Today was the first full day in Tanzania. We spent the morning walking through a conservation area adjacent to our lodge at Gibbs farm. The lodge was quite beautiful, each unit is surrounded by native flowering plants along a hill side. Our trail was clearly popular with wildlife. It showed signs (scat) that elephants, buffalo, and baboons had been on the trail last night. But we only saw a baboon while on the trail. The highland (about 5000 ft) forest had a modest assortment of birds, but because it was cloudy bird numbers seemed low (our guide says the birds are more active when its sunny).
After lunch we drove to Ngorongoro National Reserve. This park protects the extinct Ngorongoro crater, from the rim one looks down at a flat plain that has a large lake, mostly grassland, and a small forest all within the 12 mile diamater crater. From the rim I could see wildebeest herds, a small group of buffalo, and numerous elephants! Tomorrow we will spend the day in the crater hopefully getting close views of the mammals, and of course birds.
So far I have seen about 130 species of birds and 15 species of mammals.
Included in this post are several photos of plants at Gibbs Farm, a tree rubbed smooth by elephants, and some shots of Ngorongoro crater. The strong haze washout the details of the crater.
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