Gerenuk

I have just returned to Arusha from a very special safari experience, a five day pilgrimage by camel, camping across Tanzanian Maasailand.

Our little band of fifteen people parted with contemporary civilization (i.e. the East African mobile phone network) at the foot of Longido mountain, a knobbly crowned eminence quite close to the Kenya border. Wending leisurely westward through shrubby northern acacia savanna and game rich open pasture we made our way between the exquisite forested peaks of Kitumbeine and Gelai, to an utterly breath-taking finale deep in the Rift Valley, beneath the perfect volcanic cone of Oldonyo Lengai, on the shimmering flamingo-sequined southern shore of Lake Natron.

Pick up at hotel in Arusha at 0600 hrs.

Drive to southern gate Arusha NP to arrive by 0715.

Drive fairly slowly through forested central area of Arusha national park to Momella gate to arrive at 0800 where collect a ranger and drive to Kilimanjaro viewpoint (2200 m) on Mount Meru birding from the vehicle en route.

A leisurely walk in the higher altitude lichen-festooned forest around the viewpoint on Mount Meru (from 0900 for about one hour) should be very productive. Spectacular Crowned Eagles display overhead with attendant Mountain Buzzards, Mottled and Nyanza Swift rush past. Dusky Turtle Dove and Lemon Dove come down to the path for grit; Bar-tailed Trogon and Black-capped Mountain Greenbul remain in the treetops. In the undergrowth and middlestorey are magical White-starred Robins, Mountain Thrush, Dusky and White-eyed Slaty Flycatchers, Cinnamon Bracken Warbler, Brown Woodland Warbler and noisy duetting Hunter’s Cisticolas. The flame flowering 'red-hot poker like' Kniphofias growing around the viewpoint attract gangs of excitable Eastern Double-collared, Taccaze and Golden-winged Sunbirds. Whilst in the herbaceous tangles are far more secretive Abyssinian Crimsonwings best located by their thin high-pitched call.