Mt. Kilimanjaro: Day 2

Clouds cleared last night and I had a great view of the stars. In the middle of the night, on a trip to the outhouse, Orion was straight up and the moon shown brightly on the Mt. I could see the glaciers and snow quite clearly.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I had trouble sleeping, maybe the altitude, maybe it was because I haven't slept in a tent on the ground in 20 years. But at least I was warm all night wearing one layer of long john type underwear (I have two layers). In the morning we had frost so it did get cold. But once the sun's rays reached our camp it warmed quickly and by the time we set out no jackets were needed. In fact today's hike was a steep ascent right from the start as we left the rain forest and moved into scrub. All day we ascended a along a ridge top in very dusty conditions. After 5 hrs we reached Shira camp, only 3.5 miles and about 2700 feet higher. Again today our guide set a slow pace so we would have the maximum chance to acclimate. We are now at 12,000 feet. I and others in my group now feel the altitude, if one moves too quickly you become short of breath.
The days hike afforded wonderful views of the peak, off an on, clouds would obscure part of the peak, but mostly it was sunny and visible. We can now differentiate glaciers and snow fields on the top.
Birding has been pretty slow. For new birds, I saw an Abyssinian Crimsonwing in the rain forest yesterday, and Alpine Chats today above 11,000 feet. Of course I've seen some birds I can identify, like large falcon that flew over my tent this afternoon.

Mt. Kilimanjaro: Day 1

Today started off slowly. We had to wait almost an hour to get the group registered at the Machame Gate, divide up our gear and the camp gear among the porters. There was quite a crowd, maybe 50 hikers in many groups, all trying to start the climb. When I registered I noticed among the 40 climbers who registered I was the third oldest and as the start got closer, for the first time I felt nervous about the climb.
Finally about 11:00 we set off, our guide set a very slow pace. We hiked through a dense rain forest of trees over 100 feet high and covered in moss and lichens. Although it was cloudy all day, we only had a bit of mist and no rain.
At first it seemed frustrating slow. But 5 hrs, 7 miles and 4000 feet higher when we pulled into our camp site, I was surprised how good I felt and never felt I had to breath hard. So far so good!
One surprise to me and my 5 hiking companions, was our lunch. We ate on a portable picnic table and enjoyed hot soup and chicken, as well a fruit salad. Quite a step above the usual granola bar and peanut butter lunch I usually have while hiking.
I tried to do a little birding along the way, but the overcast sky and thick rain forest made it very difficult to see or identify birds.
Our camp accommodations include a individual two man tent for each hiker, so we have plenty of room to spread out our gear.
Its about 9:00 PM and its become quite cool outside, which makes going to the outhouse a chilly experience.

Africa: Impressions after 3 weeks

I've now had a chance to see a fair amount of East Africa: bustling cities like Nairobi and Arusha, fast growing small cities like Moshe and Nakura, dozens of towns and villages, and all the space in between from near desert at Baringo, dry grasslands in Kenya and Tanzania, scrub and scrub forests, highly developed tea, coffee, and pineapple mega farms, small farmer plots in the Kenyan highlands, Masai herders in the Sarengeti, and wood gathers in the forests.
What I see is a region where most people are poor, but no evidence of anyone going hungry. Everywhere there are small private and government schools apparently competeing to educate kids, and nearly all kids I saw were in school or going to or from school, since tbey were in school uniforms (every school had different color combinations). But I also saw quite a few orphanages. Of all these kids I only saw 2 in torn clothes. One of the great challenges facing East Africa is not educating its population, but creating enough jobs for them. Our guide indicated unemployment is above 40%, so in every town you see people in front of small 4 by 4 foot stick/wood stands or just sitting by a blanket selling things: fresh vegetables, clothes, shoes, plasticware, tarps, roasted corn, bananas, sugar cane stalks, drinks (Coke seems to have provided Coke Kiosks by the 10's of thousands). In some areas there were 100's of the single person selling plots lining the road up to 8 deep.
Another affect of high unemployment is a differential impact on men and women. At every village and town groups of young men seem to be sitting around talking. But never did I see women in these idle groups. Women were in the woods getting wood, around homes tending gardens, and presumably taking car of kids and preparing meals.
Everywhere people walk, the paths near roads cities and villages (sidewalks are rare outside of citty centers), are jammed with people going in all directions, they cross trafic with little regard for traffic and even cross 4-lane major highways all over.
The poverty level of folks seeems highly correlated withrainfall. In the dry grasslands, houses are small cow dung and stick shelters. In scrub forest the houses are bigger, many have mud brick or even cement block walls with stick or reed roofs. In the moist highland areas, every one can grow crops and the houses now are mostly cement block with metal roofs. But it seems within any given area most people are very nearly equal in wealth. Only in the a city or large village will you see large homes inevitably behind a sturty wall or fence while others live in small shacks.
Africa is no longer disconnected from the modern world (if it ever was), cell phones are wide spread, even cattle herders in traditional blankets were seen on cell phones. Numerous charging stations were seen in towns so folks without electricity can charge their phone batteries and load prepaid minutes (no monthly billing). As an area's wealth increases first the number of bicycles goes up, then motorcycles, and especially near and in cities, cars are causing massive traffic jams. And its very common to see both bikes and mortor cycles used as trucks: I've seen bikes with wood, corn, or reds 12 feet high behind the rider, and motorcycles often carry 3 or 4 people. But the most prevelant form of transportation (after walking) are 14 passenger vans called matutus, that drive up and down roads picking up and discharing folks. A massive private bus system, where drivers dart in and out of traffic to get customers.
Kids, like kids everywhere, seem playful and quick to smile. In many places we were the only non-Africans around: kids smiled and waved at us, many followed us to see what we were up to. Older folks tended to look as skeptically, though when we passed folks on foot birding, most were quick to say 'Jambo' or hello.

