, then a female elephant and her calf drinking from a stream. We crossed a few running streams, some of them flowing quite quickly and carrying quite a bit of water, but they soon disappeared as the road took us closer toward the lake and the vegetation became less lush and much drier. But before it got too dry we still saw Amethyst Sunbirds, European Bee-eaters, Blue-naped Mousebirds, more Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, Martial Eagles, Olive Baboons, Blue Monkeys, and a Red-headed Agama. It was still quite cloudy and many of my photos of birds in the tops of trees became silhouettes as a result. It didn't rain though, so I suppose that's something.









A bit further along I saw some more hornbills, this time an African Grey and a pair of Crowned Hornbills. And while we watched them Bernard suddenly noticed in the shadows of a tree near the birds were a pair of Verreaux's Eagle Owls.

Bernard took one of the roads that led to a pool and swamp that had a number of Hippos and a lot of waterbirds. Grazing nearby were Zebras, Thomson's Gazelles, Wildebeest, Impala and Vervets. The wildebeest here were of a yellowy golden colour, which seems to be the norm for wildebeest in this park. And there was a viewing platform here so we could get out of the car for a better look, although the viewing was better from the car as we could get closer to the hippos and birds. Birds seen in the swamp included Stilts, Common Moorhen, Cattle Egrets, Marabou, Crowned Cranes, Egyptian Geese, Blacksmith Plovers, Glossy and White Ibis, Black-headed and Grey Herons, Squacco Herons, Intermediate Egrets, Black Crakes, Jacanas, Spoonbills, Sandpipers, Long-toed Lapwings, and Red-billed Oxpeckers on the sleeping hippos. We also saw three Lesser Flamingos, which would have been a big deal for me if I hadn't already seen several thousand of them a few days previously at Lake Natron.







After some more driving through the park we came to a very nice picnic area, elevated with views over the dry lake, where we were to have lunch. Unlike some other picnic spots where you just have place to park a car and a toilet block, this picnic spot had several chairs and tables set out under trees and with excellent views. Again, Bernard left the engine running for the whole half hour we were there. I asked him about it, but he said everything was OK, so I didn't push the issue. I got the impression that if the engine stopped I'd be pushing more than just an issue!

While sitting at one of the picnic tables we were visited by a pair of Red-and-Yellow Barbets which I think are one of the most attractive birds I've seen in Africa. It was a lifer for me and I was stoked they were in the tree just above my head, and so I got a closeup or two. After finishing lunch we wandered around the picnic area where I saw some more lifers - Brubru, Kenyan Violet-backed Sunbirds, Greyish Flycatcher, a female Steel-blue Whydah and Yellow-bellied Greenbul. Non-lifers seen here included Lesser Masked Weavers, Superb Starlings and Yellow-breasted Apalis.





Before leaving the picnic area I could see in the distance some actual water in the lake, although it didn't look very deep. Walking across the dried lakebed between the water and the forest was a Giraffe - the only giraffe I saw in the park. And despite Manyara being famous for its tree-climbing lions, I didn't see any lions in the park at all (and I was constantly looking up in the trees!).



We left Lake Manyara National Park around 14:30 and headed back through Mto wa Mbu, past the turn-off to Ol Tukai and continued on for another hour or so on a sealed highway before turning off onto a dirt road that was not really noticable as a road, with tyre tracks just barely visible in the dust. We travelled on this road a short distance before it took us into the scrub where the road, to my eye, vanished completely. After some time I saw a signpost in the middle of nowhere pointing towards two different camps in two different directions. Again, the sign just pointed into the scrub, not along a road. But as Naitolia Hills Eco-camp was where we were heading, I was a bit more confident we would actually get there.

Along the way we came upon some birds of a few species feeding on the ground. An ant nest, or maybe a termite nest, was spewing forth winged alates and the birds were feasting on the plump insects. There were lots of Superb Starlings, some Hildebrandt's Starlings mixed among them, Wattled Starlings, Lilac-breasted Rollers, some Laughing Doves and Ringnecked Doves, and a few lifers - a White-tailed Lark, three Northern Red-billed Hornbills, and 12 Ashy Starlings, the latter being a Tanzanian endemic and this area is pretty much the best place to see them. At one point further along a large varanid - a Western Savanna Monitor - crossed the road in front of us and ran up a tree before disappearing inside a hollow.



We continued on through the scrub, passing another sign that indicated we were still going in the right direction. And an hour after leaving the sealed road we eventually arrived at the camp, another Eastco private camp. Again, I as the only one staying there even though they had accommodation for two other groups.

The rooms themselves were large with the back wall and half of each adjoining side wall solid brick, the front and remaining parts of the side walls were shade cloth that could be zipped completely shut. This permitted in the light and the breeze, but kept out the animals. And also, from inside you were generally invisible to the animals through the mesh, even though you could clearly see the animals but not take photographs. Of course, you could get photos if you unzipped the mesh somewhat. Outside was the ensuite, three brick walls and no roof (and no doors) with nice views over to the three Naitolia Hills about 20 miles distant. For some reason a male Von der Decken's Hornbill liked perching on one of these walls. And about 8 metres from my room, under a few shrubs, was a concrete bowl set in the ground. It was dry now, but the camp workers filled it with water the following morning.



There was another building, the dining room, a very nice open-plan structure with another couple of concrete waterbowls set in the ground for the birds.

After unpacking my cameras Bernard and I set out for a quick bit of birding in the scrub before it got dark. We saw some Zebras and flushed a Savanna Hare too.



Masked Lovebirds were in flocks of about two dozen and feeding on the ground, which made it difficult to get photos as they were even more timid than when in the tops of trees. There were plenty of Yellow-necked Scrubfowl, they were absolutely everywhere! I saw another Northern Red-billed Hornbill in flight, and two other lifers: Black-faced Sandgrouse (also in flight), and Orange-bellied Parrot*.

The Orange-bellied Parrots were very timid, and in a bad position for photography. Bernard, who was behind me and to the right, whispered that he had good views, so I moved stealthily to the right. I kept my eye on the birds in case they either got spooked and I would need to freeze, or if they moved into a better position where I could get some pictures. Something grabbed my trouser cuff, and quickly glancing down I saw it was snagged on a little twig from a small, spindly looking shrub only about two feet tall. Returning my gaze to the birds I pulled my leg harder to free it from the snag, but it remained held fast. Looking down again I noticed the cuff was caught on a thorn. Again keeping my eye on the birds I reached down and felt the thorn and pulled it free of my jeans - but still my leg was not free.

I had a really good look and realised the twig was longer than I thought; most of it was obscured by a fold in the jeans. About six inches of twig with several thorns were caught on my cuff and I needed both hands to free myself, which was not as easy as it sounds. The thorns were backward curving hooks and very sharp, and after freeing one thorn and then working on the second the first thorn would become hooked again somewhere else. And my hands were getting scratched too.

"What are you doing?" whispered Bernard urgently "Move further to the right". It sounded as though it was vital I see the birds clearly.

"Hang on" I whispered back, "I'm caught on some thorns".

"Wait" he said "I'll help you", and before I could stop him he hurried over as the birds took flight.

Once I was free I looked at the tiny, non-descript plant with nasty little hooks all over it. Bernard told me it was very common here and was called 'Wait-a-Bit'. I told him we have a similar plant, a vine, in Queensland called 'Wait-a-While'. He laughed when I told him its other name was Lawyer Vine.



Continuing on the walk we saw Fork-tailed Drongo, Magpie Shrike, Meyer's Parrot, Lilac-breasted Roller,White-headed Buffalo Weaver, and a Red-faced Crombec.



The Crombec was in a very large shrub about three metres tall and four or five metres in diameter. There was a nest in the shrub too, and the bird seemed very calm within its tangle of branches and twigs which not only protected it but made photography almost impossible. I circled the bush looking for a space between the branches where my camera might get at least an unobstructed view of the bird's head, but I was unsuccessful. Then I noticed a bit of a vertical gap in the branches at one point, as if the tree had grown in a spiral and the outside end was not flush with the rest of the bush (of course it hadn't grown that way, but it seemed like it). I was able to stick my whole head and camera in a get an unobstructed view of the bird.

"Be careful" said Bernard.

