Lake Manyara National Park

On Sunday we plus Stephanie were up early and off to Lake Manyara National Park for the day.  It is about 2 hours south-west from home.  Contrary to some advice we were allowed in as tourists with a private car - so that is now clear.

On the way we stopped for fuel and it came to 79,000 shillings (Aust$50) for about 34 l.  Unfortunately the pump attendant insisted the amount was 179,000 and we had quite a heated discussion - particularly after the pump reset and the receipt mysteriously disappeared.  We decided that a RAV4 only holds 55 l and drove off.  We won't be going back to that supplier.

Giraffes on the shore of Lake Manyara.

Once in the park we wandered the road network and saw many birds and mammals.  The lake holds many flamingos, pelicans, storks and herons.  The marshland has ducks, waders, jacanas, crakes and assorted weavers.  Raptors were largely absent apart from a single Fish Eagle, a couple of Bateleurs and some distant, unidentified vultures.  The bush had many birds and activity was busy all day.

Dwarf Mongoose

Hildebrandt's Francolin

Yellow-billed Stork nesting

Great White Pelican

Hottentot Teal

We nearly came to grief on one particularly boggy road but managed to think our way carefully out of it.  Soon after we met a couple in a RAV4 who were bogged for two hours on the same road and the people in a second 4WD that got bogged trying to pull the first car out.  The rest of the roads were fine however.

Elephant deep in the undergrowth.

Emerald-spotted Wood Dove

Red-and-yellow Barbet - very tame in picnic area.

Yellow-bellied Greenbul

A lovely small park but we only saw a small fraction of it. We will go back regularly and hopefully find somewhere nice and inexpensive nearby to stay overnight.

Helmeted Guineafowl

Dikdik

Black Bishop

Mammal highlights: Elephants, Giraffe, Hippos (distant), Dikdiks, Mongoose.
Bird highlights: Hildebrandt's Francolin (lifer), Hottentot Teal, Glossy Ibis, African Spoonbill, Great White Pelican, Grey-crowned Crane, Whiskered Tern, Olive Bee-eater, Southern Ground Hornbill, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Slate-coloured Boubou, African Golden Oriole, Yellow-bellied Greenbul and Hildebrandt's Starling.

Plains Zebra

Vervet Monkey

Work, a new car, birds and that election

Since the last post I have been to work a couple of days and done some work at home.  We are still waiting for work permits and inspectors have been visiting workplaces (not ours yet) so we can't be too careful.  We have no idea how this will resolve itself and no indication that our permits are likely any time soon.  Jenny goes every day as she is assured the catholic church have a special arrangement and she is legal.  I'm not convinced.

I've been working on reviewing failed funding applications with an eye to improving ECHO's success rate.  I also have been preparing a talk for a workshop on conservation agriculture coming up next month.  It will present a project I led on conserving biodiverse native grasslands on farms on the Victorian Volcanic Plains over 15 years ago.  I hope I can make it interesting and relevant.

Tree nursery at ECHO.

ECHO - Main office

ECHO - My office (door on far right)

In the meantime we have bought a car!  Another RAV4 wagon - a few years younger than the the one we had in Uganda.  It appears mechanically sound and went well on its first decent run - to the airport and back yesterday - although it is not possible to get much above 80 km/h on the roads here.

Our new car.  So far we are very happy with it.

Last weekend we visited a new friend - Per Holmen - an expat Norwegian birder who now lives in semi-retirement on a golfing estate south of Usa River.  We went on a lovely walk through the acacia woodland which surrounds the golf course and saw some great birds: Knob-billed Duck, Black-winged Kite, Gabar Goshawk, White-bellied Go-away-bird, Jacobin Cuckoo, Grey-headed Kingfisher, African Hoopoe, Greater Honeyguide, Yellow-collared Lovebird, Magpie Shrike, Superb Starling, Vitelline Masked Weaver, Chestnut Weaver, Purple Grenadier and Reichenow's Seedeater (lifer).

Vitelline Masked Weaver, Chestnut Weaver and a House Sparrow

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Per knows the birding scene here well and is keen to take us to some of the best spots he knows in the district.

The rain has continued and while welcome, makes it difficult to get things done for everyone.  It was about six weeks late this year so we hope it will continue well into June but normally June is the beginning of a four month rain-free period.  We are just missing the sunshine and a bit more warmth.

Stephanie and Jenny playing Cribbage.

Yesterday I drove to Kilimanjaro Airport to collect Stephanie - one of our friends from our 2010-11 Bukoba time.  Stephanie is having a holiday and will stay with us for a few days before and after a visit back to Bukoba to the school she taught in.  Today we went into Arusha for shopping and a nice lunch.  Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Lake Manyara National Park but we have conflicting advice on whether we can enter with tourist visas and our private car.  We will see.

