National Park. The park is one of the smaller parks among the Game Parks in the Northern Tanzanian Circuit but it was more enjoyable than the last safari I went on in Mikumi National Park. Arusha NP is supposedly the only park where you can get out and walk/hike around, which we did for a couple of hours and were able to get much closer to the animals than we had been in the car. You won't be able to see all of the "Big 5" (Lion, Rhino, Elephant, Giraffe, and Leopard) here but you will be able to see a bunch of giraffes and baboons and if you are lucky a few elephants. Also impressive were flamingos and eagles above the lakes.
My tour guide Guardan led me and two other "mountaineers" :) throughout the park carrying a loaded gun. The buffalo is the only predator in the park that would potentially attack people. Guardan has been working as a tour guide in Arusha NP for 5 years and he has only had to fire the gun once! We were glad we did not make it number two.
Arusha NP is more 'hilly' and 'woody' than Mikumi National park and is much smaller, but has beautiful sites - its known for the Ngurdoto Crater and the lakes - we saw a couple of hippos sunbathing out of the lake but from quite a distance. Also caught glimpse of a group of flamingos and eagles soaring but was difficult to photo despite my advanced training in photography:)
above: Kilimanjaro peak (~5900 meters/19,000 feet)
below: Twiga = kiswahili for Giraffe
above: family of giraffes. The male giraffe has two horns on the head, the females can be recognized by the hair standing up along their backs.
below: the waterfalls - source of water from Mt. Meru. That is Emily in the picture - she was on safari with her boyfriend James from the UK. Nice couple.
above: a herd of buffalo - the only animal that would potentially attack us. Apparently we didn't look very appetizing or the buffalo were not hungry during our safari
More Twigas
above: pair of twigas (male and female)
below: couple of hippos sunbathing out of the lake
above: Ngurdoto crater - a "mini Ngorongoro crater" the base is mostly swamp land. We saw a herd of buffalo way out in the distance, too far away to photo.
below: twiga on break
The baboons. While we drove past a large group of baboons up in the trees we caught a brief shower of baboon droppings through the opening in the roof of our car, making baboons a dangerous animal for a different reason.
above: pundamilia is Kiswahili for zebra
I'm back in Dar Es Salaam now. Will meet with my manager tomorrow and then fly South to Mtwara on Tuesday.
Looking forward to finally getting settled in a house and starting my new post in Lindi.
2 comments:
Amazing pictures Neil. What a great way to end your northern tour. Safe travels and let us all know when you are settled into Lindi. I was able to see a satellite photo of your new hospital on Google Earth and you are almost literally on the ocean. Looks beautiful!
dad
Great pictures Neil! Good luck in Lindi!
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