Amani Forest Reserve, Day 3

The next day we got in the car and headed deeper into the mountains to hike the Kwamkoro forest, an untouched, first growth forest. During German colonialism in Tanzania, the East Usambaras forests were cleared for coffee, tobacco, sisal, rubber and quinine. Coffee plantations failed due to soil condition and commercial logging became the main industry. During this time, the Germans also established much of the reserved areas in the mountains and by 1942, during the British colonial era, the reserved areas had doubled in size. Today, the Amani Forest Reserve covers more than 20,000 acres. If you want to read more about the rich history of the Usambara mountains, there is plenty of information on the Amani website;
http://www.amaninature.org/about.htm

So we drove about 12k towards the Kwamkoro forest, through the beautiful, steep fields of the Eutco Tea Plantation. It is difficult to convey just how stunning the tea fields are and it was even more difficult to photograph them. Rows and rows of neatly planted crops encircled the peaks of every hill. Driving along the narrow winding roads, with walls of crops on either side and jungle all around, it felt like we had all of a sudden left Tanzania and were driving along rice patties in Vietnam.We approached a small house with nothing but a concrete bathroom stall outside. We parked the Escudo and walked up the trail into the forest. At first, the forest seemed no different than the one we hiked through the day before, but subtle differences slowly emerged. There were different ferns in this forest, taller, more feathered ferns that hung over the pathways creating a lovely, diffused light on the ground. The trees were clearly older, taller and unlike the jungle from the day before, it was their low creaking and groaning that we heard over the sounds of birds and insects. The path was obviously less traveled, with a thick layer of oversized, fallen leaves that made it feel like autumn until you looked back up at the glowing, green canopy above. This forest seemed quieter and we walked along the overgrown path listening to the wind and the crunch of our footsteps.A small path on the left side led us downhill to a small creak spotted with moss covered stones and rich, red mud. We continued gradually uphill to the viewpoint, where it felt like we had an aerial view of Korogwe town below. We ate our packed lunch, watched the hornbills fly back and forth and slowly made our way back down the path before the storm clouds rolled in overhead.

Trip to Amani Forest Reserve & Pangani, Day 2

We all woke up early the next morning, to the chatter of Mouse birds and Weavers. Its always funny to arrive at a place at night and discovering what it looks like in the daytime. The campsite we arrived at in the dark was situated in a small clearing on the very top of Emau Hill with amazing views into the canopies along both sides. Black and White Horned Bills flapped back and forth between the highest surrounding trees, cackling along the way. The campsite consisted of a large common area under a huge thatched roof, with a dining room and locally made adirondack chairs and cooking area, 5 bamboo & thatched roofs with permanent tents set up underneath, composting toilets and an outdoor bamboo shower. Small paths led to nice, flat spaces for additional campers, like us, but we had the entire place to ourselves, except for Mgumu, the resident blonde Lab mutt! We met our guide, Hamisi, and went for our first hike into the jungle. All along the way, the path was lined with moss covered trees and logs, colorful fungi, massive ferns and epiphytes. We made our way very slowly, taking tons of pictures, turning over logs looking for bugs and frogs and listening to the birds and insects. We stopped at the Amani Butterfly project and then took a "shortcut" through the jungle up to the Mbomole viewpoint.After our amazing first day in the jungle, we went back to Emau Hill to cook dinner. Earlier that morning, the caretaker, Mzee Obedi asked us if we had any requests of plans for dinner. We brought enough food to last us the whole trip, but we maybe it would be nice if we could get a chicken and grill it over the fire. Well, when we returned to the campsite, Mzee Obedi presented us with beautiful, fat, LIVE rooster! Feeling very gung-ho and rugged after our adventures, I decided that it was my time to kill my first chicken! I always thought that if you can't kill the animal, you shouldn't eat it. (although that doesn't stop me from eating the occasional burger) I felt like I could justify eating chicken if I killed one even once in my life.. I'll spare the gory details.. it was just as gross as I expected, but I do feel like I appreciate my chicken wings a little more now. ;)After dinner, we returned to our tents to pass out after a great day of hiking. Just as we were about to get into our beds, we heard one of the staff at Emau come round to say, "Hodi! Kinyonga!" ("Hodi" is what you say when you are entering someone's home, sort of like, "anybody home?" or "May I come in?") I had already told everyone there about my love for kinyonga and that I wanted to go out at night looking for them, I didn't expect one to get delivered to our tent! He handed us a branch with a beautiful 2-horned chameleon on it, left and went to bed himself. We stayed up just a little while longer to play with our new friend before I reluctantly let him go on the tree over our campsite. I ♥ kinyonga.

