Day 57 and 58

 Day 57 

This morning, as we sat on our decking, watching the sunrise, we were entertained by a group of monkeys playing on the beach.

Once we were dressed we went for a walk along the beach in the opposite direction to yesterday before returning to the lodge for breakfast.

Caspian Tern

Great Egret

Common Sandpiper

White Throated Bee-Eater

Later this morning we followed one of the way marked “bird walks”. It was actually quite a lot hotter than we had realised so we spent quite a bit of time in the lodge “bird hide” where we did see some monkeys and banded mongoose as well as a few birds. We both agreed that really this walk was probably best done early in the morning or in the evening.

Common Bulbul

Large Dung Beetle

Emerald Spotted Wood Dove

We stopped at the bar for a cold drink and ended up staying up there chatting with Tino until lunchtime. Today we had some pasta with some avocado on the side followed by fruit salad. I think the message about a light lunch has got through.

This afternoon we met up with Tiso and Hamisi for a game drive in Saadani National Park. The camp has an open sided land rover so we can sit down for the game drive. It is about a 15 minute drive to the park gate and just outside we some colobus monkeys up in the trees. 

When we enter the gate, the ranger’s small daughter wants to come and say hello and have a sit in the car. 

We then set off on our game drive. Saadani is a much smaller National Park than others that we have visited and has far fewer animals however during the afternoon we see large groups of buffalo, waterbuck, reedbuck and impala. We also see some giraffe, zebra and warthogs as well as quite a few groups of yellow baboons.

Of course we also see a variety of birds and particularly enjoy watching the Northern Carmine Bee-Eaters as they fly alongside the car trying to catch insects.....though getting a good photo of them doing this proves challenging as they are constantly changing direction.

European Roller

Senegal Lapwing 

Yellow Billed Stork

African Fish Eagle

Red Backed Shrike

White Faced Whistling Duck

About 5.45 we arrive at the Tourism Office where we need to pay for our visit. As always these things are never quick and we seem to be there for about 30 minutes. Once the paperwork is done we drive a direct route back to the park gate not getting back to the lodge until gone 7 when it is now dark. We stopped for a few sightings on the way and got to see a nice sunset.

We had enjoyed our afternoon in the park and as well as doing some game viewing, we had learnt some more about the local area and the challenges faced when there are small groups of people who still live in an area surrounded by the park. 

On our return to the lodge we went straight to the restaurant for a drink and then dinner.

Day 58

Today we had arranged to do an early morning bird walk. We met up with Hamisi at 6.30 and set off on a bush walk around the local area. It was definitely a lot cooler than our mid morning walk yesterday!! 

We walked for a couple of hours and enjoyed the exercise. We saw a variety of birds, some of which were new for us though on occasions we struggled to get decent photos.

Lilac Throated (Breasted) Roller

Common Scimitarbill

Spotted Flycatcher

Black Collared Barbet

African Golden Weaver

Red Eyed Dove

Broad Billed Rollers

We returned to the lodge for coffee and breakfast and then spent a lazy day relaxing on our decking and swimming in the sea.

Below is the map showing our trip from Mambo View Point to Saadani. This was 260Km (162 miles) . The drive down to Lushoto took 2 hours, it was then another hour to reach the main road at Mombo and then a bit over another 4 hours to reach Saadani. So total time travelling was around 7 hours 15 minutes. 

The second map shows our entire trip. The total distance  now travelled by road to 4445 Km (2778miles).