"It should be OK, it's not in least bit worried about me" I replied.

"No" he said, "I meant you should be careful - that's a Wait-a-Bit Bush".

I took my eyes away from the camera and looked at the twigs a couple of inches from my face, and saw the same nasty, backward curving spines I had seen a short time before. All I could think to say was "Oh, they get this big do they?"

I very gingerly backed out, escaping the bush's permanent embrace and only one thorn got caught on my shirt, which was rather surprising considering how cavalier I had been when slipping into the gap. No wonder the Crombec felt safe in the middle of this bush!

By now the sun was going down and it cast a reddish glow on the distant Naitolia Hills, so we headed back to camp.

Sunset - last rays on the Naitolia Hills by Hix posted 4 Jan 2015 at 5:57 AM

It was dark when dinner was ready so I brought my headlamp to the dining room (and I needed it to see where I was going). Shining it periodically into the night I eventually got eyeshine from a pair of dikdiks, and also a reflection on a nearby termite mound although I couldn't see any animal there. The eyeshine was too large to be a spider so I went investigate. The eyes were in a hole in the mound but I couldn't tell what they belong to. So I went back to dinner and looked a bit later when the occupant had emerged. It turned out to be a large gecko, so I went back to my room and grabbed my camera to get some photos.

Tuberculate Thick-toed Gecko by Hix posted 4 Jan 2015 at 6:03 AM

A long, hot day, but quite rewarding with a number of new bird species and two new reptiles.



Hix


New Birds: Martial Eagle, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Red & Yellow Barbet, Brubru, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Greyish Flycatcher, Red-billed Oxpecker, Kenyan Violet-backed Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Steel-Blue Whydah, Black-faced Sandgrouse, Northern Red-billed Hornbill, Orange-bellied Parrot, White-tailed Lark, Ashy Starling.

New Reptiles: Western Savanna Monitor, Tuberculate Thick-tailed Gecko

* The African Orange-bellied Parrot (Poicephalus rufiventris) is not to be confused with Australia's Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chysogaster). The African bird is also known as the Red-bellied Parrot, but I have used Orange-bellied to avoid confusion with the related Red-fronted Parrot (Poicephalus gulielmi), another East African species. And the belly is more orange than red anyway.

 

Day 24 / 9th October

I was woken by the sunlight shining through the mesh into my room, which faced the east. Clear skies in the morning with no clouds, just for a change.

The waterbowl for the birds had been filled by the camp workers and there were a few birds either around the bowl drinking, or perched in the branches of the shrubs waiting until they were sure it was safe to venture down.

The first were some small grey/black and white marked Seedeaters but I couldn't identify exactly which one from my book. There were also a few Emerald-spotted Wood Doves, with distinctive green spots on their wings, Laughing Doves and African Mourning Doves, drinking in the typical pigeon way of sucking water straight up (other birds have to submerge their beaks and then tilt their heads back to get the water to run down their throats).



After 20 minutes of watching them and taking photos from the corner of my room (through a small unzipped part of the mesh) there was only a couple of pigeons left so I slipped out the far side of the room and walked round the back of the room to the dining room for breakfast.

Bernard joined me for breakfast, and after eating we looked at the photo's of the seedeaters I had taken and tried to identify which species it was, without success. We thought we knew what it was, a Yellow-rumped Seedeater, but the description in the books both said it had a bright yellow rump, and I had neither seen nor photographed anything bright yellow on these birds.

I headed back to my room to photograph any more birds that came to visit the birdbath. I found about a dozen Masked Lovebirds, a Red-billed Hornbill, a Tawny-flanked Prinia and a variety of doves either at the bowl or in the trees - Laughing Doves, Ringneck Doves and more Mourning Doves and Emerald-spotted Wood Doves. After a while other birds appeared, including Superb Starlings, Spotted Morning-Thrush and finally four White-bellied Go-Away Birds. These large birds, although not aggressive, scared the doves away which in turn spooked most of the smaller birds. And they were another lifer.





During this time the male Von der Deckens Hornbill I had seen outside by the bathroom yesterday flew past and landed on tree stump that was his preferred perch. I managed to get a couple of photos of him before he flew off, but I saw him there again later in the afternoon and again the following morning.

Bernard and I went out birding on foot at about 8:30 for two hours. A Masaii joined us, carrying his stick in case we encountered something dangerous. I carried my camera, while Bernard carried his binoculars and his field guide. Bernard's field guide was Stevenson and Fanshaw (A Guide to the Birds of East Africa) and he had it in a fabric cover that was specially made for the book; when you weren't using it there was a small strap to fit over your wrist, and when you wanted to use the book you unzipped the cover. This way the book was protected when not in use and was easy to carry. I was a little jealous of this cover!

Bernard found my method of birding unusual. Most people look for a bird with their binoculars, then flip through the field guide to identify the bird. I have found this to be too time consuming as the birds usually fly away quite quickly, sometimes you only have a second or two to look at it and note it's features. This is especially true for non-descript LBJ's and species that look very similar, like the cisticolas. My method is to find a bird with the binoculars, take a photo of it (or several photos) and identify it later. And as I was creating records of the birds seen at each location for eBird, I was generally photographing every species I saw at each site, even if the birds were in the distance and the images wouldn't be too good. This way I didn't need to lug around a field guide or a record book as well. And because my binoculars were broken and I was using my camera instead, the camera was all I needed to carry around. And after a few days with me Bernard came to accept this, and before long he was saying "Just take a photograph, we'll work out what it is later". I think I may have corrupted him.

The habitat around the camp was open woodland with some areas of denser thorn-scrub and large patches of grass. We headed south from the camp on foot, through the scrub for a distance of about a kilometre-and-a-half before turning around and retracing our steps. It was sunny and hot (and 10:30) by the time we got back to camp, and the birds had disappeared by this stage anyway.

The first thing we saw was a pair of Crested Francolins, which skulked away through the long grass once we had seen them. There was a flock of about 40 Masked Lovebirds but this time they were feeding not on the ground but in the tops of some trees. We saw more Von der Deckens Hornbills, and followed a pair of Northern Red-billed Hornbills for a short distance watching them feeding.





I was particularly intrigued by the iconic baobabs, which were common in this area (and appeared to be growing in straight lines, although Bernard assured me this was just a coincidence). Very large trees, with many branches and hollows, and popular with a variety of birds. I managed to get some distant photos of the shy Orange-bellied Parrots while they were inspecting a nesthole in a baobab (if you look closely in the photo below you can actually see two pairs of parrots), and we also saw Abyssinian Scimitarbills and Green Woodhoopoes poking around in the bark of these trees.





"Little Bird" said Bernard at one point.

"What sort?" I asked.

"Not sure" he said. "A warbler I think."

"Where is it? I'll take a photo."

"In that tree" said Bernard, pointing into the scrub in the general direction of Naitolia Hills. There were several dozen trees in that direction.

"Which tree?"

"That one. Look at where my finger is pointing." The fact I was about five metres from Bernard meant that following his finger would get me nowhere. I moved closer to him to get the general direction.

"There are several trees Bernard. How far away is it?"

"It's in the third tree in front of us. Hurry and get the photo before it flies away." He was getting a little excited that it was taking me so long.

All the trees in front of us, in a relatively straight line, were small trees or largish shrubs. I scrutinised the third one in front of us but saw nothing.

"The third tree?" I asked again.

"Yes, the third tree. Can you see it? It's just there." he said, pointing again

"The one with yellow flowers?"

"No, the one behind it. The third tree."

"That's the fourth tree." I stated, and quickly found and photographed the bird. And after a few 'no it's the third', 'no it's the fourth' between us I counted out the four trees for him.

Bernard pointed at the tree closest to us and said "well, yes, if you count that one it's the fourth tree."

The bird turned out to be another Red-faced Crombec.

Don't think I'm making fun of Bernard or his counting skills. The fact is, there is nothing wrong with his numeracy skills as I saw him handling money and counting without any problems on numerous occasions. Describing the location of a bird can be a bit of an art-form; some people are quite good at it and others are not so good. Bernard is one of the 'others'. Over the next two weeks I would hear things like "There's a bird, look in that tree, and there's a branch, and there's a black mark, and the bird is near the mark." Whereas if I was describing where a bird was I would say something like "see the tree that's been burnt at the base, look at the tree to the left of it, halfway up the right side is a broken stump, look at the branch above the stump, it has a black mark on the branch. The bird is near the mark, about three metres from the trunk." I hoped by doing this Bernard would pick up some pointers or ideas on how to describe a location, but there were several occasions where all I was given was "look where I'm pointing".

