The visit to Arusha National Park was educational interesting and entertaining.
Paul is a very knowledgeable birder and has excellent knowledge of the park and the game in Tanzania.
The Park is nested on the foothills of Mount Meru, the fifth highest mountain in Africa. Mount Meru is often used as a high-altitude acclimatization warm up before conquering Kilimanjaro.
The unforgiving landscapes of Mount Meru and Ash cone, scenic view of Momella Lakes, tropical forest glades, Ngurdoto Crater are just a few of the geography of the park.
The 137 km² park is an an ecological kaleidoscope, composed of highland rainforest, acacia woodlands, crater lakes, and open grassland.
Our first destination for the day was the Ngurdoto Crater – it was misty all the way up and then after turning at the top the mist magically lifted.
We counted approximately 50 Buffalo feeding on the crater floor
Blue Monkeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys and bushbuck are prevalent in the highland rainforest, while red duikers are occasionally seen. Burchell’s Zebra, giraffe and waterbuck are plentiful.
The park is very beautiful… if you are lucky both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru may appear from their cloud blankets!
We had a wonderful day… Paul is a master birder and guide and has eagle eyes! We saw quite a few Auger buzzards!
and Jules managed to catch one in flight
Also spotted Trogon and Turaco which had us all pretty excited!
And other new sightings were the extravagant Colobus monkeys (alas very far away in distant tree) and the cheeky Sykes monkey who stands up like a little person!
we spent some time watching giraffe (Twiga) chewing the cud and reverse swallowing
The Momella Lakes are toward the eastern end of the park
These are quite saline and high fluoride levels from the volcanic action in the area – these are also very interesting as great breeding & feeding grounds for mainly lesser flamingos ( although we saw some great flamingos in amongst the flocks)
The various mosses growing on the trees in the higher reaches of the park are beautiful & eye catching
There is a magical tree (Fig Tree) that was naturally created by strangler figs that eventually killed their host tree but now has a big gap in the middle big enough for a vehicle to fit through.
We spent a most enjoyable day in the park with Paul
The Arusha National Park is well worth a visit!