South Tanga II: Peponi

Ana checking out some birds.

We've visited southern Tanga before (Trip I) and we enjoyed camping at Peponi Beach Resort. They have good value camping areas (covered, showers, outlets) and excellent food with a laid back vibe. I'm not even really a beach person but I absolutely love the set up, from the attitude of the other guests staying there, to the staff and environment. The nearby area is sparsely populated and locals seem non bothered by tourists who are likewise respectful of the conservative coastal culture. The beach doesn't have the fenced-off-from-locals feel and there isn't anyone trying to sell you sea-shell necklaces.

The only drawback is that at certain times of the year it can be very hot and humid, especially coming from the dry area where we live. One of those times is now, exacerbated by the fact that Tanzania has been undergoing a significant drought. The sea breeze quieted down at night and the temperature was unbearable for sleep. Luckily the holiday wasn't too taxing and there were various opportunities for naps.

The tide goes out extremely far in Tanzania and the surrounding mangroves provide a stunning venue to explore. We went on a walk through the tide pools and mangroves in the morning and watched as the fishermen came in and out. The tide goes out probably 100-200m (300-600 ft) and birds and enterprising youths alike seek out tasty morsels in the freshly exposed sand. The area was rich with life as crabs scurried about and I loved feeling the rhythm of the tide and how it influenced all the life in the area.

We spent two days walking the beach, hiking in the surrounding area, and overall just relaxing.

Walking in the freshly exposed sand.

Awesome view from the common area.

Crazy twisted palm tree.

The surrounding area was really dry.

Checking out some birds.

Very clear water.

Strolling in the mangroves.

Arusha National Park: Trip V

Ana taking in the view. 

Our latest trip to Arusha National Park (ANP) (Trip I, Trip II, Trip III, Trip IV) was a lot of fun and certainly a bit different than our previous trips. We love ANP for a variety of reasons; it's less than an hour away, it's one of the cheaper national parks ($22.50 p/p), it is known for having a variety of birds, it is not very crowded, and it has a variety of habitats from montane rainforest to lakes and woodland. The biggest drawbacks, with nearly all the national parks, is that you have to drive pretty much the whole day, unless you want to pay an additional $20 p/p for a guide. I'm sure we'll do it someday but it seems a bit much to pay $45 a person to go on a hike, especially considering we know several other spots in the region that are literally free. This is also the reason we have never gone to Kilimanjaro National Park as the park fees are $35 fee, $20 guide, and $20 rescue fee which means it would be $75 for a walk in the park. Which to me, is crazy. AND that is half off the entry fee since we are residents of East Africa, otherwise it would be $110 for the average tourist. But I digress....

We reached the park gate at 8AM and unlike the busier parks (Serengeti, etc), the registration took five minutes and no one else was there. We had heard there were a few new loops in one of the forest areas so we set out explore. Although you can not go on a proper "hike" without a guide, you are allowed to be 25m from your car AND since ANP is so sparsely visited (and patrolled) I'll admit to pushing the rules.

Well, today wasn't a day that I was going to push the rules because it just so happened there was an infestation of tsetse flies. If you're unfamiliar with tsetse flies, they are a large fly that bites and transmits a handful of nasty diseases. They are also attracted to movement and forested areas. Which means our car attracted a slow building cloud of tsetse flies that were present in such numbers that it sounded like rain was coming down when in actuality it was thousand of tsetse flies trying to enter the car. This was unfortunate because we couldn't have the windows down and thus couldn't see or hear very good as well being extremely hot and stuffy. After about a half hour we both knew what each other was thinking, which was something along the lines of, "uh, what are we doing here?".

We finally acknowledged the challenges of the forest area and agreed to get the hell out of that section and head to the lakes and open plains. Spirits were a bit low but it was still very early in the day so we weren't too worried. We eventually made it out to the "Little Serengeti" part of ANP which really boosted our spirits. The section of the park has a small plain full of zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, warthog and buffalo. Mt. Meru is a striking background with its lush green slopes and cloud cover.

Little Serengeti with Mt. Meru in the background. 

The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful. We visited the lakes which had very low water levels and very little wildlife. It started to rain when we were there which wasn't bad timing since it allowed us to drive straight to another section of the park. As birders we often move at a very slow pace and don't cover much ground but the rain gave the perfect excuse to drive for a half hour to a small crater on the south east side of the park. You can drive up the crater rim into stunning montane rainforest and view a spectacular view of the crater from above.

We were sad to leave the park at 6:00pm but it had been a long day. We made a mental note to never again visit the park in March but I'm sure we'll be back sooner rather than later!

Mt. Meru cleared up in the afternoon. 

We may or may not have driven our vehicle past that point. 

View of the Ngurdoto Crater. 

I got bit several times taking this picture in the tsetse fly infested forest. 

Checking out a small river. 

Rain shot!

South Pare Mountains: Chome Trip II

The road to Chome with awesome vistas.