I'm sure Chlidonias, Maguari, Laughing Dove, Lintworm and other ZooChatters that travel to the wilds will have similar stories.

After a couple of hours it had become very hot and as the birds had ceased to be active we returned to camp. But in that two hours we had seen 28 different species including a dozen more White-bellied Go-Away Birds, a dozen Northern Red-billed Hornbills, lots of Superb and Ashy Starlings, a dozen Cordon-Bleus of two different species, White-headed Buffalo-Weavers, Drongos, Magpie Shrikes, Meyers and Orange-bellied Parrots, Bee-eaters, Lilac-breasted Rollers, Greater Honeyguides, a Grey Woodpecker, a Bateleur and a Marabou (the last two flying overhead). We'd also surprised another Savanna Hare, too.







After lunch it was still very hot so we stayed in camp and I uploaded the photos from my camera to my computer and I started identifying and processing them. Bernard joined me for the identification part and we were both very happy to see in one of the photos taken at the birdbath/waterbowl that morning a Seedeater was flying away and although it was very blurry, with its wings raised we could quite clearly see a bright yellow rump. Definitely a Yellow-rumped Seedeater!


For most of the afternoon if I wasn't working on the computer I was just lazing around or dozing. It really was too hot to do anything else. As the only electricity was in the dining room I worked on the computer in there. I also had my camera with me and got a couple of photos of birds coming to the dining room's waterbowls - a number of Ashy Starlings, some Masked Lovebirds, a Grey-headed Sparrow and Swahili Sparrow or two, a Greenwinged Pytilia, a Greater Honeyguide, and a Black-faced Sandgrouse. But they were few and far between.





In the evening I brought my camera to dinner, along with my headlamp. The first few times I shone the lamp into the bush I got nothing except spiders, but during dinner I found some eyeshine, about 30 metres from the dining room. I walked out through the grass, carefully avoiding anything that might have been a Wait-a-Bit, but stopped when I realised the eyes were about a metre off the ground. Quickly going through the mammals it could possibly be, lion was the name that jumped out at me. However, the eyes appeared too close together and while I was deciding whether to move closer or make a strategic withdrawal, the eyeshine moved vertically upwards another two metres, then moved smoothly in a large arc to the left and down to ground level where they bounced along the ground two or three times before going up another tree to a height of about three metres. Obviously not a lion.

I quickly approached the tree and in the light of my headlamp I could see it was a Senegal Galago, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I tried to get some photos but was unsuccessful. The autofocus won't focus in the dark, so my left hand tried to hold the lamp on the bushbaby while I held the camera steady and tried to focus with only one hand. Of course, the galago had other ideas and would look away, or stick it's head behind a branch, or move to a different part of the tree which would mean trying to follow it with both light and camera. In the end I tried to get a bit closer and it jumped out of the tree and disappeared into the night.

I didn't get a photo, but it was still a great way to finish the day. I returned to the Dining Room to continue my dinner.



New Birds: White-bellied Go-away Bird, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Yellow-rumped Seedeater, Abysinnian Scimitarbill, Greater Honeyguide, Banded Warbler

New Mammals: Senegal Galago

 

Enjoying reading your posts Hix, and loving the photos, the two hornbill photos from day 23 (especially the silvery-cheeked) are awesome! Also glad you saw white-bellied go-away bird, these are one of my favourite birds, I think they are so cool looking, but I'm not sure why - maybe its because the plumage is so mammalian in colour...

 

Good to know someone's enjoying it!

But I've discovered I don't really like writing! It takes too long!



Hix

 

Zooboy28 is not the only one enjoying them!
They're very enjoyable to read, and I certainly appreciate the effort that you must be putting in to writing them.

 

Day 25 / 10th October

Early in the morning, before breakfast, while I was still in bed but after the sun had lightened the sky, I heard a car drive into camp and sometime later it drove away again.

The weather was identical to yesterday - clear skies, sunny and hot. I set up the GoPro right beside the birdbath before going to breakfast and upon my return I found that some of the birds were not too keen on the Go Pro and had gone to other birdbaths for their morning drink. However, the Masked Lovebirds, Pigeons and Go-Away Birds were bolder and I got some nice video. I packed everything away as we were leaving this camp today; Bernard had advised me of a slight change in the itinerary and we would not be staying here again tonight as originally planned.

Birdlife at a waterbowl in the Tarangire... - Hickson Fergusson | Facebook

My gear was loaded into the Landcruiser and as I climbed into the back something felt different. It looked pretty much the same but something was amiss. I noticed a water bottle in the pouch on the back of the front passenger seat which I didn't remember from the last time I was in the car, and then I realised that a rip in the pouch was missing. Bernard climbed in and started the engine, then turned the engine off and looked around at me with a big grin on his face.

"This is a new car?" I asked.

"Yes" he replied, still grinning widely, and he started the engine again.

We left Naitolia Hills a different way to which we arrived, travelling through some farm areas and some parts of the land that had been cleared for farming or building. We were giving one of the camp workers a lift to his village, and although we weren't driving slowly it still took us an hour to get back to a sealed road. A short time later - around 10am - and we were at Tarangire National Park.

There were lots of people here today so it took a while for Bernard to pay for the permits, over half an hour. But I didn't mind; somewhere I had read that in a couple of hours 100 different bird species could be seen just at this entrance gate/Visitor's Centre area alone, so I was happy to wander around with the other 70 or so people who were also waiting here.

I didn't see 100 birds there, only about a dozen species that weren't put off by the masses of people and the screaming children running around: Grey-headed Sparrows, Firefinches, Buffalo Weavers, Helmeted Shrikes, Ring-neck Doves, Northern Red-billed Hornbill, Cordon-Bleus and a Lifer for me - Cut-throat Finch. The finches were easy to find as there's a large concrete waterbowl set in the ground which attracted them. And in the carpark there was a magnificent baobab that I discovered had a Pearl-spotted Owlet perched in the entrance to a hollow. There were also a few Vervets hanging around too. I had hoped I might see some Orange-bellied Parrots that weren't too timid as I hadn't got even a half-decent photo of one, but no such luck. After Bernard rejoined me we drove into the park and by the time we left I had seen 76 species of birds, which was the best day I had for birds on the whole safari (for reference Lake Manyara NP gave me 44 bird species, Ngorongoro Crater was 40, two days at Spekes Bay yielded 67, and Serengeti was 73 species over three days).




Tarangire is a far drier and more arid park than the others I had visited. The grass was all tinderbox dry and the trees were more spaced out into an open woodland type environment, although the park did encompass a number of habitats. Through the park flows the Tarangire River, although it had stopped flowing and was drying up. Bernard knew his way around the park which was good as he took me to the best spots.



Birds were quite easy to spot and were the first things we saw - Coqui Francolins, Yellow-throated Spurfowl, Cordons, Shrikes, Ostriches, Masked Lovebirds, Ashy Starlings and a pair of Chestnut Finches (Lifers). The first mammals I saw was a herd of Zebras followed by a couple of Elephants. Tarangire is famous for both it’s baobabs and its large numbers of elephants and I think I saw more elephants that day than all the other days of the safari combined. My notes indicate I saw around 100 elephants in the park.




The park is not flat - it has hills and plateaus, and one of these plateaus overlooked part of the Tarangire River that still had water. The view was like something out of a documentary: there were hundreds of Wildebeest either at the river or nearby, large numbers of Zebras, small groups of Impala and Waterbuck, a family of Elephants and a single Giraffe. In the shallow water or on the mud were Blacksmith Plovers, Hamerkops and African Wattled Starlings.





Driving down to a bend of the river after seeing a number of vultures on the ground we found a dead elephant that was being eaten by the birds - mostly White-backed and Ruppell's Griffon Vultures but also two Lappet-faced, one Hooded, and eight Marabou Storks.



