Rufiji wooded grassland walking

The vibrant grass contrasting with the soft overcast colors is one of my favorite things about rainy season here

There’s been an unseasonable dry spell leading up to the rainy season, so we decided to take advantage of it this weekend. Since January, it has only rained a few times, though last week brought a few storms, a harbinger of the coming rains. The ground is still relatively dry, but December’s rains left behind small pools of water, with wildlife dispersed widely.

This is one of my favorite times of year to be out walking. You can feel the plants and grasses at the very start of their transformation, about to reshape the landscape. Soon, the grasses will tower over my head in places, and flooded swamps will make bush navigation much more challenging. The substrate is typically wet enough to identify tracks of animals.

We knew of a spot with some open trails as well as some small pools of water. The area was largely swamp and marshland along with shrubs and wooded grasslands. It's a fantastic area for walking with sufficient animal trails and open areas. We saw some fresh tracks of buffalo, kudu, and some very fresh scat of African Wild Dog. The morning was overcast which allowed us to stay out relatively late, but around 11am the sun broke from behind the clouds and we knew we had to get out of the area before we got roasted! 

Typical wooded area

Nice grassy area, checking for signs of African Wild Dog

Rufiji river delta walking

Walking across dried riverbeds

The Rufiji River has an impressive delta that provides a constantly changing landscape depending on the flow of the river. I really enjoy going out walking in the river delta and there has been a dry spell that has made the river more accessible than normal for this time of year. We crossed the river with a local boat and set out a 15km walk along the northern part of the Selous Game Reserve. We crossed through dried up rivers, passed by several large pools of water, and trekked through extensive grasslands. 

The area was dotted with palms and some coastal forest trees, the quintessential Selous landscape. We unfortunately got a very late start and thus the sun was hot and most animals were tucked away in the shade. We did manage to see a really impressive group of Marabou and Yellow-billed Storks, a group of a few hundred absolutely ravaging a small pool where a the helpless fish were literal fishes in a barrel. 

I was told that the area we walked would likely be underwater in a month. I will be thrilled to come back...but in a boat!

Pool of water

Nice grassland

Iringa Airport renovations

The airport in Iringa is not the most bustling airport and I wrote about previous much smaller renovations. When we first moved here, there was one 12-passenger plane servicing the city three times a week. In 2016, the former president resurrected the national carrier, Air Tanzania, and in 2019, a Bombardier Q400 began flying a few times a week at drastically lower prices than the smaller plane. This joy was shortlived. I had one successful flight to Dar es Salaam, and then rumors began to swirl about under capacity, politicians demanding planes for transport, and all sorts of other issues. In July 2019, I booked a flight that was rescheduled several times until it became apparent in December that services were being suspended indefinitely (I was never issued a refund). They were kind of bailed out by COVID-19, but they were in trouble long before the pandemic.

I’ve heard several different stories about why the Iringa airport needed a renovation, but the most frequently cited reason is that the runway needed to be expanded to receive larger planes. It’s a shame that they recently refurbished the airport buildings (within the last five years), only to build a totally new structure that is nearly the same size—just in an entirely new area on the opposite end of the property.

For aviation nerds:

Covering 353.44 hectares and located 18 kilometres northeast of Iringa town, the airport features a 2,100-metre-long, 30-metre-wide runway, a 155-metre taxiway, and a 180m x 126m aircraft parking apron. It can accommodate two large Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 aircraft and five smaller Caravan aircraft. The passenger terminal can handle 100 departing and 100 arriving passengers simultaneously, with a VIP lounge for up to 18 passengers.

The new runway is really nice, but I still don’t understand why they didn’t use the previously constructed infrastructure. They didn’t increase the capacity of arrivals or departures in any significant way. I’ve got an Air Tanzania flight booked next week, so let’s see how everything goes!