Photos from Tanzania

A trip to East Africa in 2013

These photos were taken in Tanzania, in November of 2013.


Welcome to Tanzania. I crossed the border at Namanga.


The Maasai are one of the important tribes in the region. I believe that this pile of sharp sticks will be used by a Maasai village for fencing, to help keep predators such as lions away from the village livestock.


A lion cub, napping.


An aardvark burrow.


Trees on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater.


Huts in a Maasai village.


A Greater Flamingo in flight.


A pretty bird.


A vulture in a tree at dusk.


A cobra. Strangely, this was the only snake that I saw in Africa. That's why I included this photo even thought it's pretty badly out-of-focus. Some of my friends saw a Black Mamba, but I wasn't with them at the time.


This raptor was very interested in our lunches, so we ate inside the safari vans. Our guides warned us that these birds actually attack people with food, so they're a bit of a problem. Obviously, it was checking us out pretty closely when I took this photo.


I apologize that this photo is so badly out of focus, but it was interesting enough that I thought I'd share it anyway. It's a pretty large dust devil. I would imagine that the zebras weren't too pleased when it hit them.


Pinguino, on a visit to a Maasai village.


An unidentified bird in flight. Photo 014, if you can identify it.


The people of Tanzania are very good at making carts.


A Secretary bird, from behind.


A Grey-Crowned Crane.


Elephants crossing the road in front of one of our safari vans.


A bicycle load of bananas.


An ever-colourful Superb Starling.


Maasai villagers.


A pond full of hippos.


I took this photo while sitting in the lounge of one of the game lodges that we stayed in.


A cart full of pineapples. I'm not sure what the bag of white powder is. My guess is that it's sugar and the vendor is making some sort of juice drinks.


An African Buffalo. These birds always like to hitch a ride and eat flies that land on the buffalo.


Maasai villagers.


Another Grey-Crowned Crane.


Maasai cattle drive.


Maasai women.


A roadside vendor.


Lots of lions. We watched this group of lions for quite a while, although they were all pretty sleepy and pretty much ignored us. There were fifteen lions in this pile.


A Tanzanian woman, carrying some produce.


Dusk is approaching at one of the game lodges overlooking the Ngorongoro Crater.


A street scene. This is a fairly major area, since it is paved.


Touring in the Ngorongoro Crater.


A leopard. The leopard is actually the most common large cat in Tanzania, although it's often hard to find because they're pretty elusive. This one seemed to be pretty comfortable to be walking a couple feet away from the safari truck.


A late afternoon view in one of the game reserves.


If you've watched The Lion King, you know what Pride Rock is. Well, this is the real Pride Rock, in the Serengeti. No lions visible on it though.


Taking photos of zebras, on an early-morning safari run.


A Maasai hut.


A Tanzanian tea plantation.


Cases of Serengeti beer, being moved by bicycle.


An acacia tree.


A herd of zebras, with a bunch of wildebeest. These two species frequently travel together. Actually, the area that we were driving through was one very large herd. I'd guess it was probably close to a hundred thousand animals, spread out across a couple dozen kilometers.


Monkeys are always trouble.


Safari trucks parked at one of the rest stops in the Serengeti.


This was part of a large troop of baboons that we drove through.


Two Maasai people, returning to the village from a long walk.


Another unidentified but colourful little bird. This is photo 049, the same bird as in Photo 008.


A Tanzanian street scene on a dusty and windy afternoon.


A view of part of the Ngorongoro Crater, early in the morning.


G Adventures was our tour operator. They did a great job.


An Impala. This one is a bit out of focus, but I wanted to show this photo since he's lost a horn.


Filberth! Fil was our tour guide. Awesome, so helpful.


This lion was actually hanging out in the grass very close to Pride Rock.


Direction signs at one of the game lodges.


An Augur Buzzard.


More bananas. There are so many varieties of bananas in Tanzania!


Tanzanians, going about their daily business.


The remains of a hippo carcass. This was curious because we were trying to figure out what the footprints and the drag marks meant. We didn't come up with any good theories.


Maasai warriors.


This little bird hangs out by elephant dung. I'm not sure if it eats the dung, or more likely eats bugs that are attracted to the dung.


A display of some of the goods that the local Maasai village sold.


Driving through one of the towns in Tanzania.


A group of African Buffalo.


Now this photo is quite out-of-focus, but it was a keeper just because it's the only photo that I got of the Blue Monkey. You can see where this monkey got its name. This isn't photoshopped! Do a Google image search on "blue monkey testicles" and you'll see what I mean.


Typical motorbike cargo. Just don't go down any narrow alleys.


A lion and lioness.


Elephant damage. Elephants knock a lot of stuff down, although I think it's usually because of bumping into stuff rather than intentionally trying to break everything. Although maybe they knock some stuff down to make it easier to get at the leaves.


Typical game reserve.


I was curious about all the tires on the roof here.


A warning sign into one of the game reserves.


A Helmeted Guineafowl.


Maasai women.


A view of part of the Serengeti.