Moving back inland we came upon a pair if Impala in the shade of some trees, with some Red-billed Oxpeckers that were very persistent. We sat there for about five minutes watching the birds as they were determined to climb into the antelopes ears, which kept flicking whenever they were touched.

After some more driving and seeing more Zebra (rolling in the dust), more Elephants, Ellipsen Waterbuck (which Bernard referred to as 'Toilet Seats'), some Lions, a band of Banded Mongooses and a couple of Dik-diks, we ended up at a little waterhole that Bernard knew about. There was not much there apart from a pair of Reedbucks, but on the ground near the water's edge we saw an African Fish Eagle that seemed to be upset about something. Our view was partially obscured by the tops of some reeds but we soon realised there was a large, dead fish on the ground just in front of it. And a Nile Monitor, only half out of the water, was feeding on it. Obviously the eagle had caught the fish, landed on the bank to feed and the monitor surprised it and helped itself. And as we watched the eagle gave up and flew away.






It was about 2pm so Bernard took me to a picnic spot that wasn't much more than a cleared area with a couple of picnic benches - no shade, and nowhere near as pleasant as the picnic area at Manyara. However, we did see Northern Pied Babblers (another Lifer) in the picnic area looking for scraps, and Red-necked Spurfowl which came out of the undergrowth when nobody was around.



After lunch we headed to Silale Swamp, a large area of swamp on the eastern side of the park. The swamp was mostly dried out (although it was still covered in dry yellow grass), the water contracting back to the river that feeds the swamp. The river runs aong one edge of the swamp and, luckily, one of the park's roads runs alongside the river, albeit 50-100 metres back from the river and slightly elevated. So we drove along this road for several kilometres and saw lots of waterbirds on or alongside the river, including Egyptian Geese, Comb Ducks, White-faced Whistle-ducks, Openbill Storks, Spurwinged Geese, Red-billed Duck and Hottentot Teal, Black-headed Herons and Cattle Egrets, three species of Ibis (Glossy, Sacred and Hadada), Blackwinged Stilts and Pied Avocets, Long-toed Lapwings, Blacksmith Plovers and Collared Pratincoles. Most of them were in numbers too great to count. At one point dozens of the birds took to the air in a great panic: a Fishing Eagle was flying low over the river and had spooked them. Once it had passed all the birds settled down again.






It wasn’t just the birds that were here in great numbers; you could see mammals coming across the dry swamp to drink from the river. In particular, there was quite a number of Elephants coming from all directions, sometimes families, sometimes single animals. There were also family groups of Zebras, Wildebeest and some Warthogs.

Near the road we also saw some more Red-billed Hornbills, Black-faced Sandgrouse, a Nile Monitor, and a male Namaqua Dove. The dove was right next to the car on some elevated ground so it wasn't quite level with the car window, but close. I had my camera pointed out the window and was quietly talking away to it. The bird wasn't looking the right way so I just mumbled, more to myself than anything "turn your head to the left, please" and the bird did exactly that. "That's good" I said and took a few photos. "Ok, now turn your head to the right, please, look over your shoulder behind you" I mumbled again, and after a second the dove looked around over its shoulder. I took some more photos. Bernard had seen and heard all this and was amazed, and started telling people I could talk to the birds and they would do what I asked.



By this stage it was about time to go so we drove out from the park and headed for our next destination - Boundary Hill Lodge. This facility was better-known than the other Eastco camps, built on top of a hill (Boundary Hill) with the rooms constructed on the hill's edges with sweeping views of the plains below.

Again, I was the only guest even though they have around a dozen self-contained cottages. And the view from my room was spectacular. From the balcony I could see Hyrax on the rocks and in trees just below, and on the plains below I could see Elephant, Zebra and Klipspringer. Also on the balcony was a bath. A bit incongruous and out of place, but I thought if you were going to have a bath somewhere in Africa, having a great view would be a necessity and this was the ideal place. All the cottages were isolated from each other so the balconies were very private, except from the hyraxes and the birds.





It was late in the day so after settling in I made my way through the rocks to the dining room where Bernard joined me for dinner. The dining room - which is mostly outdoors - also has excellent views over the plains below. When we had finished it was dark and I was escorted back to my room where I uploaded my photos to my laptop and started going through them, before settling into the four-poster bed and calling it a night.






Hix
New Birds: Brown Snake-eagle, African Hawk-eagle, Collared Pratincole, African Cuckoo, Northern Pied Babbler, Chestnut Sparrow, Cut-throat Finch

New Mammals: Southern Tree Hyrax

 

My apologies for the quality of the video linked after the first paragraph. The original is high quality, but when uploaded to Facebook it degraded severely and now looks like crap. Not sure how to get around that, so I won't be wasting anymore time with videos.

 

Day 26 / 11th October

Today was always going to be a long day, but it was also a very full day, and turned out to be not quite as hectic as I thought. (This is also a long post - if you're sitting on a hard surface I suggest you get a cushion. If you've had a long day, get a pillow, just in case. And if you're only interested in animals and not the people, locations and other things I write about, stop reading when we leave MBT).

It started with a very bright sunrise - the sun woke me by shining straight in through the glass doors and onto me in bed. Looking out through the doors I could see some of the local Rock Hyraxes on the balcony, and other in the neighbouring trees feeding on the leaves. But they all scooted as soon as I went onto the balcony. And just so I could say I'd done it, I filled the bathtub on the balcony with hot water and had a quick bath.



After packing I went out to breakfast and saw some Orange-bellied Parrots feeding in a tree right outside my door. The tree wasn't too large, and foliage wasn't dense so I could see them quite well. I crept back inside and grabbed my camera and finally managed to get some shots that were half-decent. Continuing on to the dining room with my camera I surprised a Klipspringer in the bushes and photographed a pair of Coqui Francolins, but saw nothing else.





From the Dining Room I saw a number of zebras and elephants on the plains below, and during breakfast Bernard pointed out to me a White-headed Barbet and Greater Blue-eared Starling in some trees nearby (and both Lifers). Then after returning to my room I grabbed my gear and headed for the carpark.




Bernard had another surprise waiting for me in the carpark. The ancient Landcruiser we had arrived in yesterday was gone and another vehicle Eastco had supplied was in the carpark instead; it had arrived while we were having breakfast and Bernard said we would be travelling in this vehicle for the next few days - a fairly recent model Range Rover. I wasn't going to argue!

We left about 10:00am and drove for a while towards the nearest sealed road. As we arrived we found there was a jerry-rigged boom gate across the dirt road we were on about 20 metres from the bitumen road, and a couple of guys in army fatigues sitting on stools nearby in the feeble shade of a tree. This boomgate was new and Bernard spoke to the guys in Swahili. Apparently someone else was intending to make a buck by changing motorists who wanted to use this road, and he'd hired these guys to collect the toll. They weren't, and never were, in the military, they were just wearing the uniform to look more official, but you could tell their hearts weren't really in it. The toll was about 20,000 TZ shillings.

Bernard had been chatting to them for a few minutes before paying the toll, as is customary in the country, and during this time he learnt they had been there for the past three hours, with just a stool each and a bumbag for cash (I believe in America it's known as a 'fanny pack'). Although they weren't really motivated in their job, they were happy to chat and had big grins on their faces while they spoke.

Then Bernard stopped mid-sentence, paused while he glanced over towards their stools, then in a more serious tone he asked in English "Do you have any water?". They answered "Hakuna - No, we weren't given any."

Bernard looked at me and opened his mouth to give me instructions, but I was way ahead of him. All safari vehicles have lots of bottled water on board, to prevent dehydration and just in case of a breakdown in the middle of a national Park. We had pack of about two dozen 600ml bottles of water in the car. I handed them a couple of bottles each and they were very, very happy, because it was an extremely hot day and the sun seemed particularly fierce.

"Asante! Asante!" they said, very happy and suddenly very animated, both of them immediately drinking half a bottle each. They were not going to be relieved for another few hours so we gave them another bottle each. And then they opened the boom and waved us through, and told us not to worry about the toll. We both thanked them and as we drove off Bernard was fuming. He was concerned the person who installed the boom was only interested in making money and had no concern whatsoever for the staff he had employed. He was also a pissed that we weren't the first vehicle through the gate that day but we were the first who had offered them water. He calmed down a bit when I pointed out that it had taken a couple of minutes for him to realise they had no water, so he could hardly blame the other drivers if they weren't quite as observant.