While having a long lunch at a nice outdoor restaurant in Arusha today we followed the election count on the ABC.  We are so disappointed in the result and cannot comprehend how this result came about.  Can we now expect the Adani mine to go ahead, the asylum seekers to continue to languish on Nauru and Manus Island, the banks to get their promised tax cuts, no action on climate change or encouragement of electric cars, more dodgy deals for mates, support for the next US war (looming in Iran it seems), continuing degredation of the Murray-Darling basin ... ?  The thought of another three years of this is soul-destroying.

Thank the gods that Essendon had a win to keep our slim season hopes alive.

First week at work

Jenny and I started work this week.  We are still waiting for our work visas so strictly speaking we are just visiting our prospective workplaces.  I spent Monday , Thursday and Friday at ECHO and had a tour and met most of the dozen or so staff.  We have an American boss and a couple of young American women here for 6 month internships from ECHO head office in Florida.  The rest of the staff are locals with many years of experience between them.  Everybody has been most welcoming.  I've been looking at failed funding applications to see how we can improve our success rate.  Some obvious issues have stood out.  I've also been getting up to speed with the range of legumes species we work with and working on my Swahili.

On Friday I went to the Tanzanian Tropical Pesticides Research Institute.  We are planning a Conservation Agriculture workshop there in June and I have been asked to be a speaker.  The Institute holds the national herbarium and we got to look at their Canavalia (Jackbean) accessions.  Roland Bunch, a third world expert on conservation agriculture with legumes has collected some Canavalia species in Mali that he currently can't identify.  Roland is sharing an office with me and I can learn much from him.

Some of the diversity in Canavalia (Jackbean) beans. (Photo: Roland Bunch)

Yesterday (Saturday) Jenny and I went to Lake Duluti to our east for a walk.  It is a crater lake with rainforest surrounds and a great bird list.  We walked the circuit twice and saw 30 bird species (e.g. Purple Heron, Fish Eagle, Black Crake, Hartlaub's Turaco, Giant Kingfisher, Little Greenbul, Northern Brownbul, Thick-billed Weaver, Taveta Weaver and Red-throated Twinspot).  We also saw several large Monitor lizards, Blue Monkeys and Ochre Bush Squirrels.

Taveta Weaver - restricted to a small area either side of the Tz-Kenya border
- essentially around the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The first Grey Heron we've seen .

This morning we will listen to Essendon beat Geelong then do some shopping.  Later today we are looking at a Toyota RAV4 that sounds promising.  We also need to find a new bed for the spare room as we are expecting Stephanie, one of our friends from our Bukoba days, to arrive in two weeks from New York.  She will stay with us a couple of times during her visit to Tz.

Nile Monitor.

Hartlaub's Turaco.

I've had a go at getting a sourdough starter culture underway but after a promising start it turned too sour and has been discarded.

Our landlord Paul has arrived back from his other home in Tropical Queensland and has granted me custodianship of his extensive library of bird, tree, reptile etc. African books.  What a treat!

A small selection of Paul Oliver's books that I will be looking after.

Bird list: 139

Our new home

We finished our 2 weeks of Swahili language training and all received certificates.  Not sure about the other students but mine was just for attendance.  We all enjoyed our stay at the TCDC College at Usa River but were glad to be heading to our new homes at the end of it.

Road safety sign in the college grounds.  I like the way the soccer ball has bulged out the triangle side.

Fluent Swahili speakers can now order beers in local bars.

Jenny and I headed off in our little borrowed Suzuki first thing Saturday morning and drove along the new (nearly finished) southern bypass road.  A bit longer in distance but hardly any traffic and no traffic police checkpoints.  Our car's annual safety sticker is out of date and we were unable to get a new one at the Usa River police station.  They cost about 5000 shillings ($3) but we are liable to a 30,000 shilling fine every week until we get a new one.

We found the house without a problem but were early and had to wait a while for housekeeper Janet to arrive with keys.  The house is really lovely but it is sooo dark.  The trees and the design don't seem to let in much daylight. We have decided to purchase several standing lamps to move around as required.  Most of what we need is here but we will add a few items over the next weeks.  There are excellent little fruit and veg dukas just outside our gate and a range of shops along our road down to the highway.  The nearest 'proper' supermarket is about 20 minutes away - much better than our commute into Kampala for supplies when we lived in Uganda.

Wall spider near our front door.

Not sure what this chap's job is.

So far it is a quiet neighbourhood and the grounds are lovely with many large trees and flowering shrubs.  We have two dogs for company, birds and squirrels in the garden.  The other houses are occupied and we have met a couple of the neighbours.

Our front verandah.

Our back yard (now has a clothes line).

Another view of front verandah - note the bottles in the wall.

We are supposed to start work tomorrow.  Jenny has permission to start but the rest of the new volunteers are still waiting for their work permits.  We have been told we cannot legally start (but may visit). So I will pop out to work tomorrow to meet everyone properly and have a tour.  I'll grab some books from their library and stay home to read up on tropical agriculture until my permit comes through.  Wednesday is a public holiday (May Day) in any case.

Lounge-room with kitchen behind (flash used to penetrate the gloom).

Kitchen

Front door and little office area with excellent library.

