Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 21

Tags

Big Cat Festival, Bradt Travel Guides, Bushbuck, Camp Nkwazi Lodge, Chacma baboon, finfoot, Fish eagle, Hadeda ibis, hippo, hooded vulture, Jonathan Truss, kudu, Lion in Trafalgar Square, quinine, Reed cormorant, Trumpeter hornbill, village weaver, Zambezi River, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Our final day ended with a ‘sunset cruise’, intended, we were told, less to look for wildlife than to just enjoy the experience of being on the (Zambezi) river for a couple of hours. As I stood beforehand on the terrace of the Camp Nkwazi Lodge…

Reed cormorant

Hippo

Far off on the opposite, Zimbabwean, bank, kudu

Chacma baboons

As people started embarking, I held back to get this picture, and feared that I was therefore condemned to sitting in the full sun of the open top deck. But in fact, given the breeze created by the movement of the boat, it was lovely up there.

Village weaver and nests

It was very pleasant along the river, and, uniquely, sundowners were offered – I had gin and orange, the quinine in tonic not being good for my tinnitus. (Sorry, sufferers.)

We hugged the Zambian bank. I wondered if we would come back that way as well, given that halfway across the river we would be in Zimbabwe.

Looking fore as we set off

Looking aft

A lot of hadeda ibis and one egret

My geopolitical query was answered when we went well over the invisible dividing line halfway across the river when we turned round. So perhaps this trip should have been advertised as ‘Namibia/Botswana/Zambia/ Zimbabwe’. Though truth to tell, we had only ventured a few miles even into Botswana and Zambia.

Hadeda ibis. In addition to its iridescent green ‘flanks’ it has iridescent pink shoulders.

Juvenile fish eagle. It did not seem bothered by us (this a very much zoomed photo), but …

… in due course it flew off.

A young bushbuck

Hooded vulture

Village weaver nests

We drift back over to the Zambian side.

Zimbabwe

I tried, not very successfully, to capture photos of birds low-flying back to their roosts.

As we arrived at the lodge, the owners signalled that there was a Finfoot (‘Uncommon resident.. resemble ducks and cormorants but … unrelated to these groups’, and not yet seen by us) on a small island nearby, so we went in search. Some got a reasonable but fleeting view, I saw it for about half a second scrambling up a bank, and some didn’t see it at all. No question of my photographing it.

But we did hear and see some trumpeting Trumpeter hornbills, and saw some more Hadeda ibis.

And could this be bettered as a final view at the end of a most fantastic and privileged trip?

PS. I went, last Saturday, to a Big Cat Festival in London organised by Bradt Travel Guides. There were lots of wonderful photographs, alongside some hard-hitting conservation messages. In Africa, except when we were at sewage works (!), where it was possible to see some wonderful birds, we had been in national parks, which exclude permanent human habitation. I would not like to have given the impression that these three countries are teeming with wildlife. Our visit was only possible because their governments see the value of preserving what remains of the living treasures they house. At the same time they are having to deal with expanding human populations, and drought.

At the Big Cat Festival, I saw this large picture, by Jonathan Truss. He kindly allowed people to take photos of it. (Sadly I only had my tiny phone with me.) If those lions we saw a few weeks ago had been even half the size of this imaginary one, I think that our confidence around them, even protected by our vehicles, would have been somewhat diminished!

Tanzania 11

Tags

Anthony Collins, baboon, Bilharzia, DRC, Fish eagle, Gombe Stream, Jane's Peak, Lake Tanganyika, Olive baboon, schistosomaisis, Tanganyika

The next day, Tuesday 23rd February, for various reasons I decided not to go out with the group (along with three others). Instead, I spent the morning being entertained by habituated baboons on the beach.    All of baboon life was there!

Scrabbling for crumbs left by picnickers the previous day!

She groomed him for 20 minutes in the hope of his service.  But she’s past her best, and in due course he told her to get lost.

