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

Interesting read. It seems the animals have become less shy already then, they now only bolt at 50 meters (the hartebeest at least). Funny that you did see so many impala, but also waterbuck and reedbuck. I saw none of the bucks and only 1 impala during my time there. Lesser kudu were common though too shy for pictures...

 

We didn't see that many Impala, and those we did see were generally distant, in the scrub. The bucks were around Dindira Dam, and were on the opposite side - only one Reedbuck but about 20 Waterbuck.



Hix

 

Day 30 / 15th October

So it was one month ago today (15th September) I arrived in Africa, and now I would be leaving in exactly one week. I was determined to make the most of what time I had left in Tanzania.

Another day with heavy cloud in the morning but the clouds were gone by 10:00 and it became very hot. We were leaving Mkomazi today and heading to Amani in the East Usambara Mountains for a few days before returning to Rivertrees outside Arusha, and then flying to Entebbe for a couple of days before my flight home.

The plan today was to do another drive in the park for a few hours before leaving, and we were planning on heading eastwards this time deeper into the park. I didn’t particularly want to turn around after a few hours and drive all the way back to Same, and then start driving eastwards again on the highway as I thought all the back-tracking would be wasted time. Better to drive all the way through the park to the Eastern Gate and then on to Tanga (thereby circling around the Usambaras), and then on to Amani up in the mountains. Over breakfast I conveyed this to Bernard who didn’t seem too sure about my plan but agreed anyway.



So we set off about 8:20 towards a dam that was marked on the map. Along the way we saw the usual birds, and a few mammals – Impala, quite a few Dik-dik, some Steenbok and a few Eland. But as we went past a tree a hornbill flew out that got me a little excited as it was an Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill. Although I had seen Yellow-bills in Zimbabwe back in 1985, they’ve since been split into two species, so this was another lifer for me.



After driving for about 30 minutes we arrived at Ngurunga Dam. The environment here was dense bush with large areas of exposed rock. The little river flowed through here over the rocks to a concrete wall constructed to restrict water flow and create a reservoir of water. As there are no villages for miles around (we were at least 50kms from the main gate) I can only assume this was for the wildlife. The water had a green algal scum growing on the surface but this didn’t seem to disturb the twenty or so Emerald-spotted Wood Doves that were drinking from the pools. In the trees surrounding the pool was a large number of Red-billed Queleas – at least a hundred – and I also saw a few Crimson-rumped Waxbills. On the rocks around the dam were some Red-headed Rock Agamas - males displaying and chasing each other - and a family of Bush Hyraxes.









After 20 minutes around the dam we set off northwards, towards the Kenyan border, for a second dam. This one wasn’t concrete but an earthen dam with a little bit of water in it, a pair of Blacksmith Plovers and three Red-billed Teal. The third dam on the map was also earthen, and was completely dry, but when we arrived Bernard didn’t think it was the dam we were headed for because a signpost had said 20 kilometres to the dam and we had only travelled 16 kilometres. So he kept going. After another ten kilometres I suggested we turn around. We had passed an airstrip (which was marked on the map, and was after the dam) but Bernard wanted to go just a little while longer. This was taking us further away from the gates and north towards Kenya. Eventually we stopped and turned around. But Bernard’s stubbornness actually was to my benefit, because as we returned around the end of the airstrip I saw, about 250 metres away (maybe more) in the middle of the strip, a gerenuk.



It stared at us, alert and ready to bound away, but as we did nothing untoward it calmed down and walked into the bush at the side of the runway. Luckily, the road continued on alongside the runway so we drove down that way to try and see the animal a bit more closely. But as we neared it got spooked and ran back to the other side of the airstrip, however it was still closer than our previous vantage point and I could get a better photo. And it turned out there were two females and a calf. I could only get a couple of photos, but they were better than none!



We headed back to the main East-West road, stopping only to photograph a few more birds and mammals – Martial Eagle, Grant’s Gazelle, more Dik-dik, more Lesser Kudu, a pair of Dwarf Mongoose and a lone Giraffe.




We eventually arrived at the gate around midday, sooner than I expected, and exited the park. I thought it would only be a couple of hours from there to Amani, but Bernard said it would be much longer. And he was right – after two hours we were back at Same.

I pulled out the map and looked at it with Bernard. The Gate we had exited through was only a quarter the legth of the park, and nowhere near Tanga. The only road from that gate led back to Same. It appears that during my discussion with Bernard over breakfast – when I didn’t have the map to show him what I wanted to do – I hadn’t mentioned Tanga at all. But I thought when I said “drive through the park to the gate at the end” he would have understood what I meant. Apparently not. But in hindsight, it was my fault as I hadn’t been clear. So we had wasted either two hours or six hours, depending on how you look at it.

The drive down the highway was uneventful, but took a few hours. When we turned off the highway to head up into the mountains to Amani the road was not only dirt but winding as well, and the higher up we got, the more muddy it became. And apparently buses do this trip frequently and, just as frequently, get bogged. After about an hour on this road it got dark, which meant we had to drive even more slowly. And after driving in the dark for around 45 minutes to an hour we eventually arrived in the little township of Amani.

The Usambaras attract rain and Amani sits at around 1000 metres elevation in a rainforest. It’s hilly country with steep walks up and down hillsides, tall trees and lush vegetation. But we couldn’t really see any of that because it was dark.

We were taken to the guesthouse and I was given a very basic room with three sets of bunkbeds, and a large ensuite as large as the main room itself. Bernard was in a similar room down the hall. We dropped off our gear and made our way back to one of the nearby buildings that was a very basic restaurant. It was about to close but they stayed open for us. There was only one dish – chicken and rice (and there might have been a baked potato too). We ate quickly, I bought an extra couple of bottles of soft drink, and we returned to our accommodation.

