Lake Duluti

Overcast morning with canoes ready to go. 

Lake Duluti is a small crater lake located about an hour and half drive from Moshi, about 10km (6 miles) east of Arusha. The area is beautiful with a rim of forest surrounding the lake before giving way to human settlements surrounding it. Although it is small and surrounded by development, it does provide a quiet oasis and a welcome hiking trail. 

There is a small strip of the lake that is developed with a bar/restaurant, small campground, and then the park offices. The park offers canoeing and occasionally attempts to insist on a ranger but you can walk alone. I imagine it would take about 1 1/2-2 hours to walk at a reasonable pace, though we spent about 5 hours birding and taking our sweet time. 

There are two trails though one is technically outside the park area. One trail through a forest on the edge of the lake and one located on the upper rim of the crater. We first walked the unofficial trail along the rim and it provided some stunning vistas of the surrounding plains and Mt. Meru. I'd imagine on a clear day you may even be able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. The trail led to an odd area that is apparently a Christian spiritual area. People go there to pray and read the Bible and there are some "caves" though they are really more like slightly concave rock walls. Apparently people camp out there for days. The trail cuts down to the trail circumventing the lake but since the area was pretty crowded and it wasn't really our scene, we headed back down the way we came. 


We then made our way back to the trail head, had lunch, and then set off on the main trail circumventing the lake. The trail is surrounded by forest though the water remains in clear view. The bird life is quite rich and there are massive monitor lizards lounging in the sun. The trail was quiet and we only saw other people once. We took our time watching birds and relaxing along the shoreline. 

I can't believe it took me so long to get to Lake Duluti as it's a beautiful area, reasonably priced, and one of the few places you can actually go on a hike!

Ana writing her bird list.

Looking over Lake Duluti from the ridge. 

Lake Duluti with Mt. Meru in the background. 

On the trail. 

Thick vegetation began immediately from the shore. 

Walking along the trail. 

Gigantic Caterpillar. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture with scale but this thing was bigger than any of my fingers. 

Two monitor lizards lounge on a log covered in cormorant shit. 

More trail hiking. 

They had a few rest stops with benches and trash cans, which was nice. 

Towards the late afternoon it really cleared up and was a beautiful day.