Day 39 – Mikumi/Udzungwa Mountains

6 Males in a collaborative group after consuming an adult Wildebeest

It is such a pain getting down to drink from my dizzy height

Udzungwe Forest

Some exceptional scenery in the Selous Reserve

We are in two minds whether to go back into the Mikumi Game Park or do something different and decided on the Uduzungwa National Park, which is a Mountain park that has some eleven species of monkey including the Red Colobus,  Sanje Mangabey, Matundu dwarf Galago, Mountain Dwarf Galago and the recently discovered monkey the Rungwecebus Kipunji, these five species are not found anywhere else in the world except in the tropical rain forest of the Udzungwe, 400 species of butterfly and a huge variety of flora with trees soaring 30 metres.

We could not do a huge hike because of Sinead, who has grown and put on weight since we left, but we trekked up some 4kms to see three small waterfalls, the butterflies were stunning and we spotted the Red Colobos Monkey, which looks like it has a ginger wig on its head. You have to do a few days hike if you want to get high up in the rain forest area, but we do get a feel for the place and it was nice to do a walk instead of being cooped up in a car all day. Claudia spotted a tree frog that was no bigger than my little fingers nail, we did get told its name, but like a lot of the trees we got the Latin version.

We had a very enjoyable day that was altogether different and we are pleased with our decision.

We also take the opportunity of meeting the locals, we could have sold Sinead four times over, we bought some exotic fruit to try one tastes like custard and banana mixed, the other like a leachy yogurt. Claudia bought some material from a little seamstress and Denise bought a small ceramic stove, ideal for a potjie. We had some good laughs and Sinead was in top form.

We also passed two South African cars from Pinetown and Johannesburg that shows that a lot of people do this sort of trip on their own.

Tomorrow we travel to Iringa where we will stay at the Old Farm House again for one night.

Mathew we were thinking about you on your birthday and hope you had a lovely time and got lots of interesting presents.

I will hopefully be able to send you some photo’s as I post the next blogs, but I cannot bank on it in darkest Africa.

Hiking with Mom is such a boring business