Our friends that live in Chome are moving at the end of this month so it was a good excuse to get back up the mountain and pay them a visit (Trip I). For a normal weekend we drive the 1 1/2 drive south to Same on Friday night, then drive the remaining three hours up the mountain the following morning. It makes for a long trip back on Sunday but the drive (sans highway portion from Same) is actually quite fun as there are tons of birds on the way so frequent stops break up the trip.

The mountain road is narrow, steep, and full of ditches and sharp rocks but the scenery is beautiful with expansive views of the plains to one side and impressive mountains on the other. This time of the year the mountains are green with vegetation and small waterfalls run over escarpments as the clouds roll off the mountains in the morning.

As we started up the mountain we passed over a particularly rocky patch. I suddenly heard one of the tires spewing air and I quickly reversed down to a flat patch of ground that we had just passed. I was happy that the tire punctured there because there are VERY few flat areas on the road up. We parked the car and assessed the situation; a jagged rock had literally sliced open the side of one of the front tires. No worries, we had a spare and a jack. Had I ever used the spare or the jack? No. But I had seen the jack used when the car was getting repaired in the workshop.

Well, turns out that we had two jacks and they were both very small. I put the jack on a flat rock and put it as close to the car as possible, then jacked it as far as it would go. It did not appear to have moved the car at all. I was a bit frustrated and trying to think of what to do when an older man passed on the road and stopped to help us. We explained our situation and he obviously had a bit more experience than us as he matter of factly told us there was no problem. He instructed us to jack as far a we could, then stack a separate pile of rocks to act as a lift for the car, take down the jack, re stack a taller rock on the jack, then lift it again and repeat the process. This incremental jacking process took us three "reloads" before we could remove the tire. The secondary pile of rocks was also under extreme stress and when we lowered it while we were finished we realized that two of the rocks had broken. But, we were successful in changing the tire.

At least we were stuck in a very scenic spot.

Jack situation.

A close look at the jack situation

The whole incident delayed us a bit up the mountain but we still arrived to Chome with plenty of time. We went on a very nice walk to some forest areas, checked out a waterfall, and hung with our friends at their house for dinner. I'm always very happy to be in a village and live the "village life" though I wish we could have spent a few more days there!

A view of the mountains while in the plains. Early morning clouds.

View of the plains from the road up.

Doing some birding.

Super bad ass spider.

It ain't a village visit without some river crossings.

On a hike.

Waterfall action.

View of the plains in the morning, above the clouds.

Nyumba ya Mungu: Trip VIII, north end

Boats back from a days fishing.

One of our favorite spots relatively close is Nyumba ya Mungu, a large lake created from a dam (Trip I, II, III, IV, V & VI, VII). We usually go to the same spot on the lake due to accessibility but occasionally we'll visit other parts. This weekend we somewhat by accident visited a portion in the far north.

Our friend had "discovered" the area during the week and thought it was a different lake than Nyumba ya Mungu. We met up with the locals he had gone out with and we followed them until we reached a small river. I was slightly concerned with the river since the opposite shore was quite steep, almost like a small curb the car would have to jump. I started in and hit the step and promptly rolled back into an unseen hole. Bam, stuck. Luckily the vehicle that had escorted us had yet to leave so they went to town to look for a tow rope. They returned with a gigantic roll of twine which didn't look like much at first, but after doubling it back about 100 times, well, not sure it looked much better but it was all that we had.

At the moment we got stuck, a herd of cows just happened to come by and check us out.

Taking shade under a tree while we waited for the rope.

The rope was strong, in the end.

We did manage to get the car out and our spirits were not dampened as we tried to cross again, this time with success. We waved our friends goodbye and they told us to just call them if we got stuck on the way back and they'd come help us out if we got stuck.

The rest of the route was a very peculiar landscape, kind of an acacia plain with evidence of extreme flooding. We eventually arrived to the lake and set up shop to watch some birds and chat with some fishermen. We had gotten out quite late in the day so we had to turn back around 6pm with about an hour of daylight left.

Unfortunately, I had been a bit overzealous with how close I drove us to the water and upon entering the car we realized all the tires were slipping. We didn't dig ourselves in and I quickly hurried back to the fishermen's camp to recruit some help. I was worried because it was late and I had only seen a few older people there and if we couldn't get unstuck it would be a very long walk (probably 2 hours?) back to the nearest village, and I doubt there would be a vehicle there AND even if there was, they would probably chide me for being a moron driving too close to the sticky mud and they likely wouldn't want to drive their vehicle on the surface.


Morale was low when I returned with a young teenage boy, probably 13 years old. However, I did acquire a plank of wood, though it had fish guts all over it that I promptly covered myself with. So, here I was, with a 13 year old, car slipping on the mud, smelling like fish guts. I was not happy to say the least.

Still, we persevered and with enough rocks, the plank of wood, and serious pushing, we got the car out and moving. However, our journey wasn't over since we still had to find our way back. The road was somewhat clear to a point but there was a certain junction where motorcycles and bicycles (99% of local traffic) carried on while larger vehicles had to take a turn to reach the river we previously crossed. Luckily we crossed paths with a motorcycle coming from another part of the lake and he led us to the road we needed to reach. I didn't even realize how lost we likely would have gotten had he not led us, but I was even more pleased since we somehow found a different road that had a proper bridge over the river.