In my room I tried to charge my laptop but found that the only power outlet in the room didn’t work. And there was no hot water either. But these were minor issues I could live with for a day or two, and there was an outlet in the hall that I could use to charge my laptop. And I was sharing my room with a couple of Tree Geckos.

So after a long, hot day, it didn’t take long for me drop off into the land of nod.



Hix

New Birds: Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill

Babu's Camp: -4.026367, 37.877095
4º 01' 34.9" S 37º 52' 37.5" E

Ngurunga Dam: -4.024510, 37.912615
4º 01' 28.2" S 37º 54' 45.4" E

Amani Guesthouse: -5.099701, 38.631615
5º 05' 58.9" S 38º 37' 53.8" E

 

I am curious what your thoughts and experiences were in my "Tanzanian home", I stayed in your place for over 10 weeks the past 1.5 years .

I was told that the most eastern gate in Mkomazi is only open on demand, so maybe you were lucky to not have gone there, as if you would find it closed, you would have to drive back for hours to reach Same .

It is a shame it was dark when you started your ascent to Amani, as the 20 km or so before you reach the guest house are one of the most beautiful drives in Tanzania imo (and a lot of fun to self drive nowadays).

 

When we were looking at the map Bernard had said the gate was closed, but as I had not been clear about what I wanted I thought he was just saying that to make me feel a bit better.

And which is it you refer to as your 'Tanzanian Home' - Babu's Camp or the Amani guesthouse?



Hix

 

Amani off course I can't imagine my boss paying for 10 weeks in Babu camp

 

Day 31 / 16th October

The sun seemed to come up early today, possibly for a number of reasons: our proximity to the coast, our altitude, and the fact that for the first time in many days there were clear skies and no clouds anywhere. And it stayed like that all day. After an early breakfast we met our bird guide, Zola, and he took us on a bird walk from about 08:30 to 12:30. As this was truly a montane rainforest, I knew I would be getting species I hadn’t got elsewhere in Tanzania. However, while waiting for Zola, the first bird I saw was actually an African Paradise Flycatcher, which I had already seen on my first day in Tanzania, and I could hear Common Bulbuls which I had seen pretty much everywhere else I had been in the country.

In the light I could now see how spectacularly beautiful this place was. Amani is on a ridge, and most of the roads follow the ridges or are cut into the sides of the mountains. Within and around the village are some enormous trees, and apart from a few homes the mountains were covered in a rainforest.

Zola arrived and took us along some roads in and around the village. He had good eyes and pointed out many of the smaller birds, and he recognised many of their calls too (which is always good in a bird guide). He was particularly good with the small birds in the tops of tall trees, and many of my photos are of small birds in the centre of a the picture and hard to recognise. Birds like Moustached Green Tinkerbird, White-eared Barbet, Green Barbet, Little Greenbul and Dusky Brown Flycatcher. And the place was a haven for Sunbirds – we saw five species including the endemic Amani Sunbird, and a Collared Sunbird on a nest. Another nest was being built on a steel cable by a pair of Forest Weavers (aka Dark-backed Weavers). Waller's Starlings, a larger black bird with red wing panels, were fairly common too. Mammals we saw were some Blue Monkeys, a pair of Squirrels which I later identified as Red-legged Sun Squirrels, and a dozen Angolan Colobus. This is a different species to the other colobus I’d seen, the Guereza. They were a tad more slender, and seemed to be much shyer; in the darkness of the forest and despite my best efforts I only ended up with a few good photos.








The path took us along a road a couple of kilometres towards another village. Along the way, on some hillsides the native vegetation had been cut back and some small trees/large shrubs about three metres or four metres tall were growing. When we got to a small pond and stopped to look at some Black-and-White Mannikins – a species I’d seen before, but this was the red-backed subspecies – I asked about the trees as there was quite a number of them.

“Those are a spice tree” said Zola “We produce spices here.”

“And what spice do you get from that tree?” I asked

“Cloves” he replied. I was dumbfounded. Because are such small things I always assumed they came from a small bush or a vine or ground cover, not such a large shrub.

Zola pointed to a tree about two metres from where I was standing and asked “Do you know what that is?”

I admitted I didn’t have a clue, although when he suggested I crush a leaf between my fingers I realised it was Cinnamon. And beside it, was an Avocado. Then Zola pointed at a small plant less than a metre high growing near the pond, and asked me what it was.

“Looks like ginger” I said, with a bit more confidence, and I was right – it looks like ginger, but it was actually cardamom.

Clove Trees​

Cinnamon​

Cardamom​

We still had to walk up a hill to the village, which was where Zola lived and that’s when we started seeing the Silvery-cheeked Hornbills. I’d seen them before – in Manyara National Park – but they were still spectacular. More importantly, they are similar in appearance to the Trumpeter Hornbill, and so I viewed each one carefully, but with no success.



Around a corner in near some banana trees I found a Yellow-bellied Waxbill, and a couple of other sparrow-like birds I couldn’t identify. I knew I’d seen them in my book, they weren’t a finch, or a sparrow or weaver, but I couldn’t put a name to them. Both Zola and Bernard didn’t know what it was, as it was drab and with no really distinguishing characteristics.



Zola ducked off for a few minutes and left us watching some Palmnut Vultures soaring up high before returning with a man in his 40’s whom he introduced as Martin, the government ornithologist. I’d been asking Zola questions that he couldn’t answer, as he’d only been a guide for the last six months. Martin had been training him, so he figured Martin was the best person to answer my questions. Bernard, however, was absolutely beside himself.