We headed north towards Arusha but reached our first destination before reaching the township, at a little after midday.

Meserani Snake Park is a small facility covering an area not much more than an acre in size (by my estimation). Attached to it, but for a separate fee, is a Maasai Cultural Museum, Ladies Craft Market, and African Art display. We were pressed for time so I only paid for the Snake Park although they tried to press me into visiting the Cultural Museum too. The price of admission for me was USD$15, and they let Bernard in for free because he was only going to wait for me in the bar (yes, this place had a bar!). My admission also included a guide named Rashi.

The park was what I was expecting - along one wall of the park was a building displaying a series of glass tanks of various sizes used to house mostly snakes. The rest of the park consisted of open-top pits housing lizards, crocodilians, turtles and tortoises, and some of the smaller snakes that couldn't climb out the smooth walls. There were also some cages towards the back housing some birds that were being rehabbed, and a Yellow Baboon - the only Yellow Baboon I saw in Africa.





Rashi was not a reptile expert, but seemed to know what he was talking about. And when I asked a question for which he didn't know the answer, he would tell me. Elsewhere in Africa, I've found, people will make up answers if they don't know, so this was a pleasant change. We stayed in the Park for only 45 minutes but that was long enough to see everything, despite having to backtrack a couple of times to avoid the school group of around 50 kids who were visiting the park at the same time. They were in their mid-teens, so the boys were boisterous and girls were squealy. I photographed many of the snakes on display, along with labels to try and remember what they were, and tried to familiarise myself with the nasties I was likely to encounter - Green Mamba, Black Mamba, Red and Mossambique Spitting Cobras etc. The Usambara Horned Viper was fairly easy though!





Towards the end of the tour Bernard joined us, around the time Rashi pulled out a Rufous Beaked Snake for me to handle (a non-venomous species). Rashi also showed me a wild Barn Owl perched in the top of a tree in the middle of the park. So, after tipping Rashi and grabbing a Coke from the bar, we went back to the carpark and we drove into Arusha.




I was very low on cash at this point - all that tipping had drained my funds - so we found an ATM and I was able to fill my wallet again. We got petrol and some more soft drinks for me, and then made our way to Kigongoni Lodge. To do this we had to cross through Arusha which proved slow going as there was lots of traffic on the roads and a fair bit of congestion.

We finally reached Kigongoni at around 2pm. We had to stop there to pick up the rest of my luggage, having left it there when I flew to Mwanza. And because we hadn't eaten since breakfast I talked Bernard into staying for lunch - my treat (now that I had funds).

 

Apparently there is a limit of 20,000 characters per post, so I've had to split this day into two separate posts.

Day 26 part 2
Our next destination was Tanzania's other Snake Park (as far as I know they have only the two). Luckily it wasn't too far away, and was fairly close to our final destination near Arusha National Park and Mount Meru.

The MBT's Snake Park is not widely advertised and is a little hard to find if you don't know where you're going (Meserani, in contrast, is on a main road into Arusha and has some signage advertising it). And it's only a shadow of its former self, as a result. It covers a similar area to Meserani, perhaps larger, but has far fewer enclosures. The staff don't seem all that motivated either, although they were helpful. It cost me US$3 to enter and Bernard was free. Our guide's name was Maria, and she took us around to all the enclosures, and told us about each species in pretty much the same way as Rashi had. For example: "This is a xxxxx snake, it is found xxx and xxx provinces and grows to xxxx feet long. It feeds on xxx, xxx and xxx. It is non-venomous/venomous/extremely venomous/the deadliest snake on Earth." Then we move onto the next exhibit and she does the same spiel, just changing the details as appropriate. If I asked a question and she didn't know the answer, she simply repeated what she had just said (which was pretty much all she knew about them anyway). At least she didn't make things up.

As I said, far less exhibits. In the centre of the Park was a long rectangular concrete building with glass tanks on either side and a central corridor for staff to access the backs of the tanks. At one end of the building were two open-top pits with a pool for turtles. A row of wood-and-mesh enclosures on stilts all held chameleons at one time, but now only three or four do, the rest being empty. There were a few enclosures for crocodilians, and a few low-walled but largish enclosures for tortoises. I wasn't given a snake to hold, but they did pull a Leopard Tortoise out of the bushes in its enclosure for us to look at.










MBT, being in the foothills of Mt Meru (or close to the foothills) gets significantly more rain than Meserani (which is very dry), and so everything was green, lots of grassy lawns. We spent all of 20 minutes in the park, and saw everything, including the empty enclosures and tanks.

And I should point out the Name - MBT - stands for 'Mounted Birds and Trophies', because this place started out as a taxidermy business for the hunters that flocked here 50+ years ago from Europe and America. The snake park started as an addition and when attitudes and laws changed and the taxidermy side of things eventually dried up the snake park was the only thing remaining.

I should talk a little about the quality of the two parks themselves, from a ZooChatter's perspective. In short, these are not government funded institutions, they rely on admissions and donations to keep going. So, compared to a small, privately-owned wildlife or animal welfare facility in the Western world they are typical of what you might expect. The tanks and enclosures are of a reasonable size, they are reasonably clean, although the glass fronts could use some more cleaning after 50 school kids have gone past with their sweaty palms and ice-creams. The tanks could probably all use some more cage furniture, but that's not a major issue. The open-top enclosures were fairly well vegetated with appropriate vegetation. All animals had access to fresh water.

The animals themselves were in mostly good to very good condition. The exceptions were a few snakes that looked like they were going through bad sheds, and a Green Mamba at Meserani with a small injury on its lower jaw. MBT had a Black Mamba coming up to a shed, but also had sand in its mouth, possibly with canker. But as it's a Black Mamba, I can't blame them for waiting for a vet.

Overall, I was reasonably happy with both places. I should also point out that both facilities do call outs to collect snakes from homes and gardens.

It was about a 4:45 in the afternoon when we left MBT but our next stop was only ten minutes away next to Arusha National Park, between the park and Mt Meru. To get there, we actually had to drive through a narrow section of the park, so just at 5pm we arrived at the gate and Bernard went and organised our permits. The gate then notified the other gate - which was about ten minutes drive away - that we were coming. And while driving through the park we passed a field with Bushbuck, Zebra and Warthog, and an African Stonechat.



We passed through the other gate and about 50 metres form the gate we turned onto a driveway, and at the end of the 200 metre driveway was our accommodation - Hatari Lodge.

In the early 1960's John Wayne appeared in a movie called "Hatari!" about a group of animal catchers who supply zoos. The film also starred red Buttons, Hardy Kruger and Elsa Martinelli. It was filmed in Tanzania at a number of locations but the three main sites were the Serengeti for the rhino sequences, and two farmhouses for the homestead - one provided the interiors and the other for the exteriors and animal holding pens. The interiors were shot on a farm that is now within the National Park, and is where the cast stayed while filming. At some point afterwards it stopped being a farm and became a hotel, and is currently known as Momella Wildlife Lodge.

Hardy Kruger had grown up on a farm and it was his boyhood dream to own a farm, anywhere. In between filming he was on the lookout for farms and once filming had finished he bought the farm used for exteriors just outside the park boundary. He upgraded the farm and holidayed there periodically until selling it in the 70's. It then became disused and was abandoned until being sold again in the 1990's and turned into a hotel, but didn't do all that well. In 2004 it was bought by a German couple who revamped it and named it Hatari Lodge after the movie.

(Note: there are many conflicting reports about what happened where and when; my information came from a number of sources including staff at the lodge itself).

It is considered a luxury lodge and I can't disagree with that. The rooms were spacious and well-appointed, although some of the decor left me a little indifferent. There is a main building which houses the bar, restaurant, and some reading and recreational rooms, and lodge plus Hatari memorabilia, as well as a balcony outside that looks over a large grassed area that buffalo, elephants and giraffes are known to frequent. There's even a boardwalk into the grasslands with chairs around a firepit at the end. The rooms are large cottages housing two separate accommodations. These cottages are at one end of a large lawn planted with native trees and also a vegetable garden - the restaurant grows its own food - and everywhere has great views of the nearby Mt Meru. I was told after dark I would need an escort to and from my room because buffalo wander through the gardens, but all I ever saw in the gardens were vervets, birds and a warthog.







