timharris.info: Tim's photos

13 April 2008

Serengeti in the Spring

Safari veterans - Pete & Sophie, George and Philly - all returned for the second consecutive year to head off to some of my favourite places in Tanzania: Bougainvillea Lodge in Karatu, Ngorongoro Crater and Ndutu on the edge of the Serengeti plains. It turned out to be among the best visits I've done - a worthy end for what may sadly be my last big trip here.

We saw some amazing things: half a dozen of the Crater's extremely rare black rhinos and more cheetahs in five days than I've seen in the previous four years. Some of you, no doubt, will also be interested to know we beat our record for secretary bird sightings with some ease. And among the other astonishing sights was this guy modelling what he seemed to think was the new season safari fashion - the sunburned torso. The guide books suggest avoiding brightly coloured clothing so you don't scare the animals. But this surely is taking it a bit too far. Quite distressing.

Some of our fellow guests at Ndutu turned out to be a BBC film crew getting footage for next year's new series called something like Natures Greatest Events. They said they were mainly interested in following a pride of lions among the great wildebeest migration - but they seemed to spend a fair chunk of their time filming the local erupting volcano. Sadly, despite Pete's charms, we didn't get a ride in their helicopter. Neither did I manage to sell them my 30 second footage of lion cubs shot rather shakily on my digital camera.

13 Apr 2008 16:00:00 | Safari, Tim's photos

15 April 2007

Cats in trees

Ndutu, April 2007

15 Apr 2007 15:00:03 | Safari, Tim's photos

04 March 2007

Barrows in Tanzania

Last month the Barrow family were here in Tanzania - my sister Faith, brother-in-law Tim, Hannah and David. Younger sister Debs also joined us and now is the sole holder of the record for most visits to see me. The current count is three if you'd like to try and beat it.

We had a lovely three weeks meandering around Dar, Zanzibar and the northern safari parks. Of course we saw the animals - elephants, lions, the great wildebeest migration, and so on - but Hannah's favourite bit throughout remained ... swimming. David's a bit too young to tell us what he enjoyed most. But the roller-coaster ride in the Land Rover down the bumpy dirt tracks always brought a massive smile to his face. And, as his own way of amusing himself and us, he'd pretend to be thrown about in the same way while completely stationary in his car-seat or even lying on the floor!

Here are some photos from Debs and me to give you a flavour.