Apparently, Bernard and Martin were good friends at one time before Martin went to work for the government and had been moved around the country. Bernard didn’t know Martin was here and they were both very, very happy to see each other as it had been at least ten years since they had last spoken. More importantly, Martin was the one who originally trained Bernard in birdwatching.

Zola suggested I show Martin the photos I had taken of the sparrow-like bird and so I showed him an image on the camera. He took one look and said “Citril”. And I thought “Of course!”



Martin and I spoke for about ten minutes before he had to go back to work; he was compiling a report on the endangered birds found in the Usambaras. “That would include”, I suggested, “the Long-billed Tailorbird?”

“ Yes”, he replied. “Their status is critical.”

Martin left us and we turned and walked back along the road to Amani. It was almost midday now and the sun was very hot, but it quite pleasant in the shade. Luckily, there was plenty of tall trees to provide lots of shade.

Road through the rainforest; Bernard on the left, Zola on the right​

Road through the rainforest; Zola in front​

Arriving back at 12:30 we had lunch, then spent the afternoon lazing around Amani, or going for the odd walk, but the birds were all very quiet (apart from the bulbuls).

After dinner Zola met us again for something I was looking forward to – a Chameleon Walk. There are at least ten species of chameleon found in the Usambaras, and some found only here and nowhere else, and I was keen to see some up close. Like most people, I find chameleons really fascinating, and the only wild one I’d seen this trip was on my first day climbing Kilimanjaro (and some captive ones at MBT Snake Park).

We left at about 7:30pm. We returned about 10:30pm, a little disappointed as we had seen only five chameleons, all of them were the same species, and all females. Not too sure why we had been so unlucky as normally they are easy to find.

It took us an hour to find the first one, and then the second and third were within about 50 metres along the trail. They were an endemic, the Usambara Three-horned Chameleon but because they were females, they had no horns. Except one, which was actually a juvenile male and we mistook it for a female. It's horns were just small bumps, like pimples.




I’d been shining the light up into trees to see if I could see any mammals, but the only thing I saw on the way back was a couple of eyes that probably belonged to Galago, but which one I can’t say. However, I did find a small tree frog with yellow, green and black squiggles, and it stayed still long enough for me to get a photo of it.



Arriving back at the guesthouse I walked into my room and before I switched on the light, in the total dark, I knew something was wrong. I didn’t know what it was exactly, but I just sensed there was something very different about the room even though the reflected light from the hallway dimly lit the beds and my luggage as being exactly where I remembered them. In the silence I could also hear a very, very faint noise that seemed to be coming from all around the room itself. A scratching-type noise that was constant and was more like a very faint hum.

I reached for the light switch and as I flicked it down I felt something touch my finger. It was an ant. And with the light switched on I could see that the room was literally covered in ants. They were everywhere – all over the floor, on the beds, the table, the walls, the roof. I crunched my way into the bathroom and found them everywhere in there too. They weren’t in a trail like you see many ants species when they march, these ants had spread out and were foraging. Surprisingly, there were dense clusters around the light switch and on the power cables to the switch. I guess the electricity had some attraction for them. Most importantly, even though they were large and had decent-sized mandibles, they weren’t army ants.

I went to get Bernard, who found me an empty room down the hall and put me in there. Luckily, the luggage I had left in my room was all zipped up so I just brushed the ants off the bags and moved them down the hall to my new room. By this time it was around 11:00pm and as I’d been walking a lot that day, I went straight to bed and wondered what I would do if the ants decided to follow me down here.



Hix

New Birds: Crowned Hawk-eagle, Little Swift, White-eared Barbet, Green Barbet, Moustached Tinkerbird, Black-throated Wattle-eye, Waller's Starling, Black-bellied Starling, Banded Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Amani Sunbird, Eastern Olive Sunbird, Purple-banded Sunbird, Southern Citril, Forest Weaver.

New Mammals: Angolan Colobus

New Amphibians: Vermiculated Tree Frog

 

Day 32 / 17th October

Another early sunrise, although we couldn’t see the sun until later in the morning. Unlike yesterday, the skies were grey, but the clouds were high and there were none on the mountains, just the morning mists rising from the forests. Before leaving the guesthouse I stuck my head in my old room and found no trace of ants whatsoever – they had all completely vanished without a trace. Including the few I had trodden on the night before while collecting my belongings – thanks goodness I was wearing boots!



We met Zola again for another morning bird walk, this time just around the village, and after an hour or two the sun started to break through the clouds. As well as many of the species seen yesterday (including lots of Silvery-cheeked Hornbills), I finally saw a couple of Trumpeter Hornbills, although the views weren’t that good – they were in the top of a conifer with the sun behind them. Other new species I saw included a Cabani’s Bunting and a pair of Lesser Striped Swallows sitting on power lines, a pair of African Green Pigeons in flight, four Square-tailed Drongos and an Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird.





On the trunks of one of the enormous trees I spotted some movement a couple of feet above the ground and on closer investigation I found a greenish lizard with a pale dorsal stripe that changed to bright blue when it continued onto the tail. I took some photos of it before it darted around the other side of the tree and disappeared. I learnt later this was a Blue-tailed Gliding Lizard.