Language training - week 1

Once again I have proven myself incapable of learning a new language.  I can follow the logic and rules of verb and adjective construction well enough but I have the memory retention of a goldfish when it comes to vocabulary.  This means that the word I want is never there when I want it.  Oh well!  The greetings, numbers and shopping words will have to do - again.  I endured week one and will endure week 2.

Pied Colobus

The college campus here at Usa River (-3.37016, 36.83890) is rather nice with many huge trees and a stream flowing along one side.  There are many birds but it seems they too are waiting for the wet season to arrive (now about 6 weeks late).  The birds are very quiet.  Yesterday Jenny and I were in the middle of an active mixed flock - maybe 10 species and 20 individuals and not one was making a sound.  After a week I have 50 species here including White Stork, Booted Eagle, African Emerald Cuckoo, White-eared Barbet, Green-backed Honeybird (lifer), Amur Falcon (lifer), Isabelline Shrike, Sombre Greenbul, Violet-backed Starling, Pale Flycatcher, White-starred Robin, Rüppell's Robin-Chat and Golden-backed Weaver.  There are also Blue Monkeys and Pied Colobus monkeys to entertain us.

There is a small hill in the middle of the grounds with a tower you can climb for a view over the trees to Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.  Kili is often shrouded with cloud but occasionally it shows with small patches of snow.

Mt. Kilimanjaro with snow patches.  It is 65 km away and nearly 5000 m higher than the college campus.

Yesterday (Saturday) Jenny and I went to the other side of Arusha to her workplace in Ngaramtoni.  Jenny had to fill out all her visa application papers again as she will be now applying through the Catholic church.  It is important to give the visa people no reason to reject so to be thorough she filled out forms in blue and black pen, made sure documents were printed double-sided and rewrote her resumé to fit on just one page (down from original four).  We were told our passport photos should have a blue background and the white background would be grounds for rejection so we drove into the nearest shops to have our photos retaken and another 24 printed each.  I hope they are the right shade of blue.  The chances of visas being approved in time for us starting our jobs on the 29th are slim.

Our borrowed Suzuki Jimny

We have a house and car!  We signed the lease on the house and move in next Saturday.  It will be great to stop living out of suitcases.  Yesterday we borrowed a car from Jenny's workplace - Olkokola.  They have several that are for the use of volunteers.  We scored a tiny Suzuki Jimny.  It goes well apart from a steering-wheel shudder at 70-80 km/h - wheel balance issue perhaps?  We will use the Jimny until we get our visas and will then look for a bigger Suzuki or Toyota to buy.  To celebrate our wheels we are taking the other volunteers here to lunch somewhere nearby today.

A word about the failed wet season.  Supposed to start in March we are now well through April and it still hasn't arrived.  Crops that were sown in anticipation are now looking very thirsty and many paddocks are lying bare waiting for rain so sowing can commence.  As I write this it is gently raining but we need days of good rain.  If this long wet season fails we will have to wait until October for the next, short wet season.

Bird list (122 species/4 lifers).

Week 1 Training and a safari

Our first week was taken up with some in-country training sessions (health, safety, culture) and general orientation around Arusha city.  We all visited our workplaces for an hour or so and began to sort out permanent rental accommodation and car purchases.  Jenny and I were both happy with our workplaces and are keen to get started.  Both will offer us stimulation and challenges.  I'm sure we will be useful.

Soo, me, Jenny and Phil at Momela Lakes, Arusha National Park

We have agreed to rent a lovely house in a large, bushy compound with several other houses occupied by expats.  Load this file into Google Earth to see our house (Oliver's compound) and workplace locations (Olkokola for Jenny and ECHO for me) house and work.kmz.

Master bedroom

Study

Kitchen

Dining room

We have looked at several car yards for a nice RAV4 but when we visited Jenny's workplace they said there was a Suzuki that went with the job so we will use that and take our time buying a car.  The Suzuki will be fine for work commuting and around town but I'm not sure I would take it out far.

Yesterday (Saturday) we took Soo and Phil, two of the other new volunteers, with us on safari to Arusha National Park.  This is a small park on the eastern slopes of Mount Meru.  We saw a good range of mammals (giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hippopotamus, blue and colobus monkeys) and about 50 species of birds.  The highlight was the large number of Flamingos (two species) feeding close to the shores of Momela Lakes.

Blue Monkey, Arusha NP

Greater and Lesser Flamingos, Momela Lakes

Today we are checking out of the hotel, having a welcome lunch with all the volunteers in Arusha and then heading out to Usa River to a training facility for two weeks Kiswahili language classes.  Jenny will need good Kiswahili skills in her workplace but I will be able to manage with the basics (just as well).

Bird list (81 species/2 lifers).

Day 1.

After a couple of long flights we eventually arrived around 4pm Sunday and were whisked off to The African Tulip hotel.  We will stay here for a week while we do some in-country training, get phones and housing sorted etc.  This morning we were up before dawn.  Training starts at 10am so we have spent some pleasant time relaxing by the pool and watching a few birds.