When we flew in to Tanzania there were a lot of high clouds, and on our way to Kiota Guest House we couldn't see the surrounding mountains. In particular, we couldn't see Mt. Meru, which rises up impressively from the surrounding plain. But with our early start on our way to Arusha National Park we had a great view of it.
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| Mt. Meru |
Just after we entered the park we saw a cape buffalo horn which looked like it has a bunch of pegs sticking into it. Douglas explained that the Horn Moth lays its eggs on the horn and the larve feed on the keratin that makes up the horn, building their larval cases from their own fecal pellets.
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| Cape Buffalo Horn Moth Larve
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We started taking pictures of birds right away. Unfortunately, I had a heck of a time getting my manual focus right on.
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| Common Stone Chat | Yellow Throated Long Claw |
It seemed like there were animals standing around everywhere. So of course we went crazy taking pictures. I think it took me two weeks to start to slow down and think about composition. I'm so used to getting only fleeting glimpses of many animals that I tend to try to grab any image I can get and worry about composition later. Ok, so these look like lazy animals at the zoo. Well, that's what they looked like, only they weren't in the zoo. Sort of like ol' MacDonald's African farm, only it wasn't a farm. Wow. I wonder if the plains of North America were like this once?
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| Zebras | |
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| Wart Hogs |
We headed off into the woods looking for elephants. We never did find any, but we did find some cool butterflie, monkeys, and some really cool birds.
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| Xxx Black White Spots | Xxx Blue Stripe |
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| Xxx Orange Arc | Xxx Swallowtail | Xxx Blue Yellow |
Our slow meandering through the woods paid off, as we came around a corner and discovered a small troupe of Colobus Monkeys.
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| Colobus Monkey | ||
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| Olive Baboon | Olive Baboon Kid |
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| Kids are the same everywhere, regardless of species... | |||
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| Blue Monkey | |
We were just ambling along looking for whatever the world had to offer when Douglas spotted a Turaco off in some thick brush. Most people would have driven right on by without seeing it. We were really fortunate to have such a wonderful guide. Great eyes, extremely knowledgeable, and a great personality to boot!
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| Hartlaubs Turaco
Click on this one, he's cool! |
Common Fiscal Shrike |
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| Red Duiker
One of the few animals that didn't act tame. |
Bushbuck |
I loved the giraffes. They have a wonderfully smooth and graceful way of moving, in addition to just being cool.
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| Masai Giraffe | |||
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| Common Waterbuck (female) | Common Waterbuck |
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| Fireball Lily |
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| Cape Teal
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Temmincks Stint | Wood Sandpiper |
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| Ruff | |
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| Hadada Ibis | Black Backed Puffback | |
And then there were the grey crowned cranes. Wow! This is the ultimate Dr. Seuss bird. They do need to work a bit on their choreography, however.
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| Grey Crowned Crane | |
Towards the end of the day we spent time at some small lakes where there were flocks of flamingos. If you didn't see it yourself, you'd think a child had colored them.
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| Flamingos | |
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| Lesser Flamingos | |||
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| Greater Flamingos among the Lessers | |||
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| On the Wing
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I was slowly learning that virtually everything in east Africa has thorns. But especially the Acacias. Ouch. Those guys are serious!
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| Acacia Thorns |
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| Augur Buzzard | White Browed Coucal | |
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| Speckled Mousebird | Grassland Pipit | White Fronted Bee Eater | |
Our first dikdiks were pretty shy. I know people who have shot these just so they can hang them on the wall. Sometimes human behavior is pretty pitiful.
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| Kirks Dik Dik |
In the end, we didn't have nearly enough time in this wonderful park. I would have loved to have had time to just sit and observe for a while. We had to hurry to make it back to the park gate by 18:00, check-out time. Apparently there is a substantial fine if you're not out on time.
In Tanzania, there is a special school for guides, and it sounded pretty good. Among other things, they learn biology, botany, zoology, ecology, natural history and history. Since Douglas' English is pretty good, he helped teach English while he was at guide school. As we were leaving the park, Douglas met a guy at the gate who knew him from english lessons at guide school.
Back at Kiota Nest it was getting dark, and there was a shy gecko up in a corner.
Dona and I were both pretty tired. I tried to stay up to see a bushbaby that was rumored to be coming around in the evening, but I couldn't keep my eyelids open. I fell asleep with my camera in my lap, staring out the window at a plate of scraps Flora had put out. When I woke up the plate was empty.
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| Xxx Gecko |
Wow. And we were just starting out!
The next morning after another great breakfast by Flora, we piled into the Rover and headed down the highway to Tarangire National Park (Next).
This page last updated on 2014-04-10.