In the top of the same tree, amongst the epiphytes, was a Banded Sunbird which took my attention for a while. The neighbouring trees also had their share of wildlife – Black-and-Red Bush Squirrels, a Kurrichane Thrush and a batis that was rather frustrating because I couldn’t get a decent photo of it. There are a six different types of batis in Tanzania and they all look very similar having white undersides with a black chestband (brown in females), and black backs, wings and crowns. The different species are distinguished by the width of the chestband, and some finer markings on the wings and head. Females tend to be easier as they have varying amounts of brown in different parts of the body. This particular bird was obscured a lot by the branches but after waiting for five minutes or so it eventually landed on an exposed branch and turned its back on me! Obviously, the chest is essentially in identifying which species it is so I had to wait until it turned around. I couldn’t go around the other side of the tree because I was on the top edge of a slope and the tree was growing up from below. Eventually it turned around and I got some good enough photos to work out (with my field guide) that it was a female Pale Batis.

Epiphytes​

Returning to the guesthouse mid-morning I saw a couple of Angolan Colobus and a dozen Blue Monkeys. Again, deep in the shadows like yesterday, and no good photos.

To get into the Guesthouse you have to ascend half-a-dozen stairs to get to the balcony and the front doorway. On returning to the guesthouse I found a column of Safari Ants walking right past the bottom stair at an angle to the building. You could still step over them onto the first step, as long as you were careful. It was about 11:00 at this point and Zola had returned to his village, the birds had ceased to be active, and it was getting warm. So I swapped my zoom lens for a macro and took some photos of the ants.

There were thousands of ants in the column, and it emerged from the undergrowth near the Guesthouse and continued past it towards the jungle on the other side where they disappeared again. The column was about a foot wide, and guarding the edges were the big soldiers with their enormous, oversized mandibles, open and pointing upwards, ready to latch on in a death grip to anything that silly enough to interfere with the colony. In parts of the column that were in the sun I found that if I cast a shadow with my hand over them, that was enough to get a lot more of them sticking their heads up and they would all become more alert and agitated. Looking at the workers scurrying along quickly, while some of them were carrying food others were carrying pupae.



After about 45 minutes I thought I had enough photos (and my back was killing me from spending so much time bent over) so I went inside to relax and work on my laptop, do a bit of reading, have a doze etc.

At around 3:00pm Bernard found me photographing a rather large wood louse and told me we were going for a drive. He also told me to bring my camera. In the Range Rover we drove followed the road we had been on the previous morning, and continued on into the next village where we picked up Zola and Martin, and then drove on for another five or six kilometres.




“Are you excited?” asked Zola.

“Excited about what?” I asked, and Zola looked a little taken aback.

“I haven’t told him” said Bernard, and both Zola and Martin broke into grins.

I fixed a stare on Bernard and asked him “Where are we going?”

Martin answered for him: “To see some Tailorbirds”.

Then I broke into a grin. “Yes, I’m very excited!” I told Zola.

The Long-billed Tailorbird is critically endangered as it is only found in the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. The population is estimated to be in the low hundreds, but as the bird is small and drab, and shy, accurate counts are difficult. Martin explained to me that to breed there are several factors the birds require: 1) fresh running water (all nests he had found were within 50 metres of a stream); 2) dense vegetation for cover; 3) between 950 and 1050 metres altitude.

That last one shocked me, as 100 metres is a very narrow altitudinal range.

We stopped near a tea plantation by a small, fast-flowing stream and followed Martin on a path alongside the stream. Periodically he would stop and listen, as zeroing in on the bird’s calls is the best way to find them.

“Shelley’s Greenbul” he said at one point. “Too far away.”




Along the way Zola found another Usambara Three-horned Chameleon, this was another young male with only stubs for horns. But it displayed a mixture of green and yellow with black spots, unlike the plain green from the lizards we had seen the night before.




Eventually, after about 500 metres, Martin heard the faint calls of the adult Tailorbirds and tracked down a pair with two fledgling chicks that had left the nest. The birds – even the adults – were quite small, and drab, and were hard to see amongst the vegetation. Typical cisticolas/warblers. The sun was approaching the treeline and so the light was fading, I took a large number of photos but only a few were worth keeping. And as the chicks had left the nest, I didn’t see it to get a photo of it (they’re called tailorbirds because they use their long bills to stitch the nest together). There was, however, right next to the bush the Tailorbird chicks were in, a Little Greenbul sitting on a nest with at least one young.




After about fifteen minutes we left as the light was fading rapidly in that part of the forest. Back by the stream we glimpsed a Half-collared Kingfisher flying at speed along the river, and I followed it upstream a short distance but was unable to get a photograph of it. I did see a Mountain Wagtail though and, by resetting my camera to cope with the low light, was able to get a couple of shots of it.



We returned to the guesthouse in the dark, and discovered the whole village was in the dark – apparently a generator blown. I was a little concerned about accidentally putting my foot in the Safari Ant column but with the Rover’s headlights we determined they had gone.

My headlamp had died completely about a week previously, and the lady who looked after the guesthouse supplied us with some small solar-powered lamps that we used to get down to have some dinner. Afterwards Bernard was chatting with some locals so I took my leave and headed back to the guesthouse.

In the carpark outside the guesthouse something caught my eye on the ground. Shining the light on it I saw a small jet-black snake (or it may have looked jet-black because it was night and the lamp glow was feeble). I had my camera but had trouble getting a photo of it because the camera won’t focus in the dark and the snake kept moving out of the light, and it eventually disappeared down a hole in a stone wall. It could have been a juvenile Black-necked Spitting Cobra, and with only a feeble lamp as my light source I thought it prudent not to annoy it or take any chances.

Back in my room I went to bed early (because there was no power and nothing really to do, but the lights came back on around 10pm, so I got up and did some work on the laptop. Before calling it quits around midnight.



