Our flight from Amsterdam arrives at 8PM so Ngare Sero Lodge is our first overnight stop in Arusha before moving out into the bush in the morning. The lodge dates back to the early 1900s and is on a spring fed lake that attracts over 200 different bird species and supports troops of Sykes and Colobus monkeys. Of course, I want to explore! There is a grove of bananas in bloom and lush tropical gardens I want to photograph. The lodge itself is worthy of my camera’s eye. But, we’re on the road at 8:30am and I hope for time to photograph what I have missed at the end of the trip.
On the road out of Arusha, there are roadside kitchen gardens and intricate and artfully formed outbuildings of sticks and mud to captivate me. Camels and stout, healthy looking donkeys carry wood and water. Wealth measuring herds of cattle are tended by tall, thin men swathed in the bright colors of the Masai and Bantu. Large 4 foot sections of logs dangle in the air from the canopies of tall trees with a single loop of thick rope. ?? Beehives! But, we’ll never make it to our camp in Tarangire if we stop for photos so – another reason to return to Africa!
Once in Tarangire National Park , we drive, our focus on the area between the vehicle and the horizon looking for movement, an anomaly, or a spot of color – either dark, indicating elephant, cape buffalo or wildebeest, or golden, slightly darker than the tall grasses dried from the winter drought, indicating one of the many species of antelope or lion. But my gaze keeps straying to the sky and its incredible blue color dotted with brilliant white clouds.
As the days pass, the animals are amazing, engaging, exciting but the skies stretching over Tanzania continually draw my attention and fascinate me. There is a deceptive sameness to the landscape at first glance but the skies are ever changing. One morning, I watched the moon set in clouds that grace the Sistine Chapel – Michelangelo’s hand, surely.
The canvas is washed clean every night and then, with the morning light, the masters begin their play across the skys of Tanzania.
Some mornings, Turner’s dramatic strokes brush the sunrise sky before Sisley paints billowing white puffs against a canvas so blue as to make it seem unreal.
An afternoon storm is the hand of Denis.
Van Gogh's vibrant colors streak the sunset.
Out of the dark will come another clean canvas and I wonder who will paint next.
But the real reasons for coming to Africa are the animals – right?
Next: Crossing the River