We arrived and went to the main building, on the balcony, where I was given a welcome drink. Normally this is apple juice or orange juice (from a carton) but this juice was one of the best things I had ever tasted. I asked what it was. "Rhubarb and mint" was the reply. I bet that didn't come out of a carton! I had a second glass as it was so delicious.

I was enjoying my third glass, and also enjoying the view, when someone behind me said "Bitter?" I turned around, ready to defend the ambrosia I was revelling in, and saw a small plumpish man who immediately started speaking to me in German, in that rapid way they do. And I realised he was actually saying "Bitte" to me, not 'bitter'.

He stopped his gabbling with an upward inflection, suggesting I had just been questioned, so I took the opportunity to use the one piece of German I remembered from high school, close to 40 years ago.

"Spracken ze deutsche?" I asked, and then realised I already knew the answer and needed to change the question.

"I mean, Spracken ze english?".

The look of frustration at having to dealing with an ******** that had appeared on his face when I asked my first question was replaced by a more relaxed countenance, but stern - like someone trying to look serious when they want to laugh - and then he smiled when he understood the situation.

"Yes, of course ..." he said, then smiled "Aah! You are the Australian? Yes. I am Ralphy, your host". And he proceeded to explain how the lodge functioned.

Apparently, a very large part of the clientele is German, and at the time I was the only non-German at the lodge (there was a quartet of Austrians too, but you know what I mean). I was told dinner would be served at 7:30pm but I should be in the main building to meet everyone and have a drink at 7pm. This was a bit different. Actually, it was very different. I also needed to be well-dressed. Not formal; jeans were acceptable but no t-shirts, shorts or sandals/flipflops. He confirmed with me there was just one in my party for dinner and I mentioned Bernard, to which he replied that guides eat elsewhere and Bernard would not be joining us and suggested I make arrangements now with him for picking me up tomorrow morning.

Bernard did join us for dinner. The next day he told me Ralphy had taken him aside and made it perfectly clear that he was not welcome at dinner. An hour later he contacted Bernard and said he had reconsidered and he could join us if he was well-dressed.

Back in my room I considered the furnishings - actually, just one of them: the "Ethic Trophies" as they have been named. I decided that they were ugly and wouldn't want one in my home. But as pieces of art I couldn't really call them ugly as art is subjective, and these were just 'not to my liking'.

So, as most of you would know or have seen, it has been customary for years for establishments in Africa to hang the mounted head of some fierce or dangerous animal (or one with impressive horns) on walls above fireplaces etc. The owners who purchased the property in 2004 are more conservation oriented and didn't like that idea, but wanted to preserve the tradition, or part of it (apparently Germans are big on tradition). One of them was an artist of sorts and she created these works of art - leather animal heads. The leather (presumably cowhide) is very thin; pieces are sewn together over a wire framework to resemble an elephant or a lion or antelope, then mounted on a wall with a light inside them. This way you still have the tradition of a mounted animal head, but the animal doesn't have to die (unless you're a cow).

The rest of the decor was - different. They call it Modern Retro - "the style of the 50's, 60's and 70's" combined with Tanzania's natural materials. To give them credit, they use Tanzanian artisans to manufacture a number of goods they use like carpets, bedding and wooden furniture. Despite being very different, I quite liked the decor. Except the Ethic Trophies.

These photos show the Modern Retro décor, and the second one has an example of an Ethic Trophy on the wall on the right.



I arrived for dinner at just after 7pm, well dressed as expected, and found everyone else already there. I went to the bar and ordered a Rhubarb and Mint, and was told that was only available "on arrival" and offered me a Steinlager, but I explained that I don't drink and had a Coke instead.

Dinner was at a dining table. One dining table. It was enormous, and had to be, because it was sitting 18 people, although I was told they can seat up to 24. After dinner I discovered it wasn't one big table but several smaller tables bumped together with a very large table cloth thrown over the top.

Bernard was there and told me Ralphy had changed his mind. Maybe my presence meant seventeen people and they preferred even numbers. I don't know. When we sat down, he was opposite me.

Ralphy sat at the head of table and acted as host. At the other end of the table was Angie, one of the office staff and co-host. Normally the Gabriels would host (those who bought the property) but they holidaying in Germany). Once it was discovered I was from Australia I became very popular with the people seated near me who spoke English, who asked me all sorts of questions and then translated for the others. They were particularly impressed by my climbing of Kilimanjaro. Bernard was also questioned about life in Tanzania, guiding, and wildlife. I learnt that there were three groups here - the Austrians, a German Couple, and the rest were here for a wedding, the bride and groom (at the table) tying the knot next to the fire-pit on the boardwalk the following day. Hopefully with wild animals in the background. Preferably something bigger than a dikdik.

The chef appeared and Ralphy asked the chef in a loud voice "What's our first course?" to which the chef announced what soup we would be having. After the soup was cleared away the chef re-appeared and the we were told what the next course would be. The same for the third course. I could see this as being some kind of European-based tradition, but it was completely foreign to Bernard who was still laughing about the whole pomp and circumstance of it several days later.

I don't remember what I ate but I noted in my journal that the food was really excellent. After dinner Ralphy put on a DVD in the Recreation Room which had a projector screen. The movie was - not surprisingly - Hatari! and most of the guests stayed to watch it. I didn't stay as I've seen it a number of times (I've own it on DVD) and they were playing the German language version, so I went back to my room. Bernard watched it for a short time - I don't think he's ever seen it - but he too left shortly afterward. I think he felt out-of-place.

New Birds: White-headed Barbet, Greater Blue-eared Starling, African Stonechat



Hix

 

Day 27 / 12th October

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a leather Elephant head mounted on the wall. I wasn't sure if this was a bad omen for the day, but it turns out the day was fine. After a good breakfast Bernard and I drove into Arusha National Park.

Towering over the park (and both Hatari and Momella Lodges) is Mt Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania and the fifth highest in Africa at 4566 metres. We saw some climbers starting their hike to the top - a three day climb - which some consider more hazardous than Kilimanjaro because at one point you have to walk up a narrow ridge. It's also a shorter distance - 14 kilometres to the top as opposed to 40 to summit of Kilimanjaro. Meru is often used as a precursor to Kili for hikers to acclimatise to the altitude. Some thousands of years ago Meru exploded in a volcanic eruption and blew the eastern wall of the cone apart, the result being a horseshoe shaped mountain today with sheer cliffs 1500 metres in height. And Meru, in conjunction with Kilimanjaro, creates rain in this area so the slopes and foothills are covered in dense, lush, forests and grasslands.



Driving into the park the first things we saw were Crested Francolins and Speckled Mousebirds, and driving up to a little lookout we found a number of White-fronted Bee-eaters (lifer). There were also a number of Giraffe near Momella Wildlife Lodge. Continuing on it wasn't long before we reached the Momella Lakes.



There are two main lakes named Big Momella Lake and Little Momella Lake, with five smaller satellite lakes nearby, and all are fed by underground streams. The lakes are alkaline, and one of the smaller lakes has probably the highest concentrations of fluoride anywhere in the world. There is a small body of non-alkaline freshwater near Small Momella Lake.





The lakes attract a wide variety of waterbirds and has large concentrations of Lesser Flamingos, and also some Greater Flamingos. Unlike Lake Natron which is a shallow lake, the Momella Lakes are deep - Big Momella has an average depth of 10 metres and Little Momella around 4 metres - so the flamingos are all clustered around the lake edges (the pink fringe on the shoreline in the photo above). However, I did see something I've never seen in wildlife documentaries - flamingos swimming. In the docos I've seen the flamingos have been either walking or flying, but here I saw some actually swimming across the lakes. They looked very swan like, but with thinner necks that come much closer to (or dip into) the water. I estimated there were around 3,000 flamingos around the shorelines, but that's a very rough guesstimate.






Also in the lakes were a variety of ducks, and one I particularly wanted to see was the Maccoa Duck and apparently the Momellas are a good place to see them. And within a short time I had seen several, from a bird watching hide on a little headland. I also saw a large number of Little Grebes, Hottentot Teal and another lifer, the Cape Teal.