Hix

New Species: African Green Pigeon, Trumpeter Hornbill, Pale Batis, Square-tailed Drongo, Lesser Striped Swallow, Kurrichane Thrush, Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird, Cabani’s Bunting, Half-collared Kingfisher, Long-billed Tailorbird, Mountain Wagtail

 

That looks rather like a pill millipede rather than a woodlouse - having had a quick google there's a Tanzanian species that turns up in the pet trade under the name Arthrosphaera cf. brandtii that looks a very close match for your animal.

 

You could be right! I couldn't see the legs because it just rolled up into a ball and it looked and behaved like a wood louse. But I concede it could definitely be a millipede, especially after looking at pictures of the species you suggested.



Hix

 

Day 33 / 18th October

Another bright morning on the mountains. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Arusha (the longest drive for any day on the safari) so we left Amani at around 7:20 in the morning. Before we left, and while Bernard was saying goodbye to some of the locals, I remember standing in the car park with that nasty feeling that I’d forgotten something. I checked all my luggage, then went back and checked both rooms I’d stayed in, even looking under the beds and mattresses. Returning to the car park I was at least certain it wasn’t something I’d left behind, but perhaps something I hadn’t done. It was still nagging at me when we left, but the road down the mountains soon distracted me and I forgot all about it.

The road was a dirt/mud road all the way down to the main highway, except for some places where there were small stretches (of only 10-20 metres) that had been concreted on hairpin bends and in particularly muddy areas. I was surprised at all the water in the ruts and pools on the road as it hadn’t rained in the three days that we’d been there, yet despite it being quite hot there was still standing water in the ruts. The road wasn’t very wide in some places, and it’s amazing to think that buses and trucks drive up and down this road frequently.

It took about 90 minutes to reach the highway but instead of turning west back to Arusha I made Bernard drive eastwards for 40 minutes to the town of Tanga. I had two reasons for going here: Tanga is a coastal town and I wanted to see some shorebirds, in particular the Crab Plover; and secondly I wanted to be able to say I had travelled across Tanzania from the shores of Lake Victoria to the Indian Ocean.

I think Bernard may have only been to Tanga once before as he didn’t know his way around, and being a coastal town it was fairly large but together we eventually found a part of the coast. Bernard stopped at a station to get fuel and water while I crossed the road to look up and down the rather muddy and uninviting beachfront. Unfortunately, all I saw was a sandpiper, and a pair of Speckled Mousebirds in a shrub nearby. At least I got to see the ocean.

Driving back through Tanga’s street the only other birds I saw were a few Pied Crows, a Lilac-Breasted Roller flying over head, and something new – a few House Crows. So as well as seeing the ocean I also got an unexpected lifer.

It was a loooong drive, and although Tanga had been overcast, once away from the coast the sun came out with a vengeance. At around midday we stopped for lunch at a place called Zebra Camp on the banks of the Pangani River. It had spots for tents, a toilet block, and some small buildings that were available to stay in, but the Amani Guesthouse looked more luxurious. I thought this might be a place for school groups for educational purposes, but Bernard said it was actually for Tanzanian families that were travelling on vacation.

There were reeds by the river and quite a few trees, so we spent 30 minutes looking for birds but being the middle of the day there weren’t too many active. In the reeds there was a sandpiper and a kingfisher, neither of which was clear enough to get a positive ID. And on the other side of the river some weavers were collecting nest material. We found a Ring-necked Dove by following its call, saw a pair of Pied Wagtails, a long-tailed Paradise Flycatcher, and a Fork-tailed Drongo. In a leafless tree we found a couple of Batis which turned out to be yet another lifer, the Black-headed Batis. And in a tree next to our car we saw a pair of Scarlet-chested Sunbirds.



Halfway to Arusha, while I was half-asleep, one of the connections between the left and right hemispheres of my brain suddenly sparked and I remembered what I had forgotten in Amani. And it was so painful I let out a loud groan, loud enough to make Bernard very concerned (until I told him why).

There was something I really wanted to see in the Usambara Mountains, something critically endangered in the wild but extremely common globally in captivity, and I forgot to ask anyone about it. And the Eastern Usambaras is pretty much the only place it is found in the wild. But upon arriving in Amani I had completely forgotten about it, because it was a plant and all the cool birds and chameleons distracted me. Even so, discussions of Cloves and Cinnamon etc should have reminded me that I really wanted to see – and photograph – an African Violet in the wild. The commonest houseplant in the world is critically endangered in the wild, and Amani is one of the few places it is found.

I explained all this to Bernard, and finished by saying that, being so rare, I probably wouldn’t have got to see one even if I had asked about it.

“No, no” he said “they’re fairly common around Amani. They could have found you one in a few minutes if you’d asked.”

Obviously, that did nothing to improve my mood and I spent the next ten minutes fuming at myself for being so stupid. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back to Amani sometime in the future.

We arrived at Rivertrees at around four in the afternoon. An expansive property on several acres with large manicured lawns and magnificent tall trees, the spacious cottages are scattered throughout the grounds. There is a river running alongside the property which I visited before dark, and saw some frogs that were so muddy I couldn’t get an ID on them. A quick walk around the grounds revealed an abundance of Common Bulbuls, some Blue Monkeys and a number of Ochre Bush Squirrels that liked the roofs of the cottages. After dark I went out with my torch but only found a third species of frog, later identified as an Angolan River Frog.



As there were more than a few mosquitos outside after dark, I quickly retired to my cottage for the night.



