Kilombero River: Trip II

It has been over five years since we last visited Kilombero River (Trip I) and we were excited to get back on the river. Unfortunately the area was struct with a deluge of rain that is not typical for the year and thus the river was pretty quiet in regards to wildlife. We were lucky to have no rain the day we went to the river though it threatened throughout our trip.

We headed down to the bridge, which was a ferry crossing when we last visited. We parked our car at a police check point nearby and took a bijaji to the river. We met a group of fisherman and negotiated hard for a good price on a big boat to take us out for a few hours. There were four of us and we found a big boat with two boatman. We even managed to get the seats (in actuality they were just pieces of wood nailed to together) so we didn't have to sit on the floor of the leaky boat. From our previous trip we remembered it could be both sunny and rainy and brought along umbrellas for cover.

We headed west on the river and enjoyed the calmness. We saw a crocodile carcass that the guys claimed died of natural causes. We saw several fisherman that were fishing from boats as well as from the shores. The river was very muddy and high but was relatively calm. We puttered around in the boat until mid-day and then headed back to the boat landing, dry and satisfied!

At some point we stopped and our lead boatman bought a bunch of fish. He plopped this poor bottom feeder right in front of me and it occasionally flailed around. You get what you pay for!