This is another photo of the birds that like elephant dung. It looks like one bird is cleaning insects from the back of the neck of the other bird.


A soccer team doing some training.


Another photo of Pride Rock, but this time with a safari truck for scale.


This tree is commonly referred to as a "flame tree" or a "Christmas tree" (because it turns bright colours in the few weeks before Christmas).


Warthogs.


In one of the Maasai villages.


One of the three types of jackals found in the region. This is a Golden Jackal.


Baby elephant.


Plains zebras, taking a risk so they can drink at the river.


Elephants.


These are called Waterbucks. You'll notice that their horns curve forward, are are effective at spearing enemies. Some other species of antelopes (such as the Sable Antelope or Roan Antelope) have horns that curve backwards, and are thus used more for head-butting.


More elephant damage.


I was always curious to see animal tracks along all the roads when we were driving around.


A Baobob tree. It has a very thick trunk.


Another afternoon dust storm.


An early morning "game drive," which is what the guides call it when we drive around the game reserves to look at animals.


A motorcycle in the street. I was intrigued by this guy's motorbike helmet. I wonder if this is what they mean when they say, "crack-head."


Maasai souveniers.


Pinguino & Dave, looking out across the Ngorongoro Crater at dusk.


Acacia trees in the early morning.


Maasai women.


Looking down into the Ngorongoro Crater.


Animals everywhere. Here we have a pair of hippos, a hyena, and lots of flamingos.


Inside one of the game reserves.


Construction work near the border.


A Maasai warrior.


A street scene, which I think was taken in Arusha.


Doing some welding work.


This wooden device hanging in a tree was built to be used as a bee hive.


An Ostrich.


A lion.


Plains zebras.


Random scenery.


Maasai sandals. These were pretty smart, since they were made from old tires. Reduce, reuse, or recycle.


I thought that the bark of this tree was pretty interesting.


A random Tanzanian town (although this photo doesn't really show any of the buildings).


Heading down into the Ngorongoro Crater.


Tanzanian traffic jam.


Zebras everywhere.


A monkey. We saw lots of monkeys. At least they don't cause as much trouble as the baboons.


A Maasai village.


A street scene.


Goats in a pen in a Maasai village. The Maasai use branches from acacia trees (because of the thorns) to keep predators away from livestock.


A hippo.


I haven't identified these yet. You can see that one of these has caught a fish.


An eagle watching to see if the other birds have any luck catching a fish. The eagle might try to steal the fish, if they have any luck.


A wildebeest.


A water buffalo skull.


Another pond full of hippos.


A warthog.


These hippos are trying to come up with a plan.


Art sale, with bananas.


Trees near the Ngorongoro Crater.


A random bird.


This acacia tree is actually tall enough to be safe from the giraffe.


Lion testicles. Apparently, this photo album is starting to become very testicularily-oriented.


A small bird.


Paul.


A colourful delivery van.


Erin, showing off his Ten Tree shirt.


Using a cart to move some produce around.


Lions resting under a tree. Lions are often pretty relaxed during daylight hours.


This photo was taken in Namanga.


Moving some cattle.


I'm guessing that these kids were coming home from school when this photo was taken.


A rainbow over the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.


Birds.


A water cart.


This woman is selling shoes.


Tanzanian street scene in one of the towns near the Crater.


A young Maasai warrior and a goat.


A donkey. There were a lot of donkeys in East Africa.


Taking photos during a game drive in the Ngorongoro Crater.


A photo showing a small part of the Serengeti.


Erin, taking photos. Erin was really smart and brought a polaroid camera. He had some opportunities to meet some people from Tanzania and photograph them, giving them the polaroids.


This is a Coke's Hartebeest, also known as a Kongoni.


Two lions. While we stopped to take photos of them, they came over to the truck and started to lick the spare tire. Our driver decided to move away, in case they bit it and we ended up losing a spare.


A Maasai woman.


A pair of Wildebeest, running for no apparent reason that I could see. I think they were just having fun.


Some nice scenery.


A black-backed jackal.


A nice looking lagoon. Of course, any standing water is a dangerous place, because predators like to hunt at watering holes.


Danger for trucks. But that didn't stop us.


Erin and Natalie, talking to some Tanzanians.


An interesting tree.


Another street scene.


More zebras.


Look carefully at the tree. There's a leopard napping in it. It's possible to tell that it's a leopard because cheetahs don't climb trees.


Some interesting scenery.


I believe that these are Impalas. It's a bit trickier to identify them quickly if there are no horns to give you a hint.


A Sable Antelope.


An Oribi, which is a fairly small antelope.


Another game reserve photo in the late afternoon.


Two camels. Actually, there are two types of camels. Those with two humps (the Bactrian) is not found in Africa. The camels in Africa all have one hump, and they are more commonly known as the Dromedary. Camels are bitter, unhappy animals.


A close-up photo of a leopard.


"I always wonder why birds stay on the same place when they fly anywhere on Earth. Then I ask myself the same question." This quotation is by author Harun Yahva. If these photos have inspired you, you should consider travelling.