Hix

New Species: House Crow, Black-headed Batis



Tanga: -5.085385, 39.100429
5º 05’ 07.4” S 39º 06’ 01.5” E

Zebra Camp: -4.623914, 38.016742
4º 34' 26.1" S 38º 01’ 00” E

Rivertrees: -3.373276, 36.865024
3º 22’ 23.8” S 36º 51’ 54.1” E

 

As you might have noticed, I've started including co-ordinates for some locations in my posts. It occurred to me that some people might be interested in seeing exactly where some of these places are, particularly the private tented camps. Just cut an paste into Googlemaps or Google Earth.

Kigongoni Lodge:
-3.383381, 36.774005
3º 23' 00.2" S, 36º 46' 26.4" E

Speke's Bay Lodge:
-2.266710, 33.796475
2º 16' 00.2" S, 33º 47' 47.3" E

Serengeti (Eastco):
-2.427266, 34.873195
2º 25' 38.2" S, 34º 52' 23.5" E

Naabi HIll Gate:
-2.832246, 34.997674
2º 49' 56.2" S, 34º 59' 51.6" E

Ndutu Game Lodge:
-3.019949, 34.996835
3º 01' 11.8" S, 34º 59' 48.6" E

Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge:
-3.243553, 35.512044
3º 14' 37.0" S, 35º 30' 43.3" E



Hix

 

Lake Natron Halisi Tented Camp
-2.614052, 35.906786
2º 36' 50.6" S, 25º 54' 24.4" E

Ol Tukai Camp (Lake Manyara)
-3.611518, 35.876681
3º 26' 41.5" S, 35º 52' 36.0" E

Waterhole (near Ol Tukai Camp)
-3.635278, 35.924667
3º 38' 7" S, 35º 55' 29" E

Naitolia Hills Camp
-3.696108, 36.112056
3º 41' 46" E, 36º 06' 43.4" E

Boundary Hill
-3.867961, 36.147968
3º 52' 04.7" S, 36º 08' 52.7" E

Meserani Reptile Park
-3.409752, 36.483696
3º 24' 35.1" S, 36º 29' 01.3" E

Hatari Lodge
-3.226515, 36.857319
3º 13' 35.5" S, 36º 51' 26.4" E

Ngurdoto Crater
-3.290768, 36.927643
3° 17'2 6.8" S, 36° 55' 39.5" E



Hix

 

I have been enjoying this very much. I recognize quite some locations of Amani based on your pictures and fortunately the roads are of better condition now . You have seen some birds, like the tailorbird and kingfisher, I still haven't seen in Amani. But that is probably the difference between working and having a bird guide with you . In the end I did not have the time to go with one of the local guide to some of the birding spots...

 

Day 34 / 19th October

I was up early in the morning, 6:00am, to walk around the grounds birdwatching. However, it was very cloudy with a bit of drizzle and despite more than 100 species of birds being recorded at Rivertrees, I only saw eight species after an hour’s searching and none of them was anything new. At 10 o’clock Bernard arrived and we left on my last sortie into the Tanzanian wilderness.

Our destination was an area called Lark Plains, and our goal was Beesley’s Lark. The Plains are an area north of Arusha, on the other side of Mt Meru, an arid area of sand and small scrubby bushes. A number of lark species live here including one which, until recently, was thought of as a northern subspecies of the Spike-heeled Lark (all the others are found in southern Africa) but had recently been elevated to a full species. As this was the only place in the world they are found they are thought to be critically endangered although their status hasn’t officially been established yet.

It took around 90 minutes to get to the Plains, marked with a very large sign by the side of the road and pointing off to the right. The dirt road led to a village called Engikaret which was about 30 kilometres away. After about a kilometre on this road we saw our first bird, a Red-capped Lark (and a lifer). Actually, when we stopped, there were three of them. After taking some photos from the car I got out and went for a little wander to see if there was anything else we couldn’t see from the road.




While we had been driving through Arusha the sun had come out, and in this very hot, arid environment it beat down fiercely so we didn’t stay out of the Range Rover for long. Thank goodness for air-conditioning!

Continuing on we saw more Red-capped Larks and some Short-tailed Larks (another lifer), some Capped Wheatears, a number of Fischer’s Sparrow-larks, a pair of Kori Bustards, an Eastern Chanting Goshawk and a Black-breasted Snake-Eagle (on the ground with a rabbit it had caught), a couple of Pied Crows, four African Pipits and four Blue-capped Cordonbleus.







After about half an hour of stopping to look at more Short-tailed and Red-capped Larks I asked Bernard exactly what I was looking for – what distinguishes Beesley’s from the other larks. He replied that he didn’t know.

“Haven’t you seen one before?” I asked

“No,” he replied, “never.”

This was disappointing; if my guide had never seen them then I would have to be very lucky to see one.

“How many times have you looked for them?” I asked, to get a better idea of the problem.

“This is my first time” he answered.

I had assumed he had been here before, and when we had spoken about Beesley’s Lark previously he knew what I was talking about. I thought he would know what they looked and how to find them, but he was just driving the vehicle thinking I knew exactly what I was looking for. The blind driving the blind.

I pulled out the field guide which had lots of larks and pipits illustrated, most of which were almost identical to each other. Beesley’s wasn’t listed as it was still a subspecies when the book was printed, and I couldn’t remember what it was a subspecies of, which didn’t help matters at all.

When we were about 5 kilometres from the town of Engikaret we turned around and headed back, seeing pretty much the same things. Some activity in a bush about 20 metres from the road turned out to be another lifer – a pair of Red-fronted Warblers. And amongst a group of Short-tailed Larks was another very similar lark, but with a different bill and pattern. From my photos I later identified this as a Somali Short-toed Lark, another lifer.



