When I woke this morning, at 5:45, and had my shower (lots of solar hot water: enough to burn you if you were not careful), the sun was starting to come up. So I went out on the front porch to see what i could see. In front of me was the lake, but in the space between, we saw several zebras, some wart hogs, birds, and a pink haze on the lake which turned out to be a mass of flamingoes.
Breakfast was great, and we were off to the park not long after 8 AM.
The trip to the Park was along back roads, through farming areas quite different from those we saw at Kilimanjaro: these were large fields, generally quite flat, tilled sometimes by a tractor and sometimes by oxen, and the soil was more moist. This did not translate into general prosperity, unfortunately. Many houses were quite poor, lots of people who seemed okay, but not well off. And cattle and goats, as before, who were thin to the point that we could count the ribs. We passed a few schools, with the children in them today (it is Monday).
And then we arrived at the Park. By this time, the terrain had become somewhat hilly, and the vegetation seemed more lush. There had been some rain here, and it showed. We were in the shadow, so to speak, of the Rift Valley wall (the eastern part of it), and that helped to keep it greener. We went through a fair bit of forest, saw some elephants along the way, and then came out to the Lake itself, and its coastal plain. We could drive almost to the water, and got some good shots of lesser Flamingoes, White cranes, Pelicans. As well as some Cape buffalo, wart hogs, baboons.
After a pleasant long time visiting this area, we adjourned for lunch along the road at a roadside picnic area. Here there were hot springs which fed into the lake, with the characteristic smell, and the look of algal growth—fascinating.
And then we were off to the other gate to exit towards the lodge for the night. Along the twenty-kilometre roadway we must have run into four packs of baboons, totaling altogether about 250 animals, everything from old males to newborns to nursing mothers. And, in between, we saw many elephants. It was clearly their day. The baboons were often on the road, in the shade of the trees. And the elephants were beside, and in one case on, the road as well. So a lot of wildlife, and a pleasant day. Arrived at the Lodge before five, and am settling in before supper.
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Location:Karatu Simba Lodge, Rhotia, Tanzania
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