TANZANIA
SEPTEMBER 9-27, 2005


I wake up and go outside to explore the garden. A flock of warblers is
moving through the flowers, except they aren't warblers, they are
AFRICAN YELLOW WHITE-EYES. A flock of crows call in the distance. They
sound odd, probably because they aren't crows, but HADADA IBIS. The
flycatcher in the tree looks familiar in silhouette, but when the light
changes, it is a bird I have never seen before, AFRICAN
PARADISE-FLYCATCHER.
This is the first day of our 17 day tour through northern Tanzania. My
wife Ellen is still sleeping in our room, next door to our good friends
Dan and Carol. In an hour our driver Geitan and our bird guide Anthony
will arrive to take us out and start our safari. They are part of the
core team of Birding and Beyond out of Arusha. Incredibly, while this is
scheduled as a birding trip, I am the only birder in our group. Ellen,
Dan, and Carol go months without even touching a pair of binoculars in
the states. However, they have shown an incredible ability to rise to
the avian challenge on previous trips. They are great at spotting birds,
and get exited about the flashier species. They even convinced me to
look at an occasional mammal.
We decided to do the standard "northern circuit" of Tanzania: Arusha
National Park, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater,
and the Serengeti. One option that Birding and Beyond offers is an
extension to Speke Bay Lodge on Lake Victoria, where we picked up
several species .at the eastern edge of their range. We also got to see
the lake fly eruption on Lake Victoria, but more about that later.
It was quite dry while we were there, which made for easy viewing of
game. We probably would not have seen some of the predator hunts that we
saw in the wet season. There was no concern about roads being impassable
due to rain or mud. On the other hand, the birds were not singing, and
the whydahs and widowbirds were in non-breeding plumage.

ITINERARY
Sept. 12 Arrive Arusha, Maasai Safari Lodge
Sept. 13 Arusha National Park
Sept. 14 Drive to Tarangire National Park, night in Tarangire
Safari Lodge
Sept. 15-16 Tarangire NP, Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Sept. 17-18 Lake Manyara, E Unoto Retreat
Sept. 19-20 Gibbs Farm
Sept. 21 Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Sept. 22-23 Serengeti National Park, Ndutu Lodge
Sept. 24-25 Speke Bay Lodge
Sept. 26 Serengeti National Park, Ndutu Lodge
Sept. 27 Leave from Arusha

September 9th.
We fly British Airways from Seattle direct to London. It is an overnight
flight; eyeshades and Ambien work better for Ellen than for me. Our
seats are in the back next to the lavatories, which have a regular
stream of patrons, including a few that strike up conversations. I make
a mental note to avoid those seats in the future.

September 10th
After an easy pass through immigration and customs in Heathrow, we
connect onto KLM to Amsterdam. KLM proves to be very picky about
carry-on weight. They balk at my carry-on that has my scope and camera
in it; it exceeds their limit of 10 kg. I pull the scope and camera out,
check the bag, and carry them loose with my small bag which has my
binocs. A short 45 minute flight has us into Amsterdam by 5PM. We make
our way via the train into downtown, and then flag a cab who takes us to
our B&B.



September 11th.
KLM is the only airlines that flies direct from Europe to Arusha. Since
the flights are so long, and since Dan has never been to Europe, we
scheduled a full day in Amsterdam on the way over. We have a great day
walking the city, and take in the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, the
Anne Frank House, and the red light district in a day. Amsterdam is a
great city for the casual American visitor; everyone speaks English, the
city is accessible by foot, prices are reasonable, and there is a lot to
see. Our host is an expatriate American who has lived there for years. I
can see why.

September 12th
We catch the morning flight to Arusha. I think that the weight
restriction on carry-on that I ran into was due to the small size of the
plane from London to Amsterdam, but no, they still have the 10 kg limit.
So once again I re-shuffle my optics and check the rest. The flight is
long, but anticipation grows as we cross the Mediterranean and cross
over the coast in Libya. Night has fallen by the time we land in Arusha,
and after negotiating our visas, immigration and picking up our bags, we
quickly find our guides Anthony and Geitan and head off.
We have booked with Birding and Beyond, a company based in Arusha that
specializes in birding tours. They are a smaller company, and don't have
the name recognition of some of the bigger operators. They offer custom,
personalized service however, and I don't see how we could have done
better.
On the drive in from the airport Dan is chatting with Anthony and
Geitan. Dan is a bit "out there", and once he determined that they had
all three been raised Roman Catholic, they were soon singing hymns in
Latin and trading Sister Gertrude stories. I sigh that this is going to
be a long trip.