Camping in Simanjiro

As Mama B has previously advertised we headed out this weekend for a fun camping weekend with friends. The original plan had been to drive out to the seasonal wetland and sand river we'd been to before, but then we heard that the wetland, which was full in January, was already dry. So instead we joined up with another set of friends who'd planned to camp at a new site further south on the Simanjiro plains where they have been running a 'land easement' project aiming to ease the pressure on the land so the animals that migrate out of Tarangire between November and June have somewhere to go to. I've been down in the general area before, but Mama and the kids hadn't, so it was set to be an adventure for all.

Driving out of Arusha was, as always, a moment of joy (once we'd returned home to collect the mattresses, that is - after I'd looked in the mirror and wondered why I could see out...). Even if we rapidly hit the dessicated plains full of dust the kid's christened Dust Devil Desert for obvious reasons. Still, it was the best part of a 3hr bump past some hot (but as yet childless) wildebeest and a few other beasts down to our destination in the middle of a patch of Commiphora woodland.

From there the pictures probably tell the story best...

Red-fronted Barbets are nice

Son of one set of friends had a fancy flying machine. Here he's warming it up...

Then you have to run very fast...

before you can whizz about over the trees (and confuse the giraffe!)

Some pretty patches of Senegalia around too - used to be Acacia...

Commiphora are lovely trees. Learn about them on my other blog here!

Not all bids and trees though!

Could almost have been school...

The plains were hot and dry

But by the time we headed home the baby wildebeest had started!

Cute! Must be one day old...

And approaching Arusha we hit a dust storm preceeding the first rains of the long wet. Where's the road?!

All in all a lot of fun with many friends in the bush. And nice to see where the Tarangire wildlife gets to at this time of year. (You can learn more about the Tarangire Wildebeest Migration on my other blog too!)