Mt. Kilimanjaro: Day -1

Flew into Kilimanjaro International Airport this morning and have been preparing for the start of the climb tomorrow. The skies were clear and the Mt. looks very high! Our flight from Nairobi only went to 17000 ft, 2500 feet lower than the peak.
I am staying in the town of Moshe, Tanzania, which is the stepping off place for climbs. Mt. Kilimanjaro and surrounding foot hills are protected as Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park.
I haven't met the climbing guide yet or the other 4 climbers in my group. But the plane seemed about half full of folks with hiking boots and backpacks, so it's likely multiple groups are going up.
I am going to try to bird watch along the way, everyone says the key to success is to go slow, and of course birding forces me to stop which will slow my pace.
I can see lots of snow/ice on the Northeast side of the Mt. The two pictures were taken between 10:00 amd 11:00, when the Mt. was clear but hazy. By 1:00 clouds had obscured the peak.

Africa: Mt. Kenya

From lake Baringo, we headed south and east, crossing the equator four times. The last night of the birding and wildlife safari, brought me to the Mt. Kenya Lodge, located at 7200 feet on the slopes of Mt. Kenya, the second highest peak in Africa with a summit at 17,300 feet. I learned on the trip that at one time both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya were in Kenya, but in the 1880's, Queen Victoria "gave" Mt. Kilimanjaro to her cousin, the German Kaiser, as a birthday present! Then Tanzania was called German East Africa.
The Mt. Kenya Lodge is built around a water hole and salt lick (actually its clay with minerals so it looks like the animals come to eat dirt), that forrest wildlife have used for 100's of years. Every room in the lodge looks down on the water hole so you can watch wildlife from every room. It is sort of like a slow parade: first a half dozen Bush Buck came into the clearing, then 4 African Buffalo, after they left 8 elephants came and went, then more bush buck, etc. All the animals move pretty slowly and cautiously, I imagine they are a bit exposed. Predators such as hyena and leopard occasionally show up, but I didn't see them. At dark the lodge turns on several large lights so one can stay up all night watching if you want (I put in a request to be awakened if a leopard showed up). After dark mash and striped mongppse as well as a Genet (a cat like mongoose) showed up, as well as to hawk-owls.
In the morning we looked for canopy birds from the roof observation deck. I saw a number of new birds and had great looks at an African Emerald Cuckoo, which as it name implies is a spectacular, almost metallic emerald green above with a brilliant yellow underneath. It was one of the most enjoyable lodges.

Africa: termites?

As I traveled around Kenya and Tanzania I have seen a wide variety of termite nests. In the tropics, termites are the largest animal biomass and it shows. In some locations termite mounds (nests) are spaced about every 20 feet and are 3-5 feet high and 10 feet in diameter. Sometimes they are just mounds, some times they have multiple towers giving them the appearance of a castle, and here near Lake Baringo, they produce chimneys over 10 feet tall (see photos).
The termite mounds vary in color depending on the local soil. I've see light brown, dark brown, grey, red, and tan mounds.
Although most termite mounds have been on the ground, some termites carry mud up trees and build their mounds around branches, or around tree trunks. These are not as large as the ground mounds, often only a bit bigger than a basketball. Some termites in Kagamega Forest build nests that were attached to the side of a tree trunk, and just looked lie the weight would have pulled the colony down.
Also attached is a photo of Jackson's Hornbill that flew into the vines next to our table during lunch. And a dramatic view of cliffs formed as the Great Rift Valley floor sunk. Near Baringo the rift cliffs form three massive steps from the rim down to the valley floor.

Africa: Hornbills!