So after more than two hours searching we arrived back at the main road. Before we headed on towards Arusha I got Bernard to stop so I could photograph the big sign marking the road to Engikaret. And that’s when we actually took the time to read what the sign actually said.



Apparently Beesley’s Larks are found at Engikaret, not where we’d been looking. And there were phone numbers to call so people there could show you the larks. If I hadn’t been sitting in a car I would have kicked myself. Bernard asked me if I wanted to turn around, but as the town was 30 kilometres away it would have taken us another two hours to go there, see the larks and come back, plus we were still an hour away from Arusha, and I had things to do in Arusha before closing time, so reluctantly I declined Bernard’s offer.

Arriving in Arusha an hour later we stopped at the DHL Office. I had some things I wanted to freight to Australia, and I needed an ATM to get more cash. There was also a Cultural Heritage Centre next door which I visited as they had carvings and other souvenirs for sale. Most of the souvenirs I’d seen elsewhere in Tanzania were of no interest to me, and a lot of the carvings were crappy little things, but the goods on display in this place were of a very quality, with prices that reflected the workmanship. Most were several hundred US dollars and many were in the thousands, but they were worth it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford any of them, and didn’t have the room to take them back with me anyway. But very nice to look at.

It was late afternoon when we returned to Rivertrees, and it appeared that this side of Mt Meru had been heavily cloudy all day. Driving down the road that led to the hotel I saw perched on a branch my last lifer for the trip – a Southern Fiscal shrike.

So I said my goodbyes to Bernard and paid him a generous tip, which included Innocent’s tip and something for the camp boys in the Serengeti. Bernard had been a great guide and I had seen a lot of wildlife thanks to him.

Rivertrees has a Customer Liaison type person who is like a concierge. I asked him about Sengi and Hedghogs, because my book on Tanzanian mammals said they were frequently seen at Rivertrees. Surprisingly, he didn’t know what I was talking about. I even used the Swahili name for hedgehog and he still didn’t know what it was. I showed him the photos, and he said he’d never seen either a Sengi or a Hedgehog in his life.

It was drizzling so before dinner I had a massage, then a warm soak in a large stone bath. Pizza for dinner (alas, not fish) and then I packed everything away and got an early night – for the next morning I was to leave Tanzania.



Hix


New Species: Southern Fiscal, Red-capped Lark, Somali Short-toed Lark, Short-tailed Lark, Red-fronted Warbler

Lark Plains:
-3.061284, 36.741770
3º 03’ 40.6” S, 36º 44’ 30.4” E

 

Day 35 / 20th October

My last morning in Tanzania. Another cloudy morning (but cleared up towards midday). I was up early to finish packing and spend a little time on the internet before the Rivertrees shuttle bus took me to the airport. I didn’t go bird watching in the morning but I heard the Verreaux’s Eagle Owl hooting in one of the larger trees on the other side of the grounds, and saw the Ochre Squirrels on the roof of my cottage, and a Blue Monkey.

My flight was actually going to be tomorrow, but Air Kenya had emailed me a couple of weeks prior to advise the flight had been cancelled due to so few people booked on it, and they put me on today’s flight instead. The only other option was a flight in two days time which would mean I would get back to Entebbe at 2:15pm, and my flight back to Australia was due to leave at 3:30pm. I don’t like leaving a short turnaround because I’ve seen planes delayed and peoples travel severely disrupted, so today’s flight was really my only option.

So the plan today was to fly to Nairobi at 11:00 and arriving at 12:00, then at 1:00pm catching a flight to Entebbe.

On arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport I was told the flight to Nairobi was delayed by half an hour. No matter, I should still make the connection although I wasn’t sure my bags would. This would mean returning to the airport in Entebbe a few hours after I land to collect the bags which would be on the next flight. But the half-hour delay was just the start of my troubles.

The flight took off and flew right past Kilimanjaro on the eastern side. I thought about the climb a month ago, and looked at the scars on my palm and forearm which were still quite obvious but healing nicely, although the one on the palm still restricted my use somewhat. My sunburnt lower lip had lost the burnt skin and was back to normal. [Note: today as I write this, almost two-and-a-half years after the fall, only a small white mark on my palm remains which is barely noticable, and there is no scar or marks on my forearm.]

The summit of Kibo was shrouded in clouds, as it usually is by this time of day, but at one point when we were close a gap appeared between the clouds and the summit was clearly visible – and completely covered in snow. I needed a photo of this. I hurried back to my seat and grabbed my little IXUS, then returned to the window with the best view (there weren't many people on the flight). Shooting through a plane window is never the best, but I managed a couple of half-decent shots.



In this second photo you can see Kibo on the right, but in the centre of frame, just above the wispy little cloud, the Kibo huts can be seen (you might have to download and enlarge the photo to see them). The size of the huts give some scale to the climb to the summit, and the steepness of the scree slope that you need to negotiate.

***************************************************************​

On arrival at Nairobi I hurried to the gate for my next flight to find it had been delayed by two hours until 3pm. Apparently the plane we were due to fly on had been delayed somewhere else and hadn’t arrived yet. OK, at least my luggage will get to Entebbe with me. So I sat in the Air-Kenya Business Lounge (where I had watched the Scottish referendum results with interest a month before), with my laptop and iPad plugged in charging and sorted my photos and continued writing up the blog. Checking my spreadsheet where I had recorded my sightings I noted the following – while in Tanzania I had seen:

• 315 species of birds, of which 181 were lifers (57%).
• 50 species of mammal, of which 22 were lifers (44%).
• 15 species of reptile, of which 12 were lifers (80%).
• 5 species of frog, all lifers.

