Day 08. Saturday, July 14. Arusha, TZ.

Day 1 in Tanzania.

We never really slept last night, and while up and wandering about during the dark hours, I noticed many, medium-sized, reddish bats hawking moths around outdoor lights by the gates. The bats were very busy, and a nocturnal Cattle Egret was picking up moths that dropped to the ground in an effort to evade the bats. In the early morning hours, I saw two species of swifts, Superb Starlings, Red-winged Starlings, Speckled Doves, a Black Kite, and Pied Crows flying around the airport.

Link to trip map.

At 0900 hrs, we caught a 35-minute flight from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro International Airport (Moshi town) on Kenya Airways. It was cloudy when we left, but there was a short break in the clouds over Kenya, and Mount Kilimanjaro was visible above the clouds. When landing, we dropped below the clouds and could see the Tanzanian landscape below. We could see areas of small subsistence farms, commercial greenhouses (probably cut flowers), and pasture lands. When we were low enough, we could see cows, goats, and a few people.

On the ground at Kilimanjaro Airport, we were greeted by flocks of Wire-tailed Swallows, Pied Crows, two storks, and trees alive with the calls of birds. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take a careful look, but there were, at least, a couple of mousebirds in the parking lot.

We took a 1-hr shuttle van from Kilimanjaro Airport to Arusha. Most of the land was rolling hills, and it was either farmed or urban with a little pasture land along the way. It appears there is no "unused" land around here. We saw extensive fields of corn and sunflowers.

At the Le Jacaranda Hotel in Arusha, I stayed awake long enough to see Variable Sunbirds, Speckled Mousebirds, and even a squirrel-like creature (perhaps an African squirrel?) outside the room.

In the late afternoon, Cathy and I walked to downtown Arusha to get TZ sim cards for our phones and bottled water. Lydia, Cathy's local assistant, arrived in the evening. I was really tired and went to bed early, but not too early to see a House Gecko on the wall catching moths attracted to outdoor lights. I was able to light up the gecko with my new super-duper Dorcy high-tech LED flashlight and get good photos of it without a flash.