And in the distance behind the lakes, in a shroud of clouds, was Kilimanjaro whose glaciers were briefly visible when the a gap in the clouds periodically appeared.



The terrain in Arusha National Park is rather hilly, and at one point we saw a group of fifteen giraffe on a hill with Mt Meru in the background - quite spectacular - and I even used the video function on my camera to shoot some moving images, something I rarely ever do.



So for three hours we drove around the Momella Lakes and environs before heading back to Hatari Lodge for lunch. In that time we saw 34 species of birds, four of which were lifers (the three mentioned above and the fourth being Hartlaubs Turaco, seen briefly in the forests). The only mammals we saw were the giraffes and some waterbuck.



Back at the Lodge while wandering through the grounds I saw Whiteheaded Barbets with a nest in a tree hollow, Red-winged Blackbirds, Chinspot Batis, Bronze Sunbirds in the flower garden and a pair of Rock Martins.




After lunch we drove further into the park to Ngurdoto Crater, about an hour's drive away. Ngurdoto was a small volcano in a past life, now only the caldera remains, around 3 kilometres in diameter with steep 100 metre high cliff walls. So steep that you can't drive or even walk down into the crater. Well, you can walk down into the crater but it's difficult and not permitted. However you can walk around the entire circumference of the rim. And there are some excellent viewing spots around the crater's rim. The crater floor is predominantly swamp and grassland, with forest at one end. The crater walls are also covered in forest, as is the terrain surrounding the crater.



Looking into the crater from the Mikindu Observation Point we could see a herd of buffalo, with calves, relaxing on a dry bit of ground near the swamp. Bernard told me a story about some poachers, only four or five years ago, who managed to climb down into the crater to hunt the buffalo. They went in at night, but were seen the following day by a number of tourists and guides, and so the local constabulary was waiting for them when they hiked out of the crater. It seems to me to have been a rather stupid thing to do. There are also hippo and elephant in the crater, but we couldn't see any although we spent quite a while looking.




As I mentioned, the forests surrounding the crater were also covered in rainforest and Black-backed Puffbacks, Chinspot Batis, Grey-backed Camaroptera and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater were all seen. Another bird was photographed but defied identification until later when we realised it was a female Black Cuckoo-shrike. However the main appeal of the forests was the primates.

The forests of Arusha National Park are home to a montane subspecies of the Common Guereza which is endemic to this area and, although we saw some Blue Monkeys too, this was the main primate I wanted to see here. Essentially, the main differences between this montane variety and the normal subspecies are that the white mantle fur is longer and the entire tail is white, whereas the normal has only the tip white. This subspecies, known colloquially as the Kilimanjaro Colobus, is named Colobus guereza caudatus, referring to the tail. We saw several dozen of these monkeys, including juveniles, and I spent a lot of time with my camera trying to catch them jumping from one tree to another, their white robes flowing, without a lot of success.





Eventually we returned to Hatari Lodge. On the drive in, right next to the carpark at the lodge, were three giraffes and three female German tourists quite close to them. By the time we had parked and I went back with my cameras the giraffes had wandered into the bush where I couldn't follow. However, I did see and photograph a warthog on the lawns of the lodge.



The wedding had happened in the afternoon and that party had left to go to another lodge closer to Kilimanjaro, so dinner was with only a few German ladies and a couple from Zurich, but it followed pretty much the same procedure as the previous night. After dinner I found the free wifi and spent a few hours on the computer before heading to bed around midnight.

New Birds: Cape Teal, Maccoa Duck, Hartlaubs Turaco, White-fronted Bee-eater, Black Cuckoo-shrike



Hix

 

Day 28 / 13th October

Our last morning in Arusha National Park was uneventful. Another excellent breakfast and then I went for a wander around the grounds but didn't see much except a Bronze Sunbird, a pair of Hadada Ibis, some Sacred Ibis and a Black-headed Heron.

It was rather overcast when we left around 10:00am, and on our way to the gate we passed a road called the Mbega Loop. We hadn't driven along this road the previous day as we were always heading away from Mt Meru, and the turnoff to head east (into the bulk of the park) was before this loop-road. So I suggested we give it a go as it was a loop road and would drop us back on the road we were on, just further along. And as it was close to the base of Mt Meru the vegetation was a lot denser and noticeably wetter and I hoped it would provide us with new wildlife.

The road took us about half an hour to negotiate before it dropped us back on the main road, but although no birds of note were seen - in fact very few birds were seen - we did see a Bush Duiker, deep in a tangle of undergrowth, and three Red Duikers. The Red Duikers were all at a distance and two of them bounded away quite quickly while the third stalked away towards the forest when it saw my camera. We also saw a couple of Blue Monkeys and three Guereza, but Red Duiker was a lifer for me and so made the detour worth the effort.




Back on the main road to the Gate and passing the field where we saw zebra, warthog and bushbuck when we arrived two days previously, I saw some small birds feeding in the long grasses near the side of the road. We stopped and watched. The tops of the grasses were moving but it was a little difficult to see the birds a little lower down in the tangle of grass stems. Eventually we realised they were Black-and-White Mannikins and a pair of Baglafecht Weavers.



At the gate, while Bernard was in the office, I bought a bottle of Stony (Ginger Beer) from a small shop, and then went to a public bathroom. Coming out of the bathroom I noticed a different species of weaver in some bushes, completely yellow with some orange around the neck, so I went back to the car and got my camera. Bernard was still in the office with the rangers. I got a few photos of the weavers, presumably one of the varieties of golden weavers, and noticed a Robin-Chat bouncing around on the path nearby. The White-browed Robin-Chat is probably the most commonly seen and widely distributed of the ten species of Robin-Chats in East Africa. Most of the species have a white eyebrow, and so other features are used to distinguish them from each other. This one looked different to the White-brows I had seen in Uganda and at Speke's Bay so I photographed it as well. A lady appeared and headed into the amenity so I made myself scarce - someone with a camera hanging around a Ladies Toilet is generally asking for trouble. The bigger your lens, the more your trouble - and my lens was 300mm!

After the lady had vacated the building I returned but the birds had gone. Bernard returned from the Ranger's office and so we got into the Range Rover and left. Later that night we looked at the photos and identified the birds as Taveta Golden Weaver and Cape Robin-Chat.




Our destination today was Mkomazi National Park in the east, behind the Pare Mountains and along the Kenyan border adjacent to Tsavo West National Park. It was only gazetted a few years ago as a National Park; prior to that it was a hunting reserve. As a result, the park has less game than other parks, and the game is still very timid of vehicles and people. It is also the driest of the Parks I visited on this trip, being extremely arid with little rainfall. And it's a very large National Park.

But I had one brief stop first. Leaving Arusha National Park we drove back to the main highway and stopped in at Rivertrees, a hotel set in spacious grounds with lawns and trees and a river running alongside. I would need a place to stay when we returned prior to my flight out of Tanzania and although I could have stayed at Kigongoni again, I was after a different habitat and Rivertrees provided that. So once I had booked a couple of rooms, and viewed their resident Verreaux's Eagle Owls we took off for Mkomazi.

It was a long drive, taking us about four hours on a relatively good sealed highway. Parts of it needed repairs, and other parts were being completely rebuilt. It was noticeably drier in this part of the country and also hotter - after Moshi the overcast skies opened up and although there were still some clouds about it was generally very sunny and hot.

In one small town - it might have been Mwanga - we had to stop so Bernard could get some money from a bank. While I was waiting in the Range Rover I noticed one of the local police - a rather largish woman - about 150 metres further down the road sitting on a chair under a tree, periodically stopping vehicles to chat to the drivers and collect a tip. As I understood it, this was meant to be a 'vehicle check' to make sure the vehicle was in good condition.

