Waterfalls camp

The first picture is not actually from Waterfall Camp, our campsite near Lake Natron but a detail from a Maasai dry season boma hut. We had the opportunity with our Arky class to go and visit a boma and try and figure out what would be around in 100 years, and what people would be able to determine from the remains. It was an very interesting exercise as the huts are made from mostly decom- posable materials wood, mud and dung) yet there were hearth stones that would show character- istic heat markings on it.

The amethyst sunbird had a nest right in our campsite, and I was enlisted by a friend to photograph it for an assignment. However, the bird seemed to like my friend much more as she apparently appeared every 15 minutes when he was observing her, but would only showed up once in 1 1/2 hours while I was watching her nest.

Waterfall Camps had a beautiful lookout over a canyon carved by a what I think is Engarasero river. We had beautiful morning there and took advantage of the spectacular scenery to grab some shots

Lake Natron

Lake Natron is a an alkaline lake with huge mudflats you can (carefully) walk on. Recently, there have been proposals for a soda-ash plant to be built right next to the lake. Conser- vationists are worried about the potential impact on this important breeding ground for lesser flamingos as Lake Natron is the principal breeding ground for these fabulous pink birds. They are pink due to the cyano- bacteria they feed on which gives them their pigmen- tation.

While Lake Natron is known for their flamingos, they also host a fabulous array of water birds including the European spoonbill, stilts, storks, stints, kingfishers, plovers, pelicans, ibises and more! A group of us got so into the birding, we managed to miss a decomposing python corpse, which as morbid as it sounds would have been fascinating to see in person. Yes I'm a science geek. And proud of it.

Travel to Lake Natron, passing Ol Donya Lengai

One thing we learned throughout or travels in E. Africa was that getting from point A to point B can be fraught with unexpected delays. Today was one of those days. We were to rendezvous with our trucks that we had left in Jinja who had driven the long way around Lake Victoria to avoid the potential problems in Kenya, which we were looking forward to. While the temporary trucks we were using were fine, the seats were oriented towards the front, and we missed our middle facing buses. However, about 30 minutes from the place we were to meet, Mto Wa Mbu, our truck broke down. Something to do with gaskets or something. So while the crew tried to fix it, the other truck went to the town and then came back to get us. While we were waiting, we tried to hitch another ride, but nobody wanted to take 24 people anywhere.

From Mto Wa Mbu, we proceeded to drive to Waterfalls Camp near Lake Natron, an soda lake. The roads were all dirt, very bumpy, and difficult to navigate. There were also beds we had to navigate, and we managed to get our trucks stuck a couple of times. What was really neat was how close we passed to Ol Donya Lengai, and the times we got stuck, we were able to get out of the truck and watch the volcano. We decided the gods in the volcano were upset we got stuck, because everytime we were stuck (or so it seemed), the volcano would start spewing out ash and white lava.

The Maasai believe there is a god in the mountain who moves the smoke and lava, so if they climb the volcano, the god will bestow the gift of large cattle to the Maasai, which is important as the Maasai use cattle as a form of capital.

More feathers

More of our feathered friends. First up is the rather unappealing looking marabou stork which like to hang out near garbage and other strongly smelling things. These guys are massive, growing up to 1.5m tall.

Next is the grey headed kingfisher that was perched on a tree in a small town called Mto Wa Mbu, or mosquito river.

Last was a group of female ostriches. There was a male around, but the females were hanging out in a group together.

Arky 101

In Arusha, there is a very nice little National Natural History Museum that houses many of the Leaky's famous discoveries in Olduvai Gorge. Our archaelology professor, Dr. David Pokotylo demonstrates how our ancestors used a hammerstone and raw materials (such as quarzite, chert, obsidian, flint, etc) to make stone tools by hitting the raw material in such a way it would flake into a very sharp edged tool.

We were also in luck as Dr. Robert Blumen- schine let us look at some very nice specimens that he and his team had discovered. One was a tooth from an early hominid, and the really cool thing was an entire hominid jaw dated to about 1.8 MYA. The jaw was in pieces, but had been reconstructed, and only one tiny pieces was missing from the plate.

Ol Donya Lengai, Pascale, and MS-TCDC

Because of the political violence in Kenya, we flew to Tanzania from Uganda. I'm not normally a window seat person, but not only did I get a window seat, I ended up on the proper side to see Ol Donya Lengai which means 'Mountain of God' in Maa, the language of the Maasai. We did experience turbulence which we assumed was associated with passing relatively close to the volcano. While that was very cool, we were in for a treat later that month when we got to pass right by the volcano.

Psacale was a tortoise (can't remember the species name offhand) at our campsite outside of Arusha. At least, I think that's what we named her (it). She tended to hang out near the fences where there were plants, and while we tried to give her some vegetables and stuff, she didn't seem to like the food we gave her.

MS-TCDC or MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation was part school/part research centre. We went there for some lectures, the most interesting and entertaining (IMHO) of which was the political history of Tanzania. We had some nice lunch breaks, and we were allowed to wander the premises which had a wonderful array of birds, primates, and reptiles. I saw my first blue monkey (primatology saw them in Kibale I think), and when I was trying to figure out the name of the primate, I didn't believe there was such a monkey as the blue monkey. Turns out there is. I also saw some violet backed starlings, and a Nile monitor.

Jinja

First, we had to get from Lake Nabugabo to Jinja, and this involved a trip through Kampala. We only briefly stayed in Kampala the first day we arrived, but I ended up driving through it on many different occasions. Everytime, the traffic and congestion amazed me! However, once we got through the craziness of Kampala, it was a smooth ride to Jinja, a beautiful town at the source of the Nile river.

Jinja is home to NsFiRRI - the National Fisheries Resource and Research Institute, a public organization responsible for giving scientific information to lawmakers, policy makers and the government. There, they have a small aquarium with a huge lungfish, an airbreathing fish. This particular one is white due to being in mostly artificial light in the aquarium. Normally, they are a dark brown.

Our hotel was located very close to Owen dams, a major dam that provides much of Uganda with electricity. Our hotel had the best view of the west from it's balconies, but we could only take pictures in a certain direction so we wouldn't take pictures of the areas near Owen Dam. While we crossed the dam, we were given strict instructions not to pull out cameras, or even binoculars as taking pictures is a problem of national security.