Nothing to say...

Mama B is no longer clutching her stomach, but has still to get over the aches and pains and general tiredness. Still, an improvement. And I have persuaded someone to accompany me at least one way on my trip south - Hurrah! I'm going to be doing it with a long-time resident and safari guide who knows the Tanzanian bush better than nearly anyone, so it should be a good trip. We met up this afternoon to have a brief plan and concluded that all the planning we needed was to meet on the Sunday morning with a tent and some food and we'd take it from there. That's my sort of planning for a 10 day trip into the bush... Not so easy with two small children in tow, sadly, so this will be my adventure... And if anyone wants to join me for the return journey, karibu! I'll probably be leaving Iringa on about 14th and there's plenty of space in the landrover. (I've taken the precaution of having a full service and check over today, so we should be good for the trip...)

Anyway, I have to apologise to S for calling atmospheric physics (or at least some aspects of it) 'dry'. She is quite right. It can be very wet too. And does, ultimately determine so much of the landscape and habitats of Tanzania it really can't be dull. In fact, that's why I'm so keen on heading south soon - they have a rather different climate down there, enjoying a single rainy season from December to early May, rather than our two rainy seasons up here. And it's all down to the Intertropical Covergence Zone, which I now understand the physics of for the first time thanks to my swatting up for guide training. (Though I'm still puzzled as to why we have a short rains and a long rains up here - if it's all to do with the wobble of the earth, why aren't the times the ICZ passes over head on the way South and North the same length. Hmmm. Answers on a comment please...). Down there they are tucked in the middle of the ICZ in January, giving them one long rainy season, up here we have two - and the ecology is rather different as a consequence. Most woodland/bush up here is Acacia dominated, down there it's all Miombo (Brachystegia for any botanists lurking around) and has a quite different set of birds. Hurrah! So, whilst it might be a challenge to teach a bunch of Tanzanian trainee guides all about Hadley Cells, ENSO and the ICZ (all, I confess, rather wet things here), the impacts and additional diversity it gives Tanzania has to be celebrated I guess! (NB, have I ever mentioned the fact that Tanzania has around about 1113 bird species recorded here - almost all regularly, since there really aren't enough birders here to find any vagrants... Isn't that amazing?! The whole of Europe can't get close to that total, despite the absurdly inflated lists of the UK and other sites...)

Anyway, you probably guessed I'd nothing to say really. So I'll stop...