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Lake Natron

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Animals
Birds
Kilimanjaro
Lake Natron
Landscape
Ngare Sero
Ol Doinyo Lengai
People
Plants

Garden — Mbahe Farm. Our first stop is Simon Mtuy's beautiful permaculture farm in the Kilimanjaro foothills.

Window — Window. My room was built mostly of recycled materials.

Garden — Permaculture Garden. Like the entire area, everything at the farm is inspired by permaculture.

Farm — The Farm. Roy strolling through the permaculture gardens at the farm.

Table — Dining. Food from the farm, except meat, and I am standing in front of a big open fire.

Malaika

Door — Yep, It's a Door

Marina and Malaika — Do I Have to Smile?

Flower — Red Hot Poker Plant

Roy — David Attenborough. Roy with a chameleon, doing his best to look like David Attenborough.

Boys — Local Boys

Marina, Miriam and Malaika

Bird — SBB. (Twitcher-speak for Small Brown Bird)

Shy Girl, Shy Cow

Cow and Marina — Bold Girl, Shy Cow

Girls — The Heywood's Model Agency. Marina, Miriam and Malaika

Marina — Marina. An Angel - well, sometimes.

Marangu gate — Marangu Gate. Approaching the National Park Gate, the official start of the walk to the summit of Kilimanjaro.

Sign — The Height of Our Fantasy. This is as high as we got. Maybe I will climb the real thing next time...

Simon — Our Host. Simon is our host at Mbahe Farm. His record has since been broken by younger runners he helped train.

Model mountain — Malaika and Marina at the Top. Our subsititute for climbing the real thing is a model of the mountain just inside the Marangu Gate.

Marangu — The Marangu Gate. Our party at the start of the 6 day walk to the top of Kilimanjaro. No we did not actually walk to the real summit.

Miriam. Mother of two beautiful girls and Arthur's wife.

Yohane Lauwo — First Guide. He guided many people to the top of Kilimanjaro in his 125 years.

Marina — Marina. Defying the cold water. There are permanent glaciers at the top of Kilimanjaro.

Old wine — Like Old Wine, Crusty but Benign

Dancing — Dancing on Rocks. Us old farts are not as nibble as we used to be.

Malaika

Roy — Beauty and the Beast. Here is proof that Roy can be nice to children!

Chagga house — Traditional Chagga House

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Tree House — In the Tree House

sign — Traditional Chagga House Sign

Dawn — Dawn over Lake Natron. Our second stop is Årke Lindstrom's Lake Natron Camp. So gob-smackingly amazing I failed to take any pics till the second day.

Great Rift Valley. Lake Natron is in the Great Rift Valley, the Serengeti starts at the top of the escarpment.

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai

Pelican

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai. Maa for the 'Mountain of God'.

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai. It is an active volcano that last erupted in 1960.

Roy — Roy. Avid biologist.

Gull — Grey Headed Gull

Pelicans — Pelican Family

Lizard

Flamingo — Elegant Flamingos

Ol Doinyo Lengai

Giraffe — Giraffe. Surely the most graceful of animals.

Giraffe — I am Hiding

Wilson and marina — Wilson and Marina

Mountain — Classic Ol Doinyo Lengai

Giraffe and mountain — Giraffe against Ol Doinyo Lengai

Zebra — Crikey! A Tourist!

Zebra — They're Off!

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai

Wild child — My Favorite Wild Child

Mountasins — Mountains over Lake Natron

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai

Zebra — Zebra Family

Arthur and Miriam

Tree and Zebra

Zebra — Zebra Filly

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai. The lava flows stretch for many kilometres around the mountain.

Flamingo — Early Morning at the Flamingo Colony

Mountain — Our Mountain. Ol Doinyo Lengai is the background to everything.

Flamingo — Greater Flamingo

Flamingo — Flasher. The brilliant pink-orange underwing flash of color is caused by the extreme alkalinity of the lake supporting algae, crustaceans and brine-shrimp containing carotenoids that the birds react to.

Bush Bash — Enroute Flamingo Colony. To call it a track is to exagerate. It's just a bush bash thru the pensinsula to the island colony.

Årke — Årke . Our host at Lake Natron Camp, Årke took some great shots.

Flamingo — Lesser Flamingo. Both the Greater and Lesser Flamingo are present but the Lesser Flamingo is rarer.

Flamingo — Flamingo Island. Most birds are nesting.

Flamingo — Flamingo Flight. It can be hard to tell one end from the other.

Flamingos — Flamingo Runway. They run on those long spindly legs before comitting themselves to their wings.