Trip to Amani Forest Reserve & Pangani, Day 1

Early last Tuesday morning, Jacquelyn, Imraan & I packed up the Escudo for the 8 hour drive to Amani Forest Reserve in the East Usambara mountains. With my giant research tent, propane cooker, full kitchen setup and peanut butter for days, we were ready to set up camp in the jungle for at least a week.The drive out to Muheza is the best way to see the the North & South Pare mountains and the West & East Usambaras mountains, which make up the northern part of the Eastern Arc Mountain range. We tried to stop as little as possible, but with a drive that long, you have to stop to stretch! We stopped along the Pangani river between Same and Mombo.We arrived to Muheza just as the sun was setting, so it was completely dark by the time were were in Amani, looking for a place to camp. After talking to the staff at the entrance to the reserve, we were told to go about 10k to the Amani Guesthouse and someone there would lead us to a campsite. At the guesthouse, we followed a a guy on a pikipiki another 7k to what we found out was the Amani Research center. I thought maybe we were stopping for another reason, but they wanted us to camp in yard next to the Research center! By this point it was getting pretty late, but after imagining waking up on the lawn, we decided to go another 13k to a REAL jungle campsite. We finally arrived at the Emau Hill Campsite and set up in the dark. After a hot cup-o-noodles under headlamp, we passed out listening to sound of frog calls and the rain.

Snake Farm!

Since I re-prioritized my last 3 months left here on my Fulbright, I have placed photographing reptiles & amphibians at the top of the list! The "big 5" wildlife conservation field is way over crowded and political for me to navigate alone, but no one cares about frogs or lizards! There is a long standing superstitious attitude towards reptiles & amphibians, like in many cultures, and they are actively avoided. Chameleons are particularly loaded with negative connotations since they change colors and with some species, the live births kill the mothers. Also, apparently they are a nightmare if one gets caught in your hair! All the poor froggies and chameleons are seen as pests and bad omens and are generally overlooked in the wildlife conservation field.

Fortunately for me, East Africa is home to some of the most biodiverse montane forests in the world. The Eastern Arc Mountains that stretch from southern Kenya to the central east coast of Tanzania are considered the "Galapagos of Africa". There are over 20 species of Chameleons in Tanzania alone and plenty of frog and lizards that have yet to be properly photographed. Michele Menegon has probably photographed the most species in the Eastern Arc Mountains, his website is amazing: http://www.michelemenegon.it/wildlifegalleries/by-places/galapagos-of-africa/

Last weekend, I went to the snake farm next to Arusha National Park. Although the place is a bit run down and past its hey-day, they still had some very cool snake species that I have ever seen in captivity anywhere. Our tour guide said that all the snakes were venomous, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't true...

Photographing animals in captivity is a very interesting thing to me. A lot of wildlife photographers will try to shoot captive animals like they are in the wild, taking them out of their cages and placing them in a scene that looks more natural. Here's a great little article from Nick Nichols, one of the most renowned National Geographic photographers, about shooting captive animals; http://michaelnicknichols.com/article/captive/

Well, taking all the poisonous snakes out of their tanks to make them look pretty for the camera wasn't really an option, but I don't see the point in trying to fake a natural photograph. These species are in captivity. They live in small tanks that are poorly emulating their natural environment and they will most likely be sold off to some private collector or zoo to continue their captive life somewhere else. But for people like me, who care about reptiles & amphibians, at least we have the chance to see some rarer species that you would be very lucky to see in the wild.

Soon, I'll be going to the Amani Forest Reserve in the Usambara mountains to photograph reptiles & amphibians in their REAL environment! Here's a great article about the Amani Reserve, its history, flora and fauna; http://www.amaninature.org/biodiversity.htm

Egyptian Cobra

Green Mamba, very common in East Africa

American Rat snakes?! How'd they get here?Brown Egyptian Cobra, common in Manyara RegionBrown Forest Cobra posing for the camera

Puff Adder

Black Forest Cobra
And my favorite name; BOOMSLANG tree snake!