As anyone knows who has seen the Lion King, Hornbills are large black and white birds with very big bills. So I was looking forward to seeing one in its natural habitat. There are actually 20 species of hornbills in East Africa, differing in bill color and overall coloration. However, only 10 are found in the parts of Kenya and Tanzania that I have visited.
Amazingly, as of today, I've seen 9 different Hornbills! Including 4 different species this morning.
In the dry scrub lands I've seen Yellow-billed and Red-billed Hornbills; in the more woodland areas I've seen Grey Hornbills. A particular weird one, the Ground Hornbill, which has a massive black bill and red face, feeds on the ground and is huge: over 3 feet high. It acts more like a turkey than a hornbill.
But one of the highlights of Africa was seeing the Black-and-white casqued Hornbills. This moist forest bird has a huge extension or casque on its bill. Its large 3 foot wings are half black and half white, which when it flies makes a whirring sound like a jet engine. Finally it has a very loud and raucous call. Overall it is unmistakable. They seem to be doing well, after dawn while waiting for breakfast at the Rondo Retreat in Kagamega forest, I counted 132 fly over the lodge, each one calling and sounding like a plane!

Africa: Day 15

At Kakamega Forest, we had a good chance to watch 3 species of monkeys travel through the canopy. The Blue Monkeys seem the most energetic moving rapidly from tree to tree. The Copper Tailed monkeys moved more slowly, making shorter jumps. The most beautiful of the monkeys were the Black and White Colobus monkeys. They were the largest and made some of the longest leaps.
The most interesting Black and White Colobus I saw was sitting at the very top of a tall tree, one leg crossed over the other at the knee, motionless and apparently very pensive. He seemed to be contemplating the biggest questions of monkey life.
Today we left the wet, cool Western Kenyan forests (elevation 6200 feet) and drove down into the Great Rift valley to Lake Baringo. Since the lake elevation is only 3000 ft, it is hot, dry scrub country. This will be our hottest location with afternoon temperatures well into the 90's.
We made a few short birding stops, and reached the Lake Baringo Club in the afternoon, where we had time to check out the bird life around the lodge. The 20 new species seen today pushed the trip total to an amazing 412 and our mammal total has reached 44!

Pictures from Nakura NP

I have a good connection today so here are photos of Flamingos, a Waterbuck, 2 white rhinos, baboons, and some impala.

Africa: Day 13: The Forest

Yesterday was mostly spent traveling, first to the northeast corner of Lake Victoria, which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world and the source of the Nile. It is also the western border of Kenya and Uganda. The lake shore is mostly lined with towns and villages, but we reached the lake shore at a small conservation area. However, our stay was short as a strong thunderstorm boiled in off the lake.
Late in the day we reached Kakamega Forest Reserve. A relatively small remnant of the forest that once filled the Western Highlands. All the rest has been cut down for small farms or vast tea estates.

Tea is still Kenya's largest export, and individual estates (or farms) can extend for 10's of miles and employ over 10,000 workers on a single estate. Each section of tea is picked every 14 days, only the last 2 leaves of each stem are picked, all by hand. We stopped at an estate for a picnic lunch, the tea bushes were about 3.5 feet high, to minimize bending over when the leaves are picked.

There are no large predators in the forest preserve so unlike our visits to the national parks, we don't have to stay in our van. So today we walked along the forest dirt roads and trails looking for birds, It was the best day for new birds in a week and I saw 38 new birds, even though we cut the afternoon short because of rain. Most days, even in the dry Serengeti we've had short afternoon rains (15 min to an 1 hour), but today the rain came at 4 and continued until dark (about 6:30). So we returned to our lodge.

The lodge is an interesting place, its actually a retreat for Baptist ministers who get stressed out working in Africa. But the take tourists to pay for the cost of the retreat. It has a beautiful gardens and grounds, a lovely trail along a small
creek, and is the only lodging in the forest.

Although there are no predators or grazing wildlife around, we did see 3 species of monkeys, including a really pretty black and white monkey called the Black and White Colobus.

There were several pretty amazing birding highlights today. I will describe just three. First I saw an African Emerald Cuckoo. This bird is a brilliant emerald green back, head, and neck, then a stunning yellow breast, truly beautiful. Second while walking on the road, two African Grey Parrot flew over, since only 9 are known to be left in Kenya, this was a very lucky rare sighting. The third sighting was of an African Crowned Hawk-Eagle. This is the second largest eagle in East Africa, and the most powerful. It has been observed killing a 300 lb Eland, and seen carrying a 40 lb dog. In Kakamega Forest, the Hawk-Eagle hunts monkeys, so when we heard loud screeching from nearby monkeys we looked up and were fortunate to see an African Crowned Hawk-Eagle flying just below the canopy and then land in a tree close to us. Allowing us close views through the spotting scope at this large (3-foot long), uncommon and rarely seen beyond a glimpse, raptor.