A car drove past me very slowly, and I use the word 'drove' because I'm not sure that's the correct terminology as the car had already fallen apart and just appeared to be rolling of it's own accord. All four wheels were wobbling badly, the back door (it was a hatchback) and rear bumpers were being held in place with a spiders web of octopus straps, it was missing windows and I think no windscreen, and black tape around the door frames to keep them from falling off. The car was travelling the same way our Range Rover was facing, so this elastic-and-tape monstrosity came up the road behind me and I didn't see it until it passed and then I could only see the left-hand side and rear of the vehicle, so I don't know if the front or right-hand side was in the same condition. It was travelling at about ten kilometres an hour, but slowed down almost to a complete halt when it went - very gently and very slowly - over a speed hump. If a potential buyer had kicked one of the tyres I think the seismic waves would have caused the whole thing to fall apart in heap, octopus straps flying through the air like ICBMs.

This vehicle approached the rotund police lady sitting in the shade who had been watching its progress since about the time I noticed it. And, like everyone else on the street, she was laughing uproariously at it. I thought she must stop them and either order them off the road or get a tip so large she could retire, but she just let the car roll past. Maybe she couldn't physically get out of the chair because she was laughing so much, but I think she missed out on a big payout.

And then I thought "I should take a photo and post it on Facebook", because it was one of those things that had to be seen to be believed, but by then it was too far away for a photo. I didn't think of my cameras sooner because I was so captivated by what I saw, and was transfixed waiting to see if the speedhump would cause a wheel to fall off, and what the police-lady was going to do. I could have walked after it and caught up to it in a few minutes, but that would mean leaving the car unguarded, and if Bernard returned he wouldn't know where I was. So I got my cameras ready for his return so I could take pics when we drove past it.

Alas, Bernard was another ten minutes as he had decided to buy a box of bottled water, and the car with DIY repairs must have turned off the main road somewhere as I didn't see it again.

As we approached Mkomazi we started to see fields of Sisal, that large spiky cactus-like plant used to make rope. In the dry environment here it seemed to thrive, and there were some quite extensive plantations.

Eventually we reached the town of Same (pronounced Saa-may), one of the gateways to Mkomazi. Originally I was booked to stay in the Elephant Hotel, so named for the large sculpture of an elephant head over the main entrance. But I wanted to stay in the park itself, so I never actually got to visit this iconic hotel, and we just drove past.

We arrived at Mkomazi National Park at about 4:30 and while Bernard was organising our permits I wandered around the carpark where I saw a pair of D'Arnaud's Barbets, female agamas and a dozen or so Vervets.



Mkomazi has a captive group of Black Rhinos and a captive group of Hunting Dogs (or Painted Dogs) in very large fenced-off areas in the middle of the park for breeding purposes, and I was keen to see them but Bernard said they were off-limits to everyone except the researchers. This was something I had already heard elsewhere, but it didn't hurt to ask. However, the rangers were adamant - no visitors. I could understand the increased security, especially for the rhinos. Still, it was a little disappointing.



We were staying within the park at Babu's Camp, the only accommodation within the actual park, and as the sun was getting low and the camp is about ten kilometres from the gate, we proceeded there with only a few delays for photographs. Birds we saw were lots of Yellow-necked Spurfowl, three Eastern Chanting Goshawks, a female and two juvenile White-bellied Bustards (lifer), Ringneck and Laughing Doves, White-bellied Go-away birds, a Hoopoe, Von der Deckens and Northern Red-billed Hornbills, Rollers, Shrikes, Drongos Superb Starlings and both species of Buffalo-Weavers. There were also about a dozen giraffes, a dozen Coke's Hartebeest, two Steenbok and a Waterbuck.







After an hour or so we reached Babu's Camp, consisting of a main Dining Room and five large tents in a row, each about twenty metres apart. Even though I was the only guest, for some reason I was put in the tent furthest from the Dining Room.

The tent was quite large and square, and out the back was bathroom made of natural timbers (and with no roof). Sitting in a tree behind the bathroom was a pair of Red-and-Yellow Barbets and a Cardinal Woodpecker. And on the way to dinner, in the waning light, I saw a couple of Lilac-breasted Rollers and three Yellow-necked Spurfowl.

Dinner was OK, I don't remember it, but I do remember walking all the way back to my tent along a path lined with small lanterns. At night there were lots of insects about and at around 9pm I found a small scorpion on the floor of the tent. After taking it outside and tossing it into the bushes well away from my tent, I went out back to use the toilet and found that it was inhabited by a number of Tree Geckos.

And after taking some photos of the geckos I decided to call it a night.

New Birds: Cape Robin Chat, Taveta Golden Weaver, White-belllied Bustard

New Mammals: Red Forest Duiker

New Reptiles: Tree Gecko



Hix

 

Day 29 / 14th October

It had been a hot night and I had awoken a few times, so I was glad when daylight arrived. It was a cloudy morning but still warm. I wandered to the Dining Room for breakfast at 7:00, passing a White-browed Coucal, Lilac-breasted Roller and Ringnecked Dove in the vegetation, and found they had a waterbowl for the smaller birds which was just being filled. So I went back to my room and got my camera. And during breakfast I photographed a number of species at the bowl, the most populous being the Crimson-rumped Waxbill, but there were also a lot of Ring-neck and Laughing Doves, Northern Grey-headed Sparrows and African Firefinches.

We set out a little after 8:00 into the northwest of the park towards the Kamakota Hills which are on the border with Kenya. In this arid park I was hoping to see Gerenuk, Fringe-eared Oryx and Vulturine Guineafowl. None of which we saw today.



Large parts of the park in this area were burnt out and charred and otherwise empty of mammals, so it was pleasant to see some giraffes, including a calf, in one of the intact scrub thickets. We also saw a few Coke's Hartebeest in some of the burnt out areas - very timid and bolting when the vehicle was still over a kilometre away. Birds, however, were not so uncommon. In fact we saw 52 species over the next five hours.





The sun broke through the clouds a little before 9:00am and later the clouds all but vanished leaving us with a hot and sunny day. One of our destinations was Dindira Dam which had a fair amount of water in it and was swampy at the western end. As you can guess, in an arid environment a large body of water attracts lots of birdlife and we saw 18 species there including White-faced Whistle Ducks, Comb Ducks, Red-billed Ducks, Egyptian Geese, Little Grebe, Woolly-necked Stork, Great Cormorant, Secretary Bird and Tawny Eagle. There was a point near the dam wall where you were permitted to exit the vehicle and wander on foot, and I saw over a hundred Red-billed Quelea in the trees and shrubs near the water's edge. There was a young Nile Crocodile in the water who showed some interest in me and my camera when I was photographing him, but then returned to stalking the Emerald-spotted Wood Doves that were very common on the shore.





Driving around to the other side of the dam the road took a wide circuitous route but it introduced us to a herd of about fifty Eland with calves, mixed with Zebras, and closer to the dam there was Waterbuck, Reedbuck, Warthogs and Dikdik.





We spent a lot of time at the dam, as it was large and there was lots to see, but eventually we left as it was getting very hot and it was nearing midday. So we started the long drive back to camp. We saw more birds including some Orange-bellied Parrots and three different species of hornbill - Northern Red-billed, Von der Deckens and African Grey. Raptors were also common with Augur Buzzards, Tawny Eagles, Bateleurs, Palmnut Vultures, Long-crested Eagles, Secretary Birds, Pygmy Falcons and Pearl-spotted Owlet all sighted. Very common throughout the park were White-browed Coucal and Yellow-necked Spurfowl. And a bonus was a quick glimpse of five Lesser Kudu that were very shy. A number of times we saw antelope in the distance that looked like they could be Gerenuk, but when our binoculars were on them they turned out to be only Impala.





Arrived back at camp just before 2:00pm, and after a wash we had lunch. Bernard I continued talking and before we knew it, it was after 4pm. So we decided not to go back out again (as it was still quite hot) and I lounged around in my tent for a few hours until dinner. Every so often I would hear birds in the trees or bush near my tent and would look outside (or out the back) and got to see a male Orange-bellied Parrot, a male Von der Deckens and Northern Red-billed Hornbill, and a couple of White-bellied Go-Away Birds (along with the usual Coucals and Lilac-Breasted Rollers).

It had been a long, hot day and tomorrow was going to be even longer, so I didn't stay up late and went to bed relatively early.

New Birds: Northern Brownbul, Parrot-billed Sparrow, Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Buff-crested Bustard, Black-crowned Tchagra, Fischer's Starling, White-winged Widowbird

New Mammals: Lesser Kudu



Hix