Mkomazi Park, Tanzania

Mkomazi Park is about 200 km east & south from Arusha.

Mkomazi is Swahili for "Dry Place", and it was. Also as recently as two years ago this was a hunting reserve, not a National Park, so the animals ran pretty fast to get beyond rifle shot range.

We, the only guests stayed in one of the five set up tents. It was Bush Luxury for sure. Scenic and very quiet. There were 8 staff, plus our John, driver/guide to look after us - and we like to be independent. John was actually treated as a guest and our companion. Though he is only 28, he is very knowledgeable and very patient - a great companion on this part of our adventure. We will be sorry to have to leave him.

This was our tent from the back, looking across the valley.

Dining was a white table cloth affair - the chef Said, made great soups and salads.

As we left we had the best sighting in this park - five Giraff's, and they didn't bolt!

Though originally we did have permission to see the Black Rhinos, after a 75 mjinute bush drive, it turned out we would not be permitted to view them. We did however get to see the Wild Dog breeding program.

And we saw these two bull elephants begging for water. The main reason we didn't see the Black Rhinos- we had to wait 30 to 40 minutes for these guys to move on, before we could leave the building site.

Sandy and our attendant Frank, as we had a nice hot two hour walk around the campsite. No Lions here but lots of Buffalo, though we didn't see any on our walk, thank goodness. The buffalo live all around and wander through our campsite during the nights; and I did hear them run off when I went out to the toilet the second night.

A nice hen Ostrich we saw. We also saw six males with one hen, and another time a male with 8 hens.

Posting the blog from Tanzania will be a bit slower than I had anticipated. This posting is from a five star hotel in Arusha and it is NOT high speed hookup. We will be another 6 days before we get to Dar Es Salam and I have perhaps another opportunity to post to the blog. And to respond to email. Internet cafes are available, but I am too chicken to venture out alone.

This evening we went a block and half to another hotel to have a dinner of Indian restaurant. It was pitch dark when we left. I thought, "only a six or seen minute walk, we'll be ok" But the security at that hotel directed us to take a cab - "too dangerous. Bad guys are just waiting for white tourists to step out alone" Along the main road of Arusha there is a policeman every mile - and each one has a machine gun. At least during the day. At night it is too dark to see.

But we have to be very cautious.

Everything is going very well so far and we are definitely getting a great deal out of this trip! WE have seen lots of animals already and \i do hve lots of good photos of animals and of the life style here. Will post more when I can.

Cheers to all who read this, Brian & Sandy

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