 

Do not leave washed tablecloths to the mercies of the wildlife!

 

Lake Tanganyika is tidal and has waves, it is so deep and big.

When the others came back late morning, we all went indoors, upstairs to the dining room, to have drinks and snacks.  Somehow a big male baboon got into the building, up the stairs and onto the table, snatching crisps and biscuits, all in a matter of a few seconds.  I learned later that this one was known to be a thief, son of a mother thief.

We went outside, and watched the antics of the troop, all members of which had moved from the beach to the main building.

Despite the inside grill, this young baboon got in – to the bedroom of one of us!

Late afternoon, we were very pleased to make the acquaintance of Dr Anthony Collins, who had worked continuously at Gombe since 1967, working on a study of these very Olive baboons (to give them their full title).  We took full advantage of the opportunity to ply him with questions about Gombe.

The following day, our last, for the trek we were down to three plus organiser, due to injury, illness and uxorial concern.  This meant that if, while we were out, I were to feel that I could not carry on at some point there would be a spare local guide to accompany me back. (One is not allowed out trekking without this local expertise and experience.)  The aim was to get to ‘Jane’s Peak’, where, an advance party had told us, had just been seen some chimps.

The start of our walk

On the way up, Dr Collins joined us.  I was very pleased to make it to the Peak, but sadly we saw no chimps.  Our local guides, who had been scampering around and calling to each other, told us that there were nevertheless some to be seen, but quite a long trek further on.  Exhausted and sweaty, I decided not to continue.  However, instead of one of the local guides staying with me, it was Dr Collins who did so.

From Jane’s Peak.  The speck is …

… a young fish eagle

Dragonfly optional

Mature fish eagle

Over there, the other side of Lake Tanganyika, is the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Panorama at the top of Jane’s Peak

He and I  remained at Jane’s Peak – so named because she early on established that this was an excellent viewpoint to observe where her research chimps were – for the best part of an hour, and then gently made our way down back to the centre.

By far the best butterfly in the whole trip.  About 8 centimetres high, and rarely staying still, according to Dr Anthony.

Seen on the walk down, and not part of the habituated troop.  The baby is very young and still staggering around.

What a privilege for me this was!  Someone who always wants to know everything about everything, I had a captive source of information, a world expert on baboon behaviour, one who had lived at Gombe for nearly 50 years.  Dr Collins did not seem to tire of answering my questions, not only on baboons but on Jane Goodall’s work, and the continuing research at Gombe Stream.  What a lovely morning I had!  It was like having David Attenborough to myself!  I didn’t mind the absence of chimps, though was very pleased to learn from the colleagues who did continue that – after another 90 minutes’ exhausting trekking  – they had excellent sightings, a just reward for their efforts.  So we were all happy.

The afternoon was spent sitting around, on patio and on the beach, for as long as we could stand the heat, and Dr Collins joined us later on, staying for dinner as well.

We were to leave the next morning, to start the reverse of the journey back to Dar es Salaam – boat, a night in the guest house, three-hour flight, but had a couple of hours to spare before then.  Dr Collins invited us to go along the beach to the simple house in which he lives – ‘Jane’s House’ – where she still stays when she visits, as she had just two weeks previously.  (While we were allowed to explore the barn-like building, it would certainly not have been good form to take photos!)

Why am I finishing this account with a picture taken when I and three others were dabbling our toes in Lake Tanganyika that last afternoon?  Because it emerges that one (at least) of our number has come back with the very nasty disease, bilharzia, caused by minute worms entering the skin from bathing in fresh water in tropical regions. (More info here:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/schistosomiasis/Pages/Introduction.aspx )

Now while I didn’t go swimming in the Lake at either Kigoma or Gombe, I had no option but to shower in water taken from it – and there was that dabbling of course.  I am awaiting the outcome of a precautionary test, but I’m not the least bit worried.  Treatment is simple and effective.

The water was lovely and clear and warm…