At 3pm I left the Business Lounge and went to the gate. Ten minutes later we were told there would be another two hour wait.

There were quite a few people at the departure gate, and some of them were very vocal to the airline representatives at the gate. And I can understand their frustrations – there were other scheduled flights due to leave for Entebbe at 2pm and 4pm, yet we were not put on these flights. The Air-Kenya representatives explained the flights were full but the vocal passengers would not accept this and became quite loud, obnoxious and unreasonable. The police were called which tempered their anger somewhat, but they were still loud. And they weren’t stupid enough to direct their vitriole at the police.

At 5:10 pm we were finally put on a plane. At 6:15pm we were taken off the plane and put on a bus (with no seats) which took us to a different departure gate (with no plane). At this point the loud and vocal minority told the ground staff – in voices that would have drowned out an airplane’s engines - that we were not getting off the bus until a plane was ready. The ground staff said “OK” and walked away.

The vocal minority seemed to think they had achieved a victory, but after a minute or two some of us pushed past them and went back upstairs to the new departure gate. My reasoning was twofold – I don’t like people making decisions for me (and forcing me to adhere to them without consulting me), and I had a choice of sitting down at the departure gate, or remaining standing on the bus. Plus, the ground staff didn’t care if we stayed on the bus or not, so obviously staying on the bus wasn’t going to inconvenience the airline. I wasn’t the first person off the bus (a Kenyan student pushed his way through first) but I was one of the half-dozen that followed him. Everyone else then followed suit with the vocal minority bringing up the rear, complaining that our lack of solidarity had weakened our stance and gave the airline more power to screw us over etc.

At 7pm we were put on another plane. It left 30 minutes later, arriving in Entebbe at 8:30pm. I got to the Boma at just after 9pm (seven hours late) and thankfully the restaurant staff had stayed back and knocked up a quick meal for me.

Finishing dinner I headed back to my room and arrived just as it started to rain.


New Subspecies of mammal: Homo obnoxious africana



HIx

 

Day 36 / 21st October

I slept in late this morning, because I had nothing planned and because it was raining. When I did eventually get up most of my morning was spent on the computer or repacking my luggage.

At 1:00pm a mate of mine, Chris Kerr, arrived for lunch. Chris used to work in the at Taronga, not as a keeper but in the Back Yard (construction and maintenance). Chris is a builder and several years ago he left the zoo and came over to Uganda, initially to construct some buildings on Ngamba Island – the island with the chimps – and later was building lodges and hotels around the country. We had lunch in the restaurant and spent the time catching up and reporting on what our mutual Taronga friends were doing in their respective parts of the world.

After lunch, in the drizzle, Chris took me on a drive around Entebbe and the foreshore, eventually ending up on the shore next the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) looking for a mate of his, who wasn’t there. But before we left I saw a year bird on a power-line over the fence in the UWEC – three Broadbilled Rollers. I didn’t have my cameras with me, unfortunately, but I was still happy to see them.

Shortly afterwards it started to rain again so we left, and after some more driving around Chris dropped me off back at the Boma. It had been good to catch up with him.

By this stage it was getting late - and the rain was persistent – so after dinner I just worked on the computer some more.



Hix

 

Day 37 / 22nd October

My last day in Africa started out pleasantly enough. I was lying in bed when I heard a honking type birdcall that was louder than the usual weaver’s chirruping and doves cooing. I looked outside and then grabbed my camera – a Ross’s Turaco, my last new bird for the year (in Africa).



After getting a couple of photos I went inside, had a shower, got dressed and went back out to see what else could be photographed. The sun was out and it looked like it was going to be a good day weather-wise. There was a Red-eyed Dove, a pair of Scarlet-chested Sunbirds and a female weaver of some sort bouncing around on the lawns.





After breakfast I started packing and repacking my luggage, logging onto the internet, doing a bit of reading, and occasionally popping outside with the camera to see if any new birds had come into the grounds. Over the course of the day I saw a pair of Red-chested Sunbirds, Baglafecht Weavers, Eastern Plaintain-eater, Olive Thrush, White-browed Robin-chat, Black-headed Gonolek and the ubiquitious Common Bulbul. I also saw a Marabou and Yellow-billed Kite (Black Kite) flying over the hotel grounds.






In the afternoon the Boma’s shuttle took me and three other people to the airport. There is a longish walk with your luggage from the carpark up a long drive to get into the terminal, in the hot sun, which is annoying but I suspect is a security thing. Inside the terminal the air conditioning had trouble doing its job. The flight to Dubai left an hour late but otherwise there was no further incident (until I got to Dubai).

And so it was I left Africa.

FIN


​

 

I just thought I should say how much I've enjoyed this thread, and I hope that the writing of posts quite a while after the events have happened wasn't so painful so as to put you off creating threads like this for future trips that you may do!

 

Thanks Laughing Dove!

Writing is time consuming (well, for me anyway) which is why it's taken so long to finish. And in Tanzania there were so many places where I couldn't connect to the internet. Sometimes I would take that time to write up the trip, but only if a I had a power source, otherwise I'd save my laptop's battery power for downloading the day's photos. When I did have a connection, uploading photos was the priority.

Recently I went back to Sydney for a couple of weeks for Christmas, and for around a week each day I wrote up another day in Tanzania which took me from Day 22 to about Day 30.

Then you'll probably be glad to know I've requested three weeks leave for the end of April, and I plan on visiting at least one new country to view the wildlife, a country so far not visited or written up on ZooChat, and I expect to get a large number of lifers in a very short space of time.

Hopefully I'll be able to write it up and post in a more timely fashion!



Hix