Flamingos

Flamingos — Flamingos. An early morning visit to the Greater Flamingo nesting site.

Flamingos

Goats — Goats. Maasai herd of goats.

Pelican

Pelicans — Pelican Parade

Snake eagle — Snake Eagle Takeoff

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai. Unique among active volcanoes in that it produces Sodium Carbonate based lava instead of the usual Silica-based lava.

Lake Natron — From my tent. Being a carbonatite volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai's lava causes the lake to be highly alkaline with a pH around 12.

snake eagle — Snake Eagle

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai

Pelican — Pelican in Flight

Pelicans in flight — Pelicans in Flight

Sundowners — Sundowners. Wilson leads us to the spring, our sundowner destination for today.

Contrast — A Study in Contrasts. The beauty of the contrasting landscapes brought tears to my eyes.

Spring — The Spring. The pool is fed by a freshwater spring, which sustains the grasssy, reedy swamp.

Widebeest — Wildebeest. With Ol Doinyo Lengai in the background

Spring — Arthur, Malaika and Marina. Cooling off in the spring.

Wilson and rock — Wilson and Rock. Wilson explains that the rock was used for protection.

Birds — The Odd Bunch. A single greater flamingo wades with a spoonbill, a sacred ibis and a bunch of lesser flamingos.

Falmingos — More Flamingos

Flamingos

Desert rose — Desert Rose. This strange plant has an enormous trunk (that someone has bored a hole in), very few leaves, and masses of beautiful flowers.

Fish — Fish. The pool at the spring has vast numbers of small fish that nibble your toes.

Pelican

Zebra

Feather — Feathers are Collectibles. This looks like a pelican feather but the flamingo feathers are awesome.

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Birds — How to Frighten the Birds. Birdwatching be buggered! Chasing them is much more fun for Marina.

Pelican — Ready for Takeoff

Malaika on the island — Malaika on the Island. Everyone enjoyed sundowners at Lake Natron because we always went to a different place.

Sunset from the island — Sunset from the Island

group — Sundowners on the Island. We waded out to a small island for our last sundowner.

Pelicans in flight — Pelicans in Flight

Mountain — Ol Doinyo Lengai. (The mountain of God)

Room at lodge — My room at the Lodge

Porch of villa — My Villa at the Lodge

Me at sunset — Me at Sunset

Roy enjoys a beer — Roy Enjoys a Beer. Our last sundowner at Lake Natron.

Setee — Setee in my Villa. The lodge is beautifully furnished.

Common room — Common Room. The Ngare Sero lodge common room has the biggest fireplace I've seen for a long time.

Lake — The Lake at Ngare Sero Lodge. The lodge has an extensive waterway with trout farm, energy recovery and this beautiful lake.

Tourists — Tourists on the Lake. I have no idea who they are but they took more photos than I did!

Birds on lake — Two Birds on a Lake. The lake at the Ngare Sero Lodge is popular with birds.

Kilimanjaro at sunset — Kilimanjaro at Sunset. Our only view of the summit was from Moshi, 65 km away, on the last day. A rare sight.

Begonia flower — Perfect Begonias. Everything grows to perfection on the slopes of Kilimanjaro

Waterfall and pool

The crew at the summit — The Crew at the Summit. A model of the mountain for climbers who don't want to spend 6 days getting to the top.

Waterfall — Waterfall. One of several waterfalls.

Ancient human footprint — Ancient Human Footprint. An ancient mud bed at Lake Natron captures the print of someone who passed here tens of thousands of years back.

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chameleon — Female Chameleon. Females lack horns.

Lilly

Chameleon — Male Chameleon. Males have horns on their head.

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Kid

House

goats — Goats. Domestic animals are kept close to the house, traditionally inside the house.

plants — Everything Grows

simon — Simon. Simon Mtuy is a wonderful host, but is also a serious campaigner and fund raiser for the local Chagga people.

Crossing stream — Crossing a Stream. Simon Mtuy helps the girls keep their feet dry.

heywoods — The Heywoods

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cow — Reluctant Cow

house — Under Construction. Houses take many years to build as money and resources are found.

Cress — Cress. Watercress is cultivated in every waterway.

myrrh — Myrrh. The resin is used as an analgesic and perfume.

wade — Wilson and Marina. A short wade got us from the mainland to the island for our final sundowners.

waterfall — Waterfall. Arthur risks a wet camera.

Maasai guide — Maasai Guide. This man guided us through a trackless wilderness of grass and acacia to the flamingo nesting site.

Sunset — Last Sunset. Our last sunset at Lake Natron Camp.

Common Room at Ngare Sero

Gallery: Yes