Overall it was certainly more of an adventure than we bargained for, especially for a, "short afternoon bird trip", but the landscape was lovely and there is ALWAYS room for adversity!

Pare Mountains in the background.

Watching some water birds.

Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.

Birding: Lark Plain Trip III

It's not called the lark PLAIN for nothing, there is a lot of plain. 

We finally got an opportunity to return to the Lark Plain, a unique habitat north of Arusha which is home to an endemic and rare species of lark, the Beesley's Lark. We have come twice before (Trip I, Trip II) and had never seen the lark, though we were told that it is only found in a very specific area and that we'd have to go with someone that knew exactly where to find it.

Well, we organized with one of our old friends who happens to be likely the best birder we know in Tanzania. It had been a long time since we'd gone out together so we were happy to see him. He also brought one of his friends as well, who was a welcome addition. Both had been to the Lark Plains several times so I felt confident we'd have a successful trip!

We left Arusha early at 7AM, which is critical since the Lark Plains can get very toasty. The plains are located on the north side of Mt. Meru so we were in luck as the clouds created by Mt. Meru provided some shade during the morning.  It was an overcast day with some brief rays of sun which was the perfect kind of weather.

Sure enough, we found the Beasely's Lark and a bunch of other nice birds. Some wild Thompson's Gazelle and Hartebeest ran through the area contrasting with the domesticated cows led by Masaai and the plains seemed to stretch on endlessly. Mt. Meru didn't show its face but the clouds constantly rolled off the mountain. We also learned that the road we took can lead us all the way to west Kilimanjaro so if we ever fancy taking the "long way" to Arusha, we now know the way!

Larks are found on the ground, so I think we were looking at something else here.

A nice cloudy day on the plains.

Lake Jipe

I'm always happy to go on a day trip and these days it feels like we've exhausted our options. But there is ALWAYS more to see and this weekend we decided to try to go to the infrequently visited Lake Jipe. Shallow, narrow and enclosed by dense beds of tall papyrus, Lake Jipe runs for 10km along a natural swamp, nowhere more than 3m deep, on the Kenya border between Kilimanjaro, the main source of its water, and Mkomazi National Park.

It’s an atmospheric body of water, with an awesome setting: the Pare Mountains to the south, Chala crater rising from the flat plain to the east, and, when the clouds clear, Kilimanjaro hulking over the northeast skyline. Lake Jipe is seldom visited, and almost never from the Tanzania side, but it is reasonably accessible, and there’s quite a bit of wildlife around, since part of the northern shore is protected within Kenya’s unfenced Tsavo National Park. The lake itself extends over 28 square km and is teeming with hippopotami and crocodiles, while the papyrus beds harbor several localized  birds,

Due to the infrequency of visitors, information is not very clear on how to reach it but we figured we could do an exploratory trip and see how far we got. After all, the area around the lake was sparsely populated so we figured we wouldn't have any problem asking around.

Overall we were successful in finding the lake though we realized we hadn't left enough time to actually get on the lake. We also underestimed just how thick the reed cover was as we couldn't even see the lake when we were on the supposed shore. We did manage to find some guys that would take us out on a very basic canoe but we didn't have enough time to make it out. Apparently navigating through the reeds takes some time and I certainly don't want to rush the boatmen considering the hippos and crocs!

I think we will return and camp, then head out on the lake in the early morning. It'd probably be wise to bring some umbrellas for the sun, which might appear a bit bourgeois for the locals but I think it might get a bit hot on the lake. Can't wait for the return trip!

Local bee-hives on the way.

Early in the morning on our way there we stopped along a river that drains to the lake.

On the lake shore. Can't see anything over the reeds.

North Pare mountains in the background.

The lake shore, with reeds.

The plains in the east on the road to Jipe.

North Pare Mountains on the way back.

Nyumba ya Mungu: Trip VII

Young Masaai crosses the frame.

Nyumba ya Mungu is one of our favorite places to go (Trip I, II, III, IV, V & VI) and I continue to enter these trips mainly for the sake of posterity. I've already taken loads of pictures and written much about it but I consider it a real special place and loads of fun to drive the rough road to reach.

This trip we took a fellow birder named Pete out to the lake. We spent a long time on the road there as it's full of birds. When we reached the lake around noon there were a ton of people fishing, washing their clothes, and selling fish onward to the markets. As usual it was very hot and we could only be out for about an hour before we retired to the car for lunch. The lake was as low as we've ever seen it which was great for watching birds as you could get close to reed beds packed with birds.

Overall we had a great day though the heat remains the biggest challenge of Nyumba ya Mungu. However, there is no way around it so we just make sure to drink lots of water and stay covered!

Ana looking across the plains.

Checking out some birds!